2. What was the Little Ice Age?
The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling
occurring after a warmer North Atlantic era known
as the Medieval Warm Period. There was a time
where the earth started to cool down drastically. The
local residents thought that it was a curse put on
them by Satan. It killed many people because of
starvation do to all the crops dying out. Diseases
spread all over that area and more and more people
died everyday. Women were accused of witch craft,
people started to do more crimes and murders just
for a little bit of bread. It was just a time of horrible
disasters.
3. When did the Little Ice Age occur?
There is no agreed beginning year to the Little Ice Age,
although there is a frequently referenced series of events
preceding the known climatic minima. Starting in the
13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in the
North Atlantic, as did glaciers in Greenland. The three
years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an
era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which
did not lift until the 19th century. There is anecdotal
evidence of expanding glaciers almost worldwide. In
contrast, a climate reconstruction based on glacial length
shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850, though it
shows strong retreat thereafter.
4. What was its effect on History?
The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to portions of Europe and North
America. In the mid-17th century, glaciers in the Swiss Alps advanced,
gradually engulfing farms and crushing entire villages. The River Thames
and the canals and rivers of the Netherlands often froze over during the
winter, and people skated and even held frost fairs on the ice. The first
Thames frost fair was in 1607; the last in 1814, although changes to the
bridges and the addition of an embankment affected the river flow and
depth, hence diminishing the possibility of freezes. The freeze of the Golden
Horn and the southern section of the Bosphorus took place in 1622. In
1658, a Swedish army marched across the Great Belt to Denmark to invade
Copenhagen. The Baltic Sea froze over, enabling sledge rides from Poland
to Sweden, with seasonal inns built on the way. The winter of 1794/1795
was particularly harsh when the French invasion army under Pichegru
could march on the frozen rivers of the Netherlands, whilst the Dutch fleet
was fixed in the ice in Den Helder harbour. In the winter of 1780, New York
Harbor froze, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island. Sea
ice surrounding Iceland extended for miles in every direction, closing that
island's harbors to shipping.
