After the Fall of Rome

The first civilizations (Sumeria, Eygpt, Myceanea etc.) were more or less isolated from each other. With the second rise of civilization in Europe and Asia (i.e. the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty in China) things get a bit more complicated. This was because the world’s population centers were no longer isolated from each other. That meant something new – the movement of human diseases.

Routine travel by sailing ships and by caravan across the length and breadth of the Old World began to reach its peak organization between 100 and 200 CE. During this time thousands of people began to travel the trade routes established between the four centers of civilization, from China through India and the Middle East to the Mediterranean and back. And with them came disease, human disease.

According to William McNeil in his book Plagues and Peoples, between 150 and 600 AD, “new” infectious diseases attacked the people of both China and Rome. These diseases killed millions of people and the social impact of this heavy death toll was devastating. One of those diseases was Bubonic Plague. This disease is believed to have been a part of the demise of the Roman Empire but in the 1300’s it hit Europe with a vengeance.

Let’s take another look at the climate over the last 6000 years (graph above). Look at the temperatures after Rome declines. There is a small dip in the global temperature. That was enough to bring down Rome and plunge the European world into a second Dark Age, or the Early Middle Ages.

The temperature rises again to where it was before Rome declined. This is time period historians call the High Middle Ages. It is also called the Medieval Warm Period. This was a good time in Europe. During this period populations increased in Europe and wheat grew well all the way north into Scandinavia.

Then the global temperature falls again during a time called the Late Middle Ages. This is the beginning of what scientists call The Little Ice Age.

“Around 1300, centuries of European prosperity and growth came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues, such as the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population by as much as half according to some estimates. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare.”

The Little Ice Age Temperature Graph

The temperature rises slightly again (see graph above) and we have the Renaissance, another good time in Western Europe and then Europe gets hit again with cold temperatures, the coldest period of the time called the Little Ice Age.

In his book, "The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300–1850", anthropology professor Brian Fagan of the University of California at Santa Barbara, tells of the plight of European peasants during the 1300 to 1850 chill: famines, hypothermia, bread riots, and the rise of despotic leaders brutalizing an increasingly dispirited peasantry. "In the late 17th century," writes Fagan, "agriculture had dropped off so dramatically that Alpine villagers lived on bread made from ground nutshells mixed with barley and oat flour. Finland lost perhaps a third of its population to starvation and disease.”

Can you see a pattern here? When the weather is good for farming, populations grow and prosper. When weather for is bad for farming, populations decrease because of starvation, disease, and warfare.

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