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Europe's little known mini-ice age in history
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mindovermatter: [QB] Now here are MORE LINKS PROVIDING SUPPORT AND CREDENCE TO THE CLAIMS THAT I HAVE MADE IN THIS THREAD! It's clear that climate change and the transmission of viral microbes and plague virus's, was the catalyst for wide scale destruction, population elimination and POPULATION CHANGE, massive migrations and invasions from outside groups and parties, and general decline to collapse of MANY POWERFUL EMPIRES AND CIVILIZATIONS THROUGHOUT HISTORY! If diseases and climate change caused the destruction and elimination of very advanced and sophisticated civilizations in places like MESO-AMERICA (Spanish conquistador's, the Mayan civilizations being abandoned etc) and the North American Native Americans dying of European transmitted diseases etc in the millions; WHY WOULDN'T THE SAME APPLY TO THE EARLY AND ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS OF EUROPE BEING AFFECTED BY THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES AND THINGS, WHEN THERE ARE HISTORICAL RECORDS PROVING AND CONFIRMING JUST THAT? I mean we have the recorded transmission of VARIOUS PLAGUE VIRUS'S THAT OUTRIGHT DECIMATED AND BROUGHT DOWN SOCIETIES AND REGIONS IN EUROPE! We have the Black death, which the Mongols brought from the Eurasian steppes via certain rodents, which decimated and led to the collapse of many European regions with MANY cities and population centers, at the time period the black death took hold; and we also have recorded instances of other kinds of diseases being brought TO EUROPE VIA TRADING NETWORKS AND SHIPPING NETWORKS FROM PLACES LIKE AFRICA, as in the instance of the Plague of Athens in Ancient Greece which had a high casualty and death effect rate. We have recorded sources of plagues and climate change, outright BRINGING DOWN POWERFUL EMPIRES LIKE BOTH THE ROMAN AND SASSANID/PERSIAN EMPIRE! In fact the devastating effects of wide-spread droughts and crop failures caused by climate change, and the devastation wrought by plague/disease outbreaks, was so great THAT IT MADE THESE TWO EMPIRES VULNERABLE AND OPEN TO NOMADIC STEPPE INVADERS AND OTHER INVADING GROUPS LIKE THE ISLAMIC ARABS DURING THE START AND EXPANSION OF ISLAM, as my sources state. Here is more links supporting and corroborating to that! https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19968-fall-of-roman-empire-linked-to-wild-shifts-in-climate/ [QUOTE][b] Fall of Roman Empire linked to wild shifts in climate By Michael Marshall [IMG]https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/dn19968-1_300.jpg[/IMG] Centuries of unpredictable climate may have been partly to blame for the fall of the western Roman Empire. A detailed record of 2500 years of European climate has uncovered several links between changing climate and the rise and fall of civilisations. Climate fluctuation was a contributing factor alongside political failures and barbarian invasions, says Ulf Büntgen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, who led the project. Büntgen used tree rings to build up a history of European climate. Using nearly 9000 samples from oak, pine and larch, Büntgen and colleagues were able to reconstruct how temperatures and rainfall in western Europe changed over the last 2500 years. Climate flips and Black Death From AD 250 to 550, the climate flipped, from one decade to the next, between dry and cool, and warm and wet. “Such decadal changes seem to have the most impact” on civilisations, Büntgen says, because they harm agriculture but are not prolonged enough for people to adapt their behaviour. The climatic turmoil coincided with political upheaval and waves of human migrations. By AD 500, the western Roman Empire had fallen. In other notable periods, the relatively stable medieval society was characterised by more constant climatic conditions. But the Black Death coincided with a wet spell and the disease spreads faster in humid conditions. Cold wars “Relatively modest changes in European climate in the past have had profound implications for society,” says Michael Mann of Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. Other studies have shown how war and climate are often intimately tied. For example, periods of unusually cold weather in China during the last millennium are thought to be linked to major bouts of warfare. That said, it is difficult to draw conclusions for the present day from studies like Büntgen’s. As Halvard Buhaug of the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway points out: “Modern societies are not nearly as dependent on the climate, because trade and technology can mitigate its effects.” Whether or not African civil wars today can be linked to modern climate change is the subject of intense debate. Huge sample size Büntgen and his colleagues used over 7284 oak tree samples from low-lying areas of France and Germany to obtain a record of spring rainfall, and 1089 Stone pines samples and 457 larches samples from high in the Austrian Alps to determine summer temperatures. Others, including Mann, have used similar methods to put together detailed reconstructions of global temperatures during the last 1000 years. Going back 2500 years is “a very substantial contribution,” says Mann. [sources/links in the article][/b] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19526135-500-climate-change-linked-to-a-millennium-of-war-in-china https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_Period https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17223221-400-end-of-an-empire-blame-it-on-the-weather https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12393-black-death-casts-a-genetic-shadow-over-england/ http://www.pnas.org/content/103/35/13110 https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11646-climate-myths-the-hockey-stick-graph-has-been-proven-wrong Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.1197175[/QUOTE] http://www.npr.org/2011/01/22/133143758/could-climate-change-have-led-to-the-fall-of-rome [QUOTE][b] Could Climate Change Have Led To The Fall Of Rome?[/b] [IMG]http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/01/22/roman_custom-a5f7a5b88381fba06f610d8a0e95bea2ac2cce71-s800-c85.jpg[/IMG] [i]Ruins of the Villa of the Quintilii on the outskirts of Rome[/i] [b] Rome may have fallen hundreds of years ago, but much of the civilization the Romans built still dots the landscape today. One team of scientists recently unearthed a different kind of Roman artifact that may hold a strange clue to the empire's downfall. A study of tree rings recently published in the journal Science provides evidence of climate shifts that, perhaps not coincidentally, occurred from A.D. 250 to 550, a period better known as the fall of the Roman Empire.[/b] Ulf Buentgen and his team of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research collected tree-ring data from ancient wood found in medieval castles and Roman ruins. [b]They created a detailed history of climate change over the past 2.5 millennia and found the data point to the end of the Roman Empire as a period of exceptional climate change. Michael Mann, professor of meteorology at Penn State, was not a member of the research team, but explains how the information found in tree rings changes what we know of the last centuries of Roman imperialism.[/b] "They were able to tease out two pieces of information from these trees," Mann explains. "They can get some idea of how warm the summers were, and how wet the sort of late-spring/early summer was." That's because trees create a new ring each year. A big ring occurs in times of good climate, and a small ring occurs in years of drought or extreme temperatures.[b] Wood samples from this time period show a climate flip-flopping unpredictably, which would have been bad for the Roman Empire. "Like any large civilization — including the civilization we have today — it was highly dependent on predictability of natural resources," Mann says. "It was very heavily adapted to the climate conditions that had persisted for centuries." But while the tree rings show variability, there is no data for why these climate changes occurred. Global warming contributes to modern climate change, but Rome fell from power long before industrialization. "Presumably it was some combination of these external natural factors like solar variability and volcanic eruptions, and just the pure sort of chaotic variability of the climate system," Mann speculates. This new research may not establish cause-and-effect, but it does contribute another factor to explain Rome's fall. It also creates another clue for scientists sleuthing their way into an uncertain climate future.[/b][/QUOTE] https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17223221-400-end-of-an-empire-blame-it-on-the-weather ^^^[b]Pay wall source[/b] [QUOTE] End of an empire? Blame it on the weather By Betsy Mason [b] BAD weather may have triggered the fall of the Roman Empire. When the Visigoths and other northern barbarians upped sticks and headed south into Roman territory in the 5th century it might have been to escape the cold and poor harvests.[/b] Waning sunspot activity is a symptom of a weakened Sun, which could make the world cool by around half a degree. [b]Meteorologist Kevin Pang found that sunspots were conspicuously absent from the historical record. “That was just about the time the Roman Empire fell in 476,” he says. The gaps in sunspot sightings coincided with high levels of carbon-14 in tree rings—another indicator of fainter solar activity—he told the American Geophysical Union last week. Pang thinks the resulting change in climate could have indirectly caused the end of the Romans’ dominance in Europe. “In the northern latitudes, a half a degree of cooling can shorten the growing season just enough to make crops fail,” he says. That might have sent the barbarians south into the Roman Empire.[/b] And it might have been [b]even colder according to another study published earlier this month (Science, vol 294, p 2149). Researchers at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland developed a computer model of the effects of a weakened Sun, and found that while global temperatures would only drop by half a degree, regional cooling would be greater—perhaps by two degrees in Europe during the winter. Earth scientist Michael Rampino of New York University says the idea is plausible.[/b][/QUOTE] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12393-black-death-casts-a-genetic-shadow-over-england/ [QUOTE][b] Black Death casts a genetic shadow over England [IMG]https://d1o50x50snmhul.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/dn12393-1_420.jpg[/IMG] [i]Black Death as illustrated in a 15th century bible[/i] The Black Death continues to cast a shadow across England. [b]ALTHOUGH THE MODERN ENGLISH POPULATION IS MORE COSMOPOLITAN THAN EVER, THE PLAGUES KNOWN AS THE BLACK DEATH KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE IN THE MIDDLE AGES THAT, TO THIS DAY, GENETIC DIVERSITY IS LOWER IN ENGLAND THAN IT WAS IN THE 11TH CENTURY, ACCORDING TO A NEW ANALYSIS. RUS HOELZEL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM, UK AND HIS COLLEAGUES LOOKED AT THE MITOCHONDRIAL DNA FROM HUMAN REMAINS AT 4TH AND 11TH CENTURY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN ENGLAND, AND COMPARED THEM TO SAMPLES FROM THE MODERN POPULATION STORED ON DNA DATABASES SUCH AS GENBANK. THEY FOUND THERE WAS MORE VARIATION IN THE ANCIENT MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES THAN IN MODERN SEQUENCES. HOELZEL THINKS RANDOM GENETIC DRIFT MAY HAVE LOWERED GENETIC DIVERSITY NATURALLY. BUT THE LARGE UNEXPECTED DROP IN DIVERSITY WAS MORE LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY POPULATION CRASHES FOLLOWING MAJOR OUTBREAKS OF THE BLACK DEATH IN ENGLAND DURING THE 1340S AND THE 1660S. “THE MAIN FACTORS IN SUPPORT OF A ROLE FOR PLAGUE ARE THE TIMING AND THE FACT THAT IT AFFECTED DIFFERENT FAMILIES [TO A DIFFERING DEGREE],” SAYS HOELZEL.[/b] Vulnerable families The Black Death did not reach England [b]UNTIL THE MID-14TH CENTURY. NO-ONE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT CAUSED IT, WITH THE BUBONIC PLAGUE BACTERIUM YERSINIA PESTIS, AND VARIOUS VIRUSES ALL HAVING BEEN IMPLICATED AT SOME POINT. HOWEVER, IT IS KNOWN THAT PLAGUE AFFECTED SOME FAMILIES MORE THAN OTHERS, SO THEIR MITOCHONDRIAL DNA WOULD HAVE BEEN LESS COMMON AMONG SURVIVORS, HOELZEL SAYS. “I’M NOT AT ALL SURPRISED WITH THE RESULT,” SAYS SUSAN SCOTT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL, UK. “WE’RE TALKING ABOUT ONE OF THE WORST DISASTERS HUMANS HAVE FACED. IT DESTROYED ABOUT HALF THE POPULATION OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE IN THREE YEARS.” BUT THE EFFECTS MAY HAVE BEEN MOST SEVERE IN NORTHERN EUROPE. HOELZEL AND HIS TEAM NOTE THAT DNA SEQUENCES FROM MODERN ITALIANS ARE JUST AS VARIABLE AS THOSE FROM THEIR 7TH CENTURY ANCESTORS. ACCORDING TO HOELZEL, THIS FINDING MAY REFLECT MIGRATION PATTERNS AFTER THE BLACK DEATH, RATHER THAN A LESS SEVERE OUTBREAK IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. “THROUGHOUT THE RECENT PAST, THERE HAVE BEEN MOVEMENTS FROM THE MIDDLE EAST INTO SOUTHERN EUROPE, AND THE MIDDLE EAST POPULATION RETAINS A GREAT MIX AND DIVERSITY,” HE SAYS.[/b] Effective measures Scott has a different theory. [b]“WE HAVE TO LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SUFFERING AT THE TIME,” SHE SAYS. “THE DISEASE CAME IN FROM SICILY AND SEEMED TO SETTLE IN FRANCE WHERE IT WAS ENDEMIC FOR ALMOST 200 YEARS.” FRANCE WAS PROBABLY THE SOURCE OF THE PERIODIC EPIDEMICS ELSEWHERE IN EUROPE, AND THESE WERE INFREQUENT IN ITALY BECAUSE OF THE VIGILANT ACTIONS OF THE ITALIAN AUTHORITIES, SCOTT THINKS. “THEY CLOSED DOWN PORTS AND STOPPED PEOPLE TRAVELLING AT THE FIRST SIGN OF INFECTION,” SHE SAYS. “AND THEY HAD A 40-DAY QUARANTINE PERIOD. I THINK THE BLACK DEATH WAS THE RESULT OF A VIRUS THAT PROBABLY HAD A 37-DAY INCUBATION AND INFECTION PERIOD, SO THE ITALIAN QUARANTINE PERIOD WAS JUST RIGHT.” “IN ENGLAND, KING HENRY VIII REDUCED [THE QUARANTINE PERIOD] TO 30 DAYS AT ONE POINT, AND THE COUNTRY SUFFERED,” SAYS SCOTT.[/b] Journal reference: Biology Letters (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0269). [/QUOTE][b] Gee let me think, Blacks and Black/colored groups ARE KNOWN FOR HAVING HIGH GENETIC DIVERSITY WITHIN THEM! We have already proved that HERE ON ES MANY MANY TIMES! And the places that had good genetic diversity AFTER THE BLACK DEATH TOOK HOLD ON EUROPE, WERE SOUTHERN EUROPE AND SOUTH-CENTRAL-WESTERN EUROPEAN REGIONS LIKE FRANCE! AND IT’S THESE SAME REGIONS THAT HAD THE HIGHEST POPULATIONS OF BLACK EUROPEANS, AND BLACK/COLORED ADMIXED MIDDLE EASTERN GENEFLOW MOVEMENTS INTO EUROPE FROM OUTSIDE OF EUROPE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES! And yet TO THIS DAY, THESE REGIONS OF EUROPE HAVE THE HIGHEST GENETIC DIVERSITY OF EUROPE, POST BLACK DEATH ERA, AS THIS ARTICLE ADMITS, DUE TO ADMIXTURE AND GENETIC INFLOW INTO THESE REGIONS FROM BLACK/COLORED GROUPS FROM AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST FROM OUTSIDE OF EUROPE! However THIS DID NOT HAPPEN IN ENGLAND AND VARIOUS PARTS/REGIONS OF NORTHERN EUROPE POST BLACK DEATH ERA! Because ENGLAND AND NORTHERN EUROPE HAD A POPULATION REPLACEMENT AFTER THE BLACK DEATH BY GROUPS WITH LOW GENETIC DIVERSITY LIKE MODERN DAY EUROPEAN ALBINO’S! Thus this article IS INDIRECTLY ADMITTING THAT THE WHITEST PARTS OF EUROPE TODAY HAD THEIR ORIGINAL BLACK/COLORED EUROPEAN POPULATIONS BE ELIMINATED AND DISPLACED, POST-BLACK DEATH ERA, BY EURASIAN ALBINO WHITES WITH LOW GENETIC DIVERSITY UNLIKE BLACK/COLORED PEOPLE, WHOM HAVE GOOD GENETIC DIVERSITY! AND THE GENETIC DIVERSITY CHARTS USED IN THE ARTICLE SEEM TO CORROBORATE ON THAT! I mean why are my claims REALLY SO HARD TO ACCEPT AT THIS POINT WHEN YOU HAVE ARTICLES LIKE THIS SUPPORTING ME?[/b] More continued: http://www.pnas.org/content/103/35/13110 [QUOTE] [b]Plague dynamics are driven by climate variation Abstract THE BACTERIUM YERSINIA PESTIS CAUSES BUBONIC PLAGUE. IN CENTRAL ASIA, WHERE HUMAN PLAGUE IS STILL REPORTED REGULARLY, THE BACTERIUM IS COMMON IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF GREAT GERBILS. BY USING FIELD DATA FROM 1949–1995 AND PREVIOUSLY UNDESCRIBED STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES, WE SHOW THAT Y. PESTIS PREVALENCE IN GERBILS INCREASES WITH WARMER SPRINGS AND WETTER SUMMERS: A 1°C INCREASE IN SPRING IS PREDICTED TO LEAD TO A >50% INCREASE IN PREVALENCE. CLIMATIC CONDITIONS FAVORING PLAGUE APPARENTLY EXISTED IN THIS REGION AT THE ONSET OF THE BLACK DEATH AS WELL AS WHEN THE MOST RECENT PLAGUE PANDEMIC AROSE IN THE SAME REGION, AND THEY ARE EXPECTED TO CONTINUE OR BECOME MORE FAVORABLE AS A RESULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE. THREATS OF OUTBREAKS MAY THUS BE INCREASING WHERE HUMANS LIVE IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH RODENTS AND FLEAS (OR OTHER WILDLIFE) HARBORING ENDEMIC PLAGUE.[/b][/QUOTE][b] Let's look at what this research article says, first it says that plagues like the black death ORIGINATED FROM REGIONS LIKE THE EURASIAN STEPPES AND/OR CENTRAL ASIAN STEPPES, WHERE WHITE INDO-EUROPEANS WERE SAID TO HAVE ORIGINATED AND COME FROM BEFORE THEY MASS MIGRATED TO EUROPE AND OTHER PARTS OF EURASIA! So basically this adds support to my claims by the fact that this research article CONFIRMS THAT MANY WHITE INDO-EUROPEANS GROUPS/EURASIAN STEPPE NOMADIC GROUPS (MONGOLS), HIGHLY LIKELY CARRIED DORMANT PLAGUE/VIRUSES FROM THE EURASIAN STEPPES INTO EUROPE AND BROUGHT DISEASES LIKE THE BLACK DEATH INTO EUROPE, WHICH CAUSED WIDE SCALE POPULATION DECIMATION AND DISPLACEMENT IN EUROPE! And the Central Asia region was an incubator and holder of various plague virus germs, like the black death, in creatures such as rodents and fleas THAT ATTACHED THEMSELVES TO HUMAN ACTIVITY AND MOVEMENT! AND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN THE PREVALENCE AND SPREADING OF BLACK DEATH LIKE PLAGUES, AND THAT THE CONDITIONS FOR THE SPREADING OF THE BLACK DEATH PLAGUE VIRUS, OCCURRED MOST FAVORABLY WHEN IT SPREAD AROUND THE TIME THE LITTLE ICE AGE TOOK PLACE! Again more confirmation and evidence that everything I have been saying in this thread IS ACTUALLY TRUE AND BASED ON REAL RESEARCH! More: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/8262919/Climate-change-may-be-responsible-for-the-rise-and-fall-of-Roman-empire-scientists-find.html [QUOTE] [b]Climate change may be responsible for the rise and fall of Roman empire, scientists find Ours is not the first civilization to be threatened by climate change, scientists have established. It could also have been responsible for bringing down the Roman Empire.[/b] [IMG]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01804/tree_1804841c.jpg[/IMG] [i]Researchers who used tree growth rings to study the impact of unstable climate patterns found that they could be linked to historical events that have had devastating consequences.[/i] Researchers who used tree growth rings to study the impact of unstable climate patterns found that they could be linked to historical events that have had devastating consequences. Researchers who used tree growth rings to study climate patterns found that they could be matched to historical events that had devastating consequences. Scientists discovered that periods of warm, wet weather coincided with prosperity while dry or varying conditions occurred at times of political turmoil, such as the fall of the Roman Empire and the Thirty Years' War.[/b] The researchers reconstructed the history of European summer climate for the last 2,500 years using 9,000 wooden artifacts. Their results are based on measurements of tree-rings from the sub-fossil, archaeological, historical and living tree samples from Germany, France, Italy and Austria. During good seasons, when water and nutrients were in plentiful supply, they found that trees formed broad rings. But in less favorable growing conditions, the rings grew in much tighter formation. [b] The team of archaeologists, climatologists, geographers and historians then identified a link with prosperity levels in past societies. “Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity,” they wrote on the Science journal website. “Increased climate variability from 250-600AD coincided with the demise of the western Roman empire and the turmoil of the migration period. “Distinct drying in the 3rd Century paralleled a period of serious crisis in the western Roman empire marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul.” They also found that increased humidity was a perfect breeding ground for rodents during the plague. Mr Buntgen noted that the results could help to build on future climate models and also act as a warning of how variations may affect society. He said: "Our results will help us to be more cautious, taking into account that our modern civilization is not immune to climate change. "For example, we can project it is likely that changes in precipitation and spatial redistribution of this will result in increased drought, which will impact our society – perhaps with migration and conflict due to limited water resources.[/b] "We are very interested in understanding past civilizations and making our research more dense. "There is room for improvement to get higher quality data and over a larger timescale.”[/QUOTE]^^^Again more confirmation BY A FORMAL MAINSTREAM SOURCE CONFIRMING DIRECTLY WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING IN THIS THREAD ALL ALONG! Who knew so many SCHOLARS AND RESEARCHERS WOULD BE SUPPORTING AND STATING THE SAME IDEAS AND CONCEPTS I WAS ESPOUSING IN THIS THREAD? More: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/climate-and-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire-42171285/?no-ist [QUOTE][b] Climate and the Fall of the Roman Empire Even in our modern age, humans are incredibly vulnerable to changes in weather and climate. And earlier in human history, we were even more so. Even the Romans, who managed to build monuments, roads and aqueducts that still stand today, weren't immune[/b] [IMG]http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/Pont_du_gard-300x225.jpg[/IMG] [b] Even in our modern age, humans are incredibly vulnerable to changes in weather and climate. And earlier in human history, we were even more so. Even the Romans, who managed to build monuments, roads and aqueducts that still stand today, weren't immune,[/b] according to a new study published last week by Science. Scientists in Germany and Switzerland created a 2,500-year-long record of Central European summer precipitation and temperature variability from nearly 9,000 samples of larch, pine and oak tree rings. [b] They found that the region experienced above average precipitation and little temperature fluctuation up until about A.D. 250, with a couple of colder periods around 350 B.C.—when the Celtic peoples began to expand across the continent—and 50 B.C., which was when the Romans were conquering Britain. But around A.D. 250 began a 300-year period of extreme climate variability, when there were wild shifts in precipitation and temperature from one decade to the next. The Romans didn't fare so well. The Roman Empire nearly fell during the Crisis of the Third Century and split into two in 285. In 387, the Gauls sacked Rome, followed by the Visigoths in 410 and the Vandals in 455. By 500, the western Roman Empire was gone. "Relatively modest changes in European climate in the past have had profound implications for society,"[/b] Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann told New Scientist. [b] Human history shows that we don't deal well with times of climate upheaval. If things are good or bad, we can adapt if given enough time. But a small change in climate can have deadly consequences. The study also found that the period around 1300 saw wetter summers and colder temperatures; it was about that time that Europe experienced a famine and plague of such immense size that nearly half the population died.[/b] "The provocative outcome," of the study, University of Arkansas geoscientist David Stahle told ScienceNOW, [b]"is that harsh climate conditions happen to be associated with upheavals in society, like the Black Death." [sources used in the article] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/secrets-of-the-colosseum-75827047/ http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/12/science.1197175 https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19968-fall-of-roman-empire-linked-to-wild-shifts-in-climate http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/01/fall-of-rome-recorded-in-trees.html?ref=ra [/b][/QUOTE]More.. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2011/01/12/science.1197175 [QUOTE][b] 2500 Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility Abstract Climate variations have influenced the agricultural productivity, health risk, and conflict level of pre industrial societies. Discrimination between environmental and anthropogenic impacts on past civilizations, however, remains difficult because of the paucity of high-resolution palaeoclimatic evidence. Here, we present tree ring–based reconstructions of Central European summer precipitation and temperature variability over the past 2500 years. Recent warming is unprecedented, but modern hydroclimatic variations may have at times been exceeded in magnitude and duration. Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from ~AD 250 to 600 coincided with the demise of the Western Roman Empire and the turmoil of the Migration Period. Historical circumstances may challenge recent political and fiscal reluctance to mitigate projected climate change.[/b][/QUOTE]and: [URL=http://buentgen.com/portfolio-item/buntgen-u-myglan-vs-charpentier-ljungqvist-f-mccormick-m-di-cosmo-n-sigl-m-jungclaus-j-wagner-s-krusic-pj-esper-j-kaplan-jo-de-vaan-mac-luterbacher-j-wacker-l-tegel-w-kirdyanov-av-2016/]http://buentgen.com/portfolio-item/buntgen-u-myglan-vs-charpentier-ljungqvist-f-mccormick-m-di-cosmo-n-sigl-m-jungclaus-j-wagner-s-krusic-pj-esper-j-kaplan-jo-de-vaan-mac-luterbach er-j-wacker-l-tegel-w-kirdyanov-av-2016/[/URL] [QUOTE][b] Abstract. Climatic changes during the first half of the Common Era have been suggested to play a role in societal reorganizations in Europe and Asia. In particular, the sixth century coincides with rising and falling civilizations, pandemics, human migration and political turmoil. Our understanding of the magnitude and spatial extent aswell as the possible causes and concurrences of climate change during this period is, however, still limited. Here we use tree-ring chronologies from the Russian Altai and European Alps to reconstruct summer temperatures over the past two millennia. We find an unprecedented, long-lasting and spatially synchronized cooling following a cluster of large volcanic eruptions in 536, 540 and 547 AD, which was probably sustained by ocean and sea-ice feedbacks, as well as a solar minimum. We thus identify the interval from 536 to about 660 AD as the Late Antique Little Ice Age. Spanning most of the Northern Hemisphere, we suggest that this cold phase be considered as an additional environmental factor contributing to the establishment of the Justinian plague, transformation of the eastern Roman Empire and collapse of the Sasanian Empire, movements out of the Asian steppe and Arabian Peninsula, spread of Slavic-speaking peoples and political upheavals in China.[/b][/QUOTE]I mean here WE HAVE MULTIPLE CREDIBLE MAINSTREAM SCHOLARS AND SOURCES CONFIRMING AND STATING AND ADMITTING THE EXACT IDEAS AND CONCEPTS THAT I HAVE BEEN ESPOUSING IN THIS VERY THREAD! That is that continental wide climate cooling shifts and weather patterns, and wide scale plague and viral outbreaks as a result of it, LED TO THE FALL AND COLLAPSE OF ENTIRE POWERFUL ADVANCED EMPIRES, LIKE THE ROMAN EMPIRE THAT WERE LARGELY AGRARIAN BASED, PRE-INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ERA IN EUROPE! And subsequently such conditions had paved the way for massive population demographic decline, displacement, and elimination of population centers and cities, due to such an event happening in the first place, IN AGRARIAN BASED REGIONAL CIVILIZATION EMPIRES LIKE THE ROMAN EMPIRE! And we have mainstream scientists and researchers corroborating and supporting my position in this thread about this major climatic event and it's affects on Europe! I mean I really really don't understand, with so many sources and outlets like the above that I posted, supporting my position here; the general combativeness and hostility I am encountering from various individuals here, when my position is based on reasonable judgement and verifiable researched assertions! Let me finish with a last source, a book source, this time involving the author that was interviewed in my last post, who wrote a book about the plague of Justinian in the Byzantine empire and how it came about! [URL=http://novselect.ebscohost.com/Display/TreeNodeContent?format=html&profile=s7762005.main.novsel2&password=dGJyMOPY8U2vpgAA&ui=428069&schema=http:&source=173397&version=2.1&print=true]http://novselect.ebscohost.com/Display/TreeNodeContent?format=html&profile=s7762005.main.novsel2&password=dGJyMOPY8U2vpgAA&ui=428069&schema=http:&source=173397&version=2.1&print=tr ue[/URL] [QUOTE] [Discussion of the book below] [b]Justinian’s Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe by William Rosen (New York: Viking, 2007)[/b] Summary: Justinian’s Flea is divided into three sections, and opens with the story of the titular Emperor who reigned from 527 to 565 AD. Born in the Balkan region and of undistinguished background, Justinian moved to Constantinople as a young man. While tracing his rapid and improbable rise through the Imperial hierarchy, Justinian’s Flea also explores the Roman Empire of Justinian's day. [b]The Empire had radically transformed since the days of Augustus. Losing much of its territory to internal strife and barbarian invasion, the Empire had moved eastward, with its capital at Constantinople.[/b] Multilingual and intensely Christian, Constantinople's popular politics and active, engaged citizenry facilitated Justinian's rise to power. Along the way he met Theodora, a prostitute and entertainer whom he would eventually marry. The second section of the book details the achievements of Justinian's reign, beginning with his consolidation of political power. It also addresses in depth the construction of the Hagia Sophia, the stunning domed cathedral the Emperor built in Constantinople. Representing tremendous advancements in engineering and construction techniques, the Hagia Sophia became "the signature achievement of an entire age" (p. 118). Justinian also actively pursued legal reforms, simplifying and consolidating Roman legal code into the Codex Justinianus, which would become the basis of the European Common Law tradition. Perhaps most importantly, Justinian began an aggressive campaign of imperial re-expansion. Led by a gifted general, Belisarius, Imperial troops began to re-conquer lost Roman territory around the Mediterranean, seemingly heralding a new golden age for the Roman Empire. The third and final section of the book deals [b]with the pandemic itself and its aftermath. Rosen gives a detailed explanation of the biology of the plague, its origins in Central Asia, and its spread to the Mediterranean world and to the Persian Seleucid Empire, which was Rome's chief international rival at the time. The description of the pandemic itself spans both empires, and explores the horrific scope of the death and destruction — at one point, 5,000 people a day were dying in Constantinople alone. Justinian himself nearly died of the disease. The plague didn't just take the lives of tens of thousands, but also caused political and social upheaval. Wracked by disease and weakened further by war, the Seleucid Empire nearly collapsed, and Rome was reduced to a shadow of its former glory. This power vacuum paved the way for the later expansion of Islamic forces. Shielded from the plague by their relative isolation in the Arabian desert, Arabian armies would later be able to expand rapidly, laying the foundation for the modern Muslim world. Rosen also speculates about a world in which Justinian's plague never occurred, and in which Justinian's empire continued to thrive and expand. He suggest that the rise of modern Europe, and the nation state, may stem directly from the collapse of the Roman Empire, and that the history of the Western world might have taken a very different shape had it not been for the pandemic.[/b] How does the book depict the Roman Empire at the time of Justinian? Justinian's Rome was not the Rome of Julius Caesar. The Empire had undergone a radical and often forced transformation, losing much of its former territory in Western Europe and North Africa. Having been forced off the Italian peninsula altogether, the Empire migrated eastward, settling its capital in the new city of Constantinople. The city itself bears particular examination. Named for the first Christian emperor of Rome and home to half a million people at Justinian's time, the city was profoundly religious. Theological debates were popular entertainment, and nearly everyone appears to have taken part... [b] Outside of the capital city, the Empire's shift eastward had brought additional changes. The fabled legions of Rome in their iconic uniforms and formations were a thing of the past, replaced to a great degree with mercenaries recruited from the steppes to the east. After their service, these men found a place within the new Roman Empire: [i]By that time, Rome's policy was no longer to sow conquered ground with salt, but with retired servicemen. Illyricum was heavily colonized by ex-soldiers from the seventh legion who, while not ethnically Roman — most were from Spain, or Gaul, or Syria, or even Africa — had been granted ius italicum, the right of Roman citizens, as a reward for their service to the emperor. That same long service had turned them all into Latin speakers, whatever the language of their homeland. Rome had rewarded her pensioners with homes in the Balkan highlands, and the new highlanders repaid loyalty with loyalty. (pp 17-18)[/i] Just as the new Rome found itself populated with large numbers of non-Romans, the shift eastward had changed the Empire's relations with the rest of the world. Rome found itself looking eastward, increasingly engaged with the Persian and Arabian worlds, and even the distant empire of China. The empire had adopted an eastern religion — Christianity — as its official faith. Officially an eastern European state, Rome also came under pressure from the nomadic tribes of the steppes. Recruiting Hun mercenaries, Rome entered into an uneasy relationship with these barbarians. Whether in matters of politics, religion, or military recruitment, the Roman Empire's focus had permanently changed.[/b] How do the events of Justinian's day continue to affect the contemporary world? [b] Justinian’s Flea outlines a slew of events, many of which directly shaped the world we live in today. The Christian world was still in its formative years, and as such Justinian's actions directed the course that it would take. Most strikingly, the first division of the Christian world is a direct result of Justinian's time. Tensions between ecclesiastical and political leadership, and between the eastern and western parts of the empire, began the split between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches: [i]An emperor and a pope could not share the ecclesiastical leadership . . . So once the eastern churches, with Theodora's support, asserted doctrinal independence and the western Chalcedonian/Catholics gained political independence (a direct consequence of Justinian's inability to consolidate his victories in Italy and Spain), the future direction of the Church — Roman Catholicism in the west, various Eastern Orthodox rites in the east — was impossible to change. (p. 274)[/i] The establishment of the Roman Catholic Church is a key development in the history of Europe, without which the continent would have developed very differently. One could also speculate that the cultural and political divide between Eastern and Western Europe also has its roots in these events, at least in part. Justinian's reign and the pandemic changed Christianity, and also brought religious changes to the rest of the world. Shielded by their relative isolation, the tribes of Arabia never faced the devastation experienced by the Roman or Persian empires. Those two behemoths, weakened by disease and war, lost much of their military power in the Middle East. As a result, a power vacuum appeared in the region, later to be filled by the rapidly expanding Muslim armies from the Arabian Peninsula. As a result, Islam spread rapidly, penetrating into Central Asia and North Africa, and eventually making inroads into Europe itself. It is difficult to imagine that Islam would have become one of the worlds' major religions so rapidly and aggressively, had it not been for the opportunity presented following the pandemic. The shape of the Islamic world was not the only thing determined by the events during and after the pandemic. In perhaps the most interesting part of the book, Rosen argues that had the pandemic not occurred and had Justinian's Rome held together, modern Europe would not have emerged. [i]. . . the demon not only midwifed Europe's birth but fed the population explosion that made the continent the center of historical gravity for a millennium: no pandemic, no labor shortage; no labor shortage, no agricultural revolution; and, therefore, no victory to Europe in the race for population domination. (Not to forget the other bequests from Justinian to Europe's future dominance: the legal code that legitimated the autocratic European nation-state, and the great landed estates whose taxes paid for it). No Holy Roman Empire. No Crusades. No Hundred Year's War. No Inquisition. No European colonies. No Charlemagne, Napoleon, or Hitler. (pp. 322-23)[/i] Rosen argues that without the events presented in Justinian’s Flea, the fall of Rome and the subsequent rise of the modern nation-state in Europe would not have occurred, or at least not in the same way. He draws a comparison to Rome's contemporary, the Chinese Empire, suggesting that had Rome not fallen, a European superstate might have persisted into the modern era[/b] What aspects of Justinian's world allowed for the transmission of the plague? [b]The origins of Justinian's plague — and even the nature of the pathogen that caused it — are uncertain. While many scholars trace its beginnings to East Africa, the steppes of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent have also been suggested as possible points of origin. Regardless, the spread and transmission of the disease and the subsequent pandemic were shaped by the political and economic realities of Justinian's day. A cursory examination of the map of the plague's spread presented in the text shows that the plague itself followed commercial routes across two empires and three continents (p. 220). Rosen's account of the plague's spread in the Middle East reads like a list of the great cities of biblical antiquity: [i]After Pelusium, as reported by John of Ephesus, the disease next arrived in the Mediterranean coastal city of Gaza in the last quarter of 541. A dozen separate funerary inscriptions in the Negev city of Nessana (due south of Gaza along the route of one of the wadi, or shallow stream-beds, that crisscross the deserts of the Middle East) and Beersheba trace the southward journey of rats, fleas and bacteria throughout 541; while, simultaneously, the plague spread north, to the coastal cities of Askehlon, Ashdod, and Rehovot. In early 542, a contemporary account describes the retreat of a Christian hermit to the Judean hills outside Jerusalem, an escape from the "great and most terrible mortality" that afflicted that holy city. Slightly later in 542, the city of Antioch, already looted and depopulated by Khusro's soldiers, now greeted an army of Y. Pestis . . . . (p. 246)[/i] The plague reached these cities by following the widely-used trade routes that cross the region. Linking three continents and several empires, these trade networks represent an early form of globalization, and as such must be understood as the result of a multitude of political, economic, and social forces. For example, in describing the plague's spread into the Persian Seleucid Empire, Rosen takes into account historic relations between the Persia and Rome: [i][T]erritory that so far remained plague-free was partially the result of the commercial restrictions between Rome and Sassanid Persia dating back to Diocletan. Confining trade to designated free-trade zones like Nisbis and Callinicum limited Persia's exposure to the pestilence, whose most important vector, the black rat, stayed close to human commercial routes. (p. 248)[/i] Due to the relatively high level of economic integration of the period, these trade routes became an effective vector of transmission for the disease, which swept across the Mediterranean and Persian worlds, eventually penetrating as far east as China by 682 AD. The plague's reliance on human mobility along trade routes resulted in one of its most interesting and lasting after-effects. The tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, geographically and politically isolated, were spared the brunt of the plague which swept the "civilized world." Rosen suggests that as a result, Arabian armies, driven by a new Revelation religion called Islam, were eventually able to penetrate into territory previously controlled by the large juggernaut empires to their north.[/b] How does Rosen portray the other great empires of the time? [b] The foreign power with which Justinian's Rome had the most contact was the neighboring Persian Seleucid Empire. Spanning from the eastern border of Rome to the Indus River valley, the Persian Empire controlled a key section of the Silk Road, the main avenue for Far Eastern trade. Due to their close proximity, mutual reliance on the Silk Road trade, and convergent history, the two empires shaped each other. As Rosen puts it: "By the fourth century, the two great empires were becoming more and more alike. It is perhaps too easy to find points of comparison between Rome and Persia in their last centuries . . ." (p. 232). Indeed, many of the forces that shaped imperial Persian society have direct counterparts in Roman history. The choice of state religion proved key in the development of each empire. While Justinian's Rome was a Christian state, the Persians had adopted a different faith. Zoroastrianism, perhaps the oldest revealed religion, had a dramatic effect on the internal relations of the Persian Empire. A dualistic faith, Zoroastrianism posits an eternal conflict between a supremely good deity, Ahura Mazda, and his evil counterpart, Ahriman. After being adopted by the Persians in the third century AD during the reign of the Emperor Bahram I, the new faith changed the Persian world: [i]As with Constantine's embrace of Christianity, the consequences were large. A new system of relatively immobile birth castes — priests, soldiers, scholars, and artisans — became state policy. The "Letter of Tansar," popularly supposed to have been written by Bahram's chief priest, ordered "there shall be no passing from one [birth caste] to another unless in the character of one of us outstanding capacity is found." Construction of some of the most distinctive architectural forms of the Sassanid period, the "fire shrines," which equated fire with light with good with Ahura Mazda, became a state imperative. "Each king apparently had his own fire, lighted at the beginning of his reign, and this fire was on a portable fire altar." And, in Persia no less than Rome, a hierarchy of priests, or magi, like Christian bishops responsible for religious administration in geographic districts, accumulated significant political power. (pp. 232-33)[/i] There are some obvious comparisons to the Roman world, perhaps most strikingly the intertwining of political and religious power in the hands of the bishops/magi. The architecture of religion, and its importance in the political realm, is another clear parallel. Perhaps the most striking difference is the sanctioning of a nearly-immobile caste system. While it would be unfair to suggest that the Romans experienced a great degree of class mobility, they apparently had more than the Persians. Justinian was a boy from the provinces, born into a poor family. His empress had been a prostitute and an actress before they married, and the couple went on to rule one of the mightiest empires in the world. Based on Rosen's description of Persian society, it is difficult to imagine similar events taking place in that empire. Due to their geography, Persia and Rome had similar concerns about trade and international relations. Their mutual reliance on the Silk Road trade was a point of contention between the two empires. It also brought them into direct contact with another great empire of the day: China. For the most part, Rosen limits discussion of China to the impact of the silk trade. However, the details he does include suggest an empire shaped by many of the same forces that affected Rome and Persia. China, too, shared a concern about nomadic tribes of raiders living beyond the pale of civilization. The nature of the silk trade meant that China was actively engaged in the events unfolding in Persia and Rome at the time. As the Persian and Roman empires weakened, the power vacuum in the region paved the way for Islamic expansion, even into Central Asia. This brought Islam into contact with China's sphere of influence in the region, challenging the Middle Kingdom's traditional control.[/b] source: Rosen, William. Justinian's Flea: Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe. New York: Viking, 2007. Print. Further Reading: Nonfiction: Hugh Kennedy, The Great Arab Conquest: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live In (De Capo Press, 2007) For readers wanting further details about the rapid expansion of the Islamic world, Kennedy presents a fascinating popular account of the complex events of that time. The Great Arab Conquest deals with the decline of the great Byzantine and Persian empires due to war and plague, the subsequent Arab military expansion, and the political and cultural legacy of the Muslim conquest. Alessandro Barbero, The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle that Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Walker and Company, 2007) Barbero focuses on the Battle of Adrianople, a relatively obscure event that he argues began the fall of the Roman Empire. Taking place in 378 AD, this confrontation between Imperial troops and an army of Goths resulted in a resounding defeat for the Romans, the death of the Eastern Emperor, and set in motion a series of events that lead to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. With its focus on military history, The Day of the Barbarians is highly accessible, and explores the transformation of the Roman Empire and the creation of Justinian's world. Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750 (W. W. Norton, 1989) Thorough and highly accessible, The World of Late Antiquity, explores the political and social changes that marked the end of the Classical period. Discussing the falls of the Western Roman Empire and the Persian Empire, and the rise and expansion of Islam, Brown shows how these events shaped the world of late antiquity and divided the once-politically unified Mediterranean world into Catholic Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Muslim world. Colin Wells, Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World (Delacorte Press, 2007) Sailing to Byzantium traces the impact of Byzantine civilization on both the surrounding cultures of its day, and on its long-term contributions to the development of modern Europe. The Byzantine Empire kept Classical learning alive, and was instrumental in the transmission of Classical knowledge to Western Europe during the Renaissance. Wells also details the cultural impact that the Byzantine Empire had on its neighbors, the Arabs, the Slavs, and Western Europe.[/QUOTE]And as many people here have confirmed and have stated, the Roman Byzantine empire was the stronghold of the original Black/colored Greco-Roman civilization at the onset of the Middle Ages. We have a researcher stating that BOTH plague outbreaks and climate change, DECIMATED AND BROUGHT DOWN THE MIGHTY ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE PERSIAN EMPIRE AT SIMILAR TIME PERIODS SIMULTANEOUSLY! So much so that that it left those two giant empires, super powers of their time period, and their regions, at the time, vulnerable and OPEN TO BARBARIAN MIGRATIONS AND INVASIONS OF THOSE EMPIRE'S REGIONS AND POPULATION CENTERS AND CITIES AND CAPITALS; such as the ARAB AND TURKISH BARBARIAN INVADERS etc etc! And I keep repeatedly saying that this global cooling period event known as the little ice age DID THE EXACT SAME THING, WITH MEDIEVAL/CLASSICAL EUROPEAN CIVILIZATIONS, as the example of the Roman empire above illustrates! And there is evidence in the sources I posted, as well as historical precedent's in the Roman empire example above, to SUPPORT MY POSITION! I really don't understand the hostility I am seeing here from some individuals when there are tons of sources like the above SIMPLY SUPPORTING AND HELPING ME IN THIS THREAD CONTINUOUSLY! [/QB][/QUOTE]
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