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Little Ice Age: The Year Without a Summer - #4 - Extra History
🕑 Added 2023-11-24 18:30:01 +0000 UTCIn the throes of the Little Ice Age, Europe faced extreme winters, and even the mighty Napoleon succumbed to its icy grasp during the ill-fated Russian invasion. But as Mount Tambora erupted in 1812, casting volcanic particles into the atmosphere, it heralded a chilling chapter in history. Explore the eerie effects of this volcanic aftermath, where sunsets turned red, crops failed, and snow fell in June. Witness how Europe and North America adapted to the changing climate, turning adversity into innovation. From the Netherlands' ingenious hydraulic engineering to England's agricultural revolution, humanity found ways to thrive amidst the challenges.
Did we get something wrong in our "Little Ice Age" video? Is there a particular character you want to hear more about? Feel free to ask our Extra History writer Rob in the comments below and get a shout-out in our Extra History Lies Episode!
Did you miss an Episode in our Little Ice Age Series?
Part 1 - Climate Change | Part 2 - No More Food I Part 3 - The Witch Hunts I Part 4 - A Year Without a Summer I Lies - Release Date: 12/2
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Comments
Michael Truscott
Just watching those episodes on the Little Ice Age itself made me cold.
Margaret L. Carter
Fascinating, one of my favorite Extra History series. However, the section of "The Year Without a Summer" concerning the soiree that inspired FRANKENSTEIN contains a few errors. In the illustration, "Polidori" is misspelled. Also, he wrote "The Vampyre" a couple of years later, partly cribbed from an unfinished piece that would have been Byron's contribution to the Lake Geneva horror story contest. Mary records that Polidori attempted a tale about a skull-headed lady. And she wasn't Mary Shelley then; Shelley was still married to his first wife.
Joshua Evans-Lowell
I'd also read that this was an urban legand
Joshua Evans-Lowell
The number of crossovers in this series is staggering but not surprising. It really shows how much the Little Ice Age impacted world history! By my count: Frederick the Great, the Thirty Years' War, Tulip Mania, and probably others I can't think of
Haemocyte
Other legends I have heard is a Polish lord making it punishable by mutilation to refuse to eat potatoes, and that the Germans called them "devil's tubers". I also remember the "Once Upon A..." animated series depicting some tyrant commanding peasants to eat the leaves.
RedWizzrobe
This is the second time you mentioned Frederick the Great guarding potatoes to make them seem desirable, but I've heard the same story attributed to Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, a pharmacist during the French Revolution. And to quote Max Miller, "who would be crazy enough to steal from Frederick the Great?"
Martin Verran
This seems to be a strangely appropriate topic for Extra History to discuss in this day and age of worsening climate disasters as a consequence of global warming, which is being made worse as a result of human industry and the Supreme Chicken not being able to control the climate of the Planet.
PhlubbaDubba
Is there evidence to suggest that the little ice age was actually the beginning of a return into the deep freeze since we're technically just in a temperate period during an extended ice age? Did the beginning of global warming actually cancel out the natural cycles Earth had been moving along at that point?
