I have been posting on the catastrophic years around 1680, when climate-induced changes vastly increased social tensions, spawning revolts and social crises.
The 1670s was also a turbulent period in North America itself, and weather played its role – as how could it not? In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon led his famous revolt in Virginia, which many historians see as the forerunner of later nationalist and anti-royal sentiment. Causes were complex, but I note this weather-related comment from the National Park Service website:
Hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes rocked the colony all in the course of a year and had a damaging effect on the colonists. These difficulties encouraged the colonists to find a scapegoat against whom they could vent their frustrations and place the blame for their misfortunes. The colonists found their scapegoat in the form of the local Indians.
The other great revolt in this era was in the Spanish dominion of New Mexico, where the Pueblos staged a remarkably successful rising in 1680. Weather-related changes precipitated the revolt, notably the long drought of the 1670s, which left “the Spanish inhabitants and Indians alike to eat hides and straps of carts.” Famine forced the abandonment of pueblos, some permanently. Grim conditions also drove some Native communities to wander further afield and engage in raiding, further aggravating famine and discontent. Already in 1675, colonial authorities were engaged in mass prosecutions for witchcraft and pagan revivals among the Pueblo.
By 1680, the long-simmering situation broke into open revolution, which culminated with the capture of Santa Fe. In 1681, a Spanish attempt to reclaim the territory was thwarted by dreadful weather, in what we know was elsewhere one of the epically cold years of the era.
Revolts in Scotland and New Mexico, persecutions in Germany and Hungary, paranoia in Virginia and France … people really did share a common planet, and a single global climate.
One final query. The other great event in North America in these very years was the horrendous struggle between Indians and colonists in New England between 1675 and 1678, the so-called King Philip’s War. I have done no detailed research on these events, but my casual reading points to no obvious linkage to the climatic changes that were so apparent elsewhere, or to extreme weather conditions generally. If someone knows anything different about that, I would appreciate receiving the information. It would be pleasing to fit the war into my broader scheme, but if it does not fit, so be it.
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