Hi,
So, I want to embark on a research on the effects of climate on the political and economic development of the state. I assume, as a part of my research, I would have to turn to history as well. What I have noticed is that the most of violent revolutions the world went through in the last millennia coincided with the Little Ice Age (1600-1700s), during which average harvest per acre of land fell, paving way for famines and battered living standards. Angry and hungry, the mobs revolted. This is just one example of how the changes in climate have come to shape world's history and politics. I wonder if there have been other some historical examples where the effects of climate on the state affairs have been evident. Maybe somehow the state/community structure has been different in warmer countries compared to the colder ones? Or, are there any theories/books on the relationship between the atmospheric temperatures and the way people behave?
Thanks!!!
Frank Ludlow is a researcher at Trinity College Doblin that is doing some very interesting work on this subject. He is correlating tree ring data - which goes back through all the early medieval period for Ireland, and provides dating for years where the weather was unusually dry or unusually wet - with the data from the various Irish Annals, which give short summaries of the main events of each year. Some times the annals list violent events, killings, riots, duels. His research shows that there is some correlation between multiple years of bad weather from the tree ring data and violent events.