The early settlement of New England is riddled with stories of harsh winters responsible for killing off large quantities of colonists. If you draw a straight line from New England to Europe, however, it falls roughly on the same level of longitude as Rome, which is quite south compared to the rest of Europe. What factors caused the winters to be so much more harsh and unbearable in New England if it’s so much farther south than most of Europe? And further, if the winters actually WERE comparable and I’m just misinformed, why did Europe always cope with those conditions better?
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