The eerie 1816 remained in history as "The Year Without Summer". Europe, and then North America, were gripped by the cold, resulting in crop failure and further famine. Americans nicknamed this period Eighteen hundred and frozen to death - and there were reasons for that.
Where is summer
Two centuries ago, instead of warmth and sun, May brought cold and rain to the inhabitants of Western Europe. America and Canada also came under attack: it didn't get better neither in June nor in July. On the contrary, frosts and snowfalls began, and the entire crop perished.
Indian pandemic
While famine began in Europe, India suffered from a severe cholera epidemic. There was no monsoon from June to August. But in the fall, torrential rains led to large-scale flooding in the Ganges valley, which caused an epidemic. In a short time, the disease stepped half of the continent and even reached Moscow.
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A bold hypothesis
The causes of the cold became known to people only a century later. In 1920, the American climatologist William Humphreys proved that the strongest eruption of the Indonesian volcano Tambora was to blame. The giant threw into the sky one and a half hundred cubic kilometers of gas and ash. In the stratosphere, they scattered across the planet. Formed the so-called sulfate aerosols, reflecting solar radiation - the temperature across the planet began to fall inexorably.
Hunger and emigration
This eruption had an incredible impact on the entire further development of mankind. The catastrophic harvest failure of 1817 led to a tenfold increase in grain prices, and famine gripped Europe. In search of rescue, tens of thousands of Europeans emigrated to the United States.
Influence on culture
Due to the high level of ash in the atmosphere, the sunsets looked incredibly beautiful during that period. This directly influenced the development of the legendary English painters, Caspar David Friedrich and William Turner. Mary Shelley wrote the famous "Frankenstein" because she was locked in a villa with friends by bad weather. Lord Byron gave birth to the first ever vampire story.
Delayed Effects: Chemistry
Indirectly, the volcanic eruption has provoked many other inventions. Eustace von Liebig, a German chemist, survived the famine in Darmstadt, thanks to which he devoted his whole life to studying plants and synthesized the first mineral fertilizers.
Delayed aftermath: bike
The German inventor Karl Drez embarked on the development of alternative means of transportation because at that time there was simply not enough oats for horses. He invented the prototype bicycle and started the future era of transport mechanization.
Delayed aftermath: the Opium Wars
In southern China, extreme cold has resulted in several years of rice crop failure. Farmers quickly switched to cultivating the much less fussy opium poppy. The Chinese market was flooded with opium, which subsequently led to the Opium Wars of the 19th century.