Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie - Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais, July 19, 1929 – Les Moutiers-en-Cinglais, November 22, 2023 –

French historian, key figure of the Annales School, and a scholar, particularly known for his studies on the lives of peasants during the Ancien Régime. He was considered one of the most important modern French historians, advocating a method of study known as microhistory, which reconstructs specific historical contexts in detail. His significant work includes "Montaillou, village occitan de 1294 à 1324" during the Inquisition.

However, our focus is on "Histoire du climat depuis l'an mil" (History of the Climate since the Year 1000). He supported a comprehensive view of history beyond battles and kings' names, emphasizing a historiographical method incorporating demography, cultural analysis, economics, and climate studies. His work was crucial in reconstructing climate variations in Europe, particularly the "Little Ice Age" lasting approximately from 1300 to 1850, marked by alternating phases of temperature decreases and increases. Even small temperature changes had significant effects on crop yields, leading to possible famines or great prosperity, often squandered in wars.

While the medieval period is commonly depicted as a horrible era in Italian schools, Ladurie argued that the warming of the Earth resulted in increased food production, population growth, and the expansion of the Arabs in a productive Spain, almost reaching France but halted by Charles Martel. The warm medieval period laid the groundwork for political changes like communal structures in Italy and the Renaissance.

However, the 1300s saw the Hundred Years' War.

Ladurie's study of Languedoc also links the growth of the "witchcraft" phenomenon to persistent poverty, which endured even during periods of increased agricultural production. Disappointment led part of the population to turn to so-called witches. This phenomenon had ancient roots; the Celts threw valuable objects into wells and streams to appease water spirits, while the Romans imported beliefs in Dryads (woodland nymphs) and Naiads (water nymphs).

The formal conversion to Christianity did not change this. Local folklore included stories of privileged women invited to join the sisterhood of Naiads, diving naked into magical waters to remain forever young. According to Ladurie, these tales explained both women's fantasies of escaping a strongly patriarchal society and why young women occasionally fled.

In the seventeenth century, the coldest period of this phase, Europe experienced numerous conflicts, particularly during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), resulting in battles and famines.
Jumping to the last period, in 1845, a sudden drop in temperature, especially in the north, facilitated the growth of a oomycete (Phytophthora infestans) causing late blight, destroying potato crops for several years, leading to a terrible famine, starvation, deaths, and emigration to the United States.

The "Great Hunger" occurred when ultraliberal teachings were at their peak. When the English state opened work sites to remove stones from fields and build dividing walls, employing 700,000 people, a million died of hunger because no subsidies were provided, as "subsidies would take away the poor's motivation to fend for themselves."

Even in a concise summary like this, the connections between climate change and historical events are striking.
Perhaps Ladurie would say that now global warming has produced imbalances explaining not only migrations for survival but also the proliferation of wars.


Sources:
Enciclopedia Treccani
Wikipedia
Issu.com
ecologica.online -

(Translation with the help of chatgpt.)