Witches; effects of climate on society

To start off ‘Little Ice Age’ refers to the time AD 1570-1730 and in early 19^th century. And unusually warm conditions have followed since the 1920s. This entry will talk specifically about the period between 16^th - 18^th centuries Europe.

Well…to some my title may seem ridiculous, but if a peasant during that period saw this blog they would completely agree with me. Why is this the case? And how would witches be linked to Climate change?

I think its associating goes beyond that suggested in dictionaries like the one below: 

  

I believe this word exposes something greater. It exposes the vulnerability and susceptibility of one’s mentality in a period of agrarian society facing abrupt changes to its climate. It also shows how society reacted throughout the different stages of the Little Ice Age. Beheringer’s paper demonstrated this and showed how governance, society and citizens interlinked, something you don’t get in a quantitative approach. Outlining how witch-hunting evolved due to changes in economic/agricultural condition will expose the dark side of our ancestors.

Some segments of European society associated witches with causing hailstorms. The first systematic witch hunts occurred in the alpine valley, and parts of Switzerland during the 1430s. Only during the 1480s that authorities like the Church accepted the association of weather making with witches which caused bad harvest. However, people’s mentalities towards witchcraft started to converge as climate worsen. The extreme weather in these periods 1560-1574, 1583-1589 and 1623-1630 all contributed to the convergence;

The 1560s had immense snowfall in winter and thaw and rain in spring and summer. This causes major disruptions to agriculture. For example, in Germany it caused inundations which poisoned fields, thereby causing cattle diseases, rising infant mortality and outbreak of epidemics. Some believed it wasn’t the witches like the orthodoxy of Lutheran theology which saw the events as a signs from gods. Opinions differed in small political entities where they often scapegoated the witches for their misfortunes and condemned them to persecution. Eg in the territory of Wiesensteig 63 women were burned each year during the 1560s. Other cities with more complex administrative system saw this as inhumane and places like Stuttgart managed to stop the local witchcraft persecution after one burning.

      The 1580s saw a dramatic turn where witch hunts grew into revolutionary dimensions. Why? Because the socico-economic and ecologic condition worsen. Conflict occurred between the demographic movement, continuous population growth and the narrowing of the food supply. It caused hunger and epidemics and created enormous psychological stress among contemporaries.

     Most local officials in big cities were reluctant since their laws don’t recognise witches to be the cause of weather changes. Combined with inefficient legal administration it meant people took matters into their own hands. Organising witch hunts themselves, capturing and making them confess before delivering to the local authorities. Additionally, for the first time it involved members of high authorities like ruling oligarchies.  In 1586-1587 witchcraft accusation reached their climax in England and France. Large scale witch hunt just began and gaining momentum in Scotland and Germany. On the other hand, some European countries managed to suppress popular demands for witch hunts during the end of the 16^th century because the elites of territorial state felt less endangered and regain power over its citizens.

The climate changes continued to the 1620s. During the last week of May winter returned ad temperature dropped in the midst of the vegetation period further damaging food supply. The abrupt climate changes coupled with socico-economic crisis in Germany has meant that there were new demands for persecutions and created large scale witch hunts. Additionally, many independent feudal lords, counts, prince-abbots or small, rural towns supported the persecutions, sharing the superstitious beliefs of their peasants. This ultimately increased and promoted further witch hunts.

I think is important to give a detailed account of the changes in those periods because this is the only way to understand the full extent of how society worked in times of crisis. The prolong period of abrupt climate changes exposes the inherent weakness of humanity. The administrative power of governments breaks down under popular demand, and in extreme case people taking it in their own hands. The mentalities of individual (from peasants to high-society individuals) changes (and for the worse by searching for scapegoats) as these climate events progressively worsen. With the benefit of hindsight, I think these societies were barbaric, but it seemed like the ‘right thing to do’ if you lived through that period. Could the same thing happen to our modern society if we experience similar or even worse socio-economic and ecological disaster? How would our morality change in time of crisis if we experience global hardship due to climate change? Above all this has shown how society plunged into chaos and disorder. Could this happen to our modern society?