1816 – The year the tambora (1815) was felt throughout the world

There are several reasons why the “Year Without a Summer” occurred. We were having the “Dalton Minimum”, a period of low sunspot activity causing general cold and there were four other volcanoes that preceded Tambora.

To summarize: La Tambora was the largest eruption in recorded history. It blew off its top on April 10, 1815. While the April 10 eruption was catastrophic, historical records and geological analysis of deposits from the eruption indicate that the volcano was active between 1812 and 1815. With all the other effects of multiple volcanic eruptions, enough ash was put into the atmosphere to cause global cooling. This caused, in 1816 — the “Year without a summer”.

In May 1816, cold weather jumped out at young plants in the Northeast and killed the crops that had been planted. June 4 was the big dramatic day; frosts were reported in Connecticut and New England. A cold front gripped the entire area. On June 6, snow fell in upper New York state and Maine. Further north, in Quebec City, a foot of snow fell, killing most of their crops. The malnutrition, famine, and epidemic that followed caused what people call a “famine.” This weather pattern played out very dramatically in northern climates and had a powerful impact on the economies and population health of the United States and Europe.

Not just Tambora, but four other volcanoes from 1812 to 1814

The large Tambora volcano on Sumbawa Island in the Dutch East Indies was a dramatic “hit” with an explosivity rating of 7. But what probably contributed directly, along with the Dalton Minimum, were the smaller Tambora volcanoes. between 1812 and 1814 and another 4 earthquakes with explosive ratings of 4 below.

In the Caribbean, in 1812, on the island of Soufriere there was a volcano. Indonesia experienced a volcano in the Sanghihe Islands in 1812. The Ryukyu Islands in Japan experienced one in 1813, and then the Philippines in Mayon in 1814. These weren’t as huge as Tambora, but they weren’t lightweights either. There was a lot of ash accumulated when Tambora blew.

America’s Westward Expansion Begins: Joseph Smith’s Family Leaves Vermont

Crop failures in the “Year Without a Summer” forced Joseph Smith’s family to move from Sharon, Vermont to Palmyra, New York. In western New York, the entire story of the birth of the Mormon Church began when factors combined for Joseph to experience visions of him. From western New York, Mormons began a series of migrations that took them to the Midwest, and then, due to the persecution and social unrest Mormons suffered, they eventually fled to Utah, in a sort of exodus to a ” promised land”. under the leadership of Brigham Young, a man whose family also hailed from Western New York.

Western New York has become a major destination from New England because of this climate. People decided to pack up and move since they were contemplating moving west anyway. The cold weather combined with a feeling of “population explosion” or “feeling crowded,” if you can believe it, rocked New England settlers and farmers. Fifteen years later, in the 1830s, when many New Englanders had already left their original homes because of the volcano, the largest non-war migration in history began.

The Midwest area was absolutely open and there for settlement. Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota all began to be settled by this “puritan” population that was originally from the New England area. The name “puritan” as a sociological ethnic designation (not necessarily religious per se, they were now Protestants, Episcopalians, and other groups) began during this time when they seemed to be heading en masse toward Western climes. Ultimately, the entire northern fringe of the West, up to Seattle, was settled by this same peaceful migration of “puritans” from New England.

europe is cold

Europe, at this time, was still recovering from Napoleon and the destruction his latest “Waterloo” brought to the entire area. Food riots occurred in the UK and France. Since Switzerland is landlocked, it suffered the worst of the famine. Huge storms, lots of rain, clogged the main rivers, notably the flooding and freezing of the Rhine, and then a huge freeze in August 1816 added to the calamities. And don’t think it’s over because of the “Year Without a Summer.” Precipitating famine, disease, scarcity, and hardship caused a typhus epidemic between 1816 and 1819. Probably more than 200,000 people perished during this period; (Ireland and Switzerland are the countries most affected by population mortality).

The lack of oats could have generated the invention

Under the category: “Necessity is the mother of invention”, the velocipede, ancestor of the modern bicycle, was invented just after this time. Karl Drais was the man. The lack of oats caused by the famine at the time, to feed the horses, may have inspired him. Modern personal transportation depends entirely on oats. (Omen of a dependency on oil). This obvious relationship could have caused an understanding and thus an inventive spark and a “flash of genius”, since inventions spawn in similar situations.

Brown snow, red snow, and “Frankensteinian” weather

The Tambora eruption also caused the Hungarian region to experience brown snow during the summer. Not far away, Italy got something akin to brown snow. It was said that red snow had fallen there throughout the year. Of course, it is believed that the accumulation of five volcanoes in the recent past was the cause of the “ash-colored” snow.

Party in rainy and stormy Switzerland forces literary friends into a writing contest

When planning a trip to Switzerland in the summer, imagine bright sunshine, yellow and pink flowers adorning the hillsides, and low-humidity air to fill your lungs. However, in July 1816, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, John William Polidori and their friends were forced to stay inside and look out the windows at the sodden, cold and hostile Switzerland. She drove them a little crazy. In the midst of alcoholic boredom, they came up with the idea of ​​a writing contest. Byron came up with a poem: “Darkness”. Polidori, “The Vampire”; and Shelley a story about a “modern Prometheus”, who would be created by the now famous fictional “Dr. Frankenstein”. Although it was finished and published in 1818, it was generated there, during the “Year Without a Summer”.

Frankenstein, now a horror movie, then a feminist and anti-scientific tome

Mary took the opportunity to make several profound points in her story. She made arguments about science and its abuses and a lot of backgrounds and symbols that had to do with feminism. Shelley’s mother, Mary Wollenstonecraft, was the author of a well-known feminist text and no doubt influenced her daughter.

Mary Wollenstonecraft Godwin married Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet and member of an established English family. She died relatively soon after marrying in Italy. Her life was full of struggles, but she wrote and wrote, and she settled down after that strange summer in Switzerland, where her fame as a writer was born. Mary wrote a novel, which ended up being the best known of hers after “Frankenstein.” It was called “The Last Man”, written in 1826. She sets a story in the 21st century, in which humanity is destroyed. It is described as an early form of science fiction; and yet, some might say, it could be strangely prophetic.

A Remarkable Dark Decade

The decade from 1811 to 1820 was strongly marked by real and powerful socio-economic shocks. Malnutrition, poor agricultural production and the spread of mild to severe regional and local epidemics had devastating effects in European and Mediterranean countries. With the end of the Napoleonic conflicts to boot, this was a very difficult decade, especially in Europe. The very low and icy states that were most extreme experienced in 1816 and 1817 affected crop growth quite dramatically and thus greatly reduced the general state of economic health in all European countries at that time. moment. With postwar economic collapse and historic cold and famine, it was a dark and poverty-ridden decade.

Ironically, Dickens and Marx were born during this time

Both men were born during this decade. One in England, the other in Germany. Charles Dickens, the English author, wrote about the heroic fight against poverty. He has been immortalized by “The Christmas Carol”, “Oliver Twist” and “Great Expectations”. Karl Marx devised a whole political philosophy to deal with poverty. He wrote “A Manifesto of the Communist Party” together with Engels. It can be said that his ideas and his work affected millions of people at the beginning of the 20th century and today.

Both men grew up poor and continued their adult lives constantly and deeply addressing the social, political, and personal effects of poverty. While it cannot be said that Tambora and the age of the volcanoes and the Dalton Minimum directly affected these two gentlemen, given that multiple social, political, and industrial factors were at play at the time, there is still a strong symbolic case for irony. which may infer that this “Volcano Time”, Tambora, the Dalton Minimum and the “Year Without Summer” still affect us today.