The Little Ice Age was a period of global cooling that occurred between the 16th and 19th centuries. It led to colder winters in Europe and North America, with glaciers advancing and entire villages becoming engulfed in Switzerland. Rivers such as the Thames often froze over, allowing people to skate and hold frost fairs on the ice. The effects included failed harvests, famine, disease, and loss of life across northern Europe.

1. MortozamohammadiThe Little Ice Age

2. What was the Little Ice Age?The Little Ice Agewas a period of cooling occurring after a warmer North Atlantic era known as the Medieval Warm Period. There was a time where the earth started to cool down drastically. The local residents thought that it was a curse put on them by Satan. It killed many people because of starvation do to all the crops dying out. Diseases spread all over that area and more and more people died everyday. Women were accused of witch craft, people started to do more crimes and murders just for a little bit of bread. It was just a time of horrible disasters.

3. When did the Little Ice Age occur? There is no agreed beginning year to the Little Ice Age, although there is a frequently referenced series of events preceding the known climatic minima. Starting in the 13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in the North Atlantic, as did glaciers in Greenland. The three years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which did not lift until the 19th century. There is anecdotal evidence of expanding glaciers almost worldwide. In contrast, a climate reconstruction based on glacial length shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850, though it shows strong retreat thereafter.

4. What was its effect on History?The Little Ice Age brought colder winters to portions of Europe and North America. In the mid-17th century, glaciers in the Swiss Alps advanced, gradually engulfing farms and crushing entire villages. The River Thames and the canals and rivers of the Netherlands often froze over during the winter, and people skated and even held frost fairs on the ice. The first Thames frost fair was in 1607; the last in 1814, although changes to the bridges and the addition of an embankment affected the river flow and depth, hence diminishing the possibility of freezes. The freeze of the Golden Horn and the southern section of the Bosphorus took place in 1622. In 1658, a Swedish army marched across the Great Belt to Denmark to invade Copenhagen. The Baltic Sea froze over, enabling sledge rides from Poland to Sweden, with seasonal inns built on the way. The winter of 1794/1795 was particularly harsh when the French invasion army under Pichegru could march on the frozen rivers of the Netherlands, whilst the Dutch fleet was fixed in the ice in Den Helderharbour. In the winter of 1780, New York Harbor froze, allowing people to walk from Manhattan to Staten Island. Sea ice surrounding Iceland extended for miles in every direction, closing that island's harbors to shipping.

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