“Divine goodness, tired of men’s sins, wanted to punish them at this time. Is the author of this sentence referring to the Kovid-19 pandemic? Impossible, because he lived 300 years earlier. You would have in Britain compared to 2020 One would have to go too far to find a worse than recession, where GDP is expected to fall by 11.3%. More precisely in 1709, when production fell from 13% to 14% due to the terrible winter. A historical reference globally , Where the recession is only the “worst” since World War II – or 1929, except for the war period.
January 1709. Queen Anne ruled Great Britain, built only with the reunion of England and Scotland. The political context is unstable. The country’s coffins were evacuated by a war of succession in Spain, which broke out eight years ago. The economy then depends mainly on the development of agriculture and sea trade. This was when a terrible cold wave fell on Europe. It is part of the “short ice age” (1303–1860), which produces atmospheric dust due to the decrease in sun activity and the eruption of four volcanoes.
” infectious disease “. January 1709 is the coldest month in the last 500 years in Western Europe. In France, the temperature does not exceed -10 ° C, it drops to -20 ° C in Paris on 20 January. Across the channel, Anglican priest William Deram describes fish settling in rivers that fall from the sky. All have been caught by the guards. There is an explosion between the wine and the church bells. Cattle, small game and hunting of poachers. Trees and vines freeze from the roots, cutting and harvesting reduces heartache. When it melts, the rain rot.
Europeans die in thousands, firstly from bronchopulmonary diseases. “Then malnutrition, malnutrition, weakening the organism, promoting the epidemic of infectious diseases: typhoid fever, measles, smallpox, dysentery”, review finds History. “Finally, perishable grains, unsuitable foods, grasses, roots, cabbage core, specific diseases for ingestion of carrion, killing in numbers”, with scurvy (vitamin C deficiency).
In law, in Morvan, priest Jean Thonnard, Author of the quote that opens this article, writes: “It is a pathetic thing to see in the praises of all kinds of people, looking for herbs and grazing like animals, mist on their faces, pale, shining , Blackened and slaughtered, frightened most by their squirming, skeletal-like corpses, while these unfortunate people fought their lives in such an unfortunate manner, citizens and townspeople of many armies moved out of the cities into battalions and surrounded Moved. Country houses where he used grain. “
