Natural disasters that change the course of history

[Uiler]

I was just pondering on the effects of the recent tsunami on the Aceh civil war when I started thinking about how natural disasters have changed the course of history. For example, the tsunami that severely weakened the Minoan civilisation in Crete, allowing the Mycenaen culture to take over. What over natural disasters have changed the course of history? I'm not talking about the biggest or most powerful - e.g. the Yellow River flooded in the late 19th century killing nearly a million people and in the 1970s the city of Tangshan in China got wiped out in an earthquake killing 650-850 000 people. However I don't think either of these disasters affected history very much and are not well known outside of China, so despite the huge death toll they don't count.

 

[Plotinus]

The storm that dispersed the Spanish Armada in 1588 would have to be quite high up the list.

 

[Verbose]

The earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755 (Nov. 1).

It gave the lie to the belief that we are living in a universe regulated by divine providence, and was milked for all it was worth by the Enlightenment philosophers. (Voltaire's "Candide".)
Europeans looked at the world quite a bit different afterwards.

 

[pawpaw]

the earthquake/tidalwave that sunk atlantis

 

[Pellaken]

the hurricane that wiped out the mongol fleet

the winter of 1941

 

[North King]

Perhaps the Little Ice Age, that caused famines and such in Europe, led to widespread turmoil, probably laid the seeds for the Reformation in the above, and also stopped the continuing Norse expeditions to the New World.

 

[privatehudson]

From what I recall, most of the serious rebellions during the tudor period in England for example had a tendency to happen around times of great famine, so natural problems could have had a rather serious affect on that period of English history. I'd also add the winter of 1812 which helped to destroy Napoleon's biggest ever army.

 

[Plotinus]

Although - didn't Napoleon lose more men in the heat of the Russian summer than he did in the cold of the Russian winter?

 

[privatehudson]

I guess it depends on how you look at it, frostbite, cold, hunger and cossacks turned the Grand Army's retreat into a near chaotic scramble during the winter, so it certainly had a significant effect. Plus his army was nearly trapped when they came to the iced over Brezhina river (sp?) and but for the intervention of one of his Engineers disobeying Napoleon's orders, even more men would have been lost. I'd have to look into it, but the fact that his army numbered less than 1/4 of what it began with at Borodino doesn't necessarily mean they were "lost" by that point. Any source you have would be enlightening

 

[Rik Meleet]

Nr 1 must be:

The asteroid that killed the Dinosaures.

 

[Xen]

the impact that caused a (but different from the one North kingmentioned) minature ice age, this one duirng the period of late antiquity, that caused crop faileures and world wide barbarian migrations.

 

[Provolution]

The little ice age also obliterated the large Norwegian colony in Greenland. No one survived.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Although - didn't Napoleon lose more men in the heat of the Russian summer than he did in the cold of the Russian winter?

The Russians lost as many men to cold as Napoleon as he retreated. Napoleon was essentially beaten when the Tzar would not capitulate and make peace. The retreat destroyed any cadre he might have had to rebuild his army in 1813, so he had to start from scratch. In civ terms, after 1812, the AI "dog piled" France and forced the 1814 peace.

The Black Death rewrote the social and political history of Europe.

 

[Kafka2]

The climactic upheaval from 535-540AD (supposed to be linked to an eruption of Krakatoa) caused worldwide changes- the displacement of the Avar (eventually bringing them into conflict with the Eastern Roman Empire), the collapse of the Saba culture in Yemen which was a major precursor to the rise of Islam, the dramatic shift in the balance of power between Britons and Saxons in Britain, dynastic changes in China etc.

 

[jonatas]

The earthquake that destroyed Lisbon in 1755 (Nov. 1).

It gave the lie to the belief that we are living in a universe regulated by divine providence, and was milked for all it was worth by the Enlightenment philosophers. (Voltaire's "Candide".)
Europeans looked at the world quite a bit different afterwards.

interesting example, Lisbon had grown fabulously rich and grand as a result of the prior 2 centuries of discovery and commercial activity in Africa, Asia and the Americas... in a certain way it had become the center of the world for a good century, and all sorts of riches poured in... i believe that at the time for europeans, Lisbon was associated with wealth, exploration, and the first modern global empire, even if by that time it's time of glory had passed.... to see it completely destroyed by the great earthquake must have been very shocking, and at the time it indeed was used by Voltaire as an argument against divine providence...

 

[privatehudson]

The Russians lost as many men to cold as Napoleon as he retreated.

The Russians could afford to loose as many men as Napoleon