1783 Volcano fun.

[victoriavandal.livejournal.com]

Hello, long time no post (it's so slow these days on a non-Intel Mac!). Dunno if this news has travelled worldwide, but European airspace is currently unusable because of the dust cloud from an Icelandic volcano. If the eruption goes on much longer it's going to cause imported food shortages here and severe hardship for - for example - African farmers who depend on air freight to the European market. Hundreds of skeletons from a medieval mass grave were recently dug up near my friend's workplace in Spitalfields, London, dead from starvation after a volcano caused failed harvests, and I heard discussion of the 1783 eruption today, and found this in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-weather-french-revolution

Comments

[maelipstick.livejournal.com]

medieval French rural peasants would almost 'hibernate' like bears to conserve energy.

Absolutely, makes sense. Around here where people were still practicing transhumance in the 18th century, upland farmers would get their flocks down and expect to get snowed in for a couple of weeks, so everyone just huddled tight. Not much revolutionary potential there.

St Petersburg had tenement blocks which were very overcrowded (presuming Dostoevsky's painting a true picture) so I could imagine men might hang around on streets or in pubs,

Wasn't it the women who kicked off the February revolution?