Famines in Czech lands
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Famines in Czech lands article lists historical famines in area of today's Czech Republic.
Frequent wars caused famines in larger or smaller areas. Other causes were climate (too much rain, cold, hailstones, weather cycles), crop diseases and socio-economic events. Vast majority of victims were peasants and city poor.
List of famines:
- 1279 - 1282: after long period of warfare weather causes low crop. Highest estimates are 600,000 people. Plague epidemy, instances of cannibalism.
- 1318: local famine in area of Bystřice and Landštejn due to warfare
- 1361: large scale famine
- 1366: crop failure
- 1432-1434 hungry years: climatic problems during Hussite wars. Price of grain increases 6x (and then returns back)
- after cca 1560 colder climate causes drops of harvests. Widespread witchcraft hunting may be reaction of people searching for cause
- famine after War of the Austrian Succession kills 1200 people in area of Doksy [1] [2]
- 1770-1771 Great Famine: cca 12% of inhabitants died (hundreds of thousands, maybe 500,000 people). Caused by disease of grain monoculture and heavy rains in 1771. To lessen its impact grain was imported from Hungary. Potatoes production had risen later as answer to the famine. The event radicalized countryside and led to peasant uprisings.
- 1847-1847: potato disease caused famine in areas of Czech Silesia: around Opava, in Tesin area (over 20,000 people). Unrests of textile workers followed.
[edit] References
- Today's climatology and its use in history research (in Czech) (Detailed overview, English summary, sources.)