The Great Famine of 1695–1697, or simply the Great Famine, was a catastrophic famine that affected the present Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Norway and Sweden, all of which belonged to the Swedish Empire with the exception of Norway. The areas worst affected were the Swedish province of Finland and Norrland in Sweden proper.
The Great Famine of 1695–1697 was concurrent with the "seven ill years", a period of national famine in Scotland in the 1690s.
In the Swedish province of Finland, the Great Famine of 1695–97 was also referred to as "The Years of Many Deaths" by some Finnish historians, because it killed about a third of the Finnish population in only two years,[1] or about 150,000 out of 500,000.[2] People widely relied on eating bark bread. It was Finland's worst demographic catastrophe.
The summer of 1695 was particularly cold, and grains grew abnormally slowly. Rye was reported to grow as late as August 6, and early frost destroyed the little that had grown.[3] January and February 1696 were exceptionally warm, and the harvest was started as early as mid-February, but the frost that came in March destroyed the harvest again.[3] The abundant snow caused massive floods in the Spring, which delayed the harvest again.[4]
People resorted to begging on the streets for food, and even cannibalism was reported at least once.[5]
From 1688 onward, Sweden had been affected by early frost and bad harvests. This culminated in the winter of 1695, which was described as the coldest since 1658 and the rye did not flower before July. Because of this, the Great Famine of 1695 is also referred to as Det stora svartåret ("The Great Black Year").[2] The harvest of 1696, furthermore, was reportedly so bad that each farm produced only one loaf of rye bread.
Outside of Finland, the northernmost provinces of Sweden were the most severely affected. Desperate famine victims from the countryside left for the cities in search for food, especially to the capital of Stockholm, where in the spring of 1697 the streets were reportedly strewn with corpses and people dying of starvation.[2]
Israel Kolmodin escribió el salmo Den blomstertid nu kommer en 1695 en relación con la hambruna, con la intención de orar a Dios para que el próximo verano trajera comida. [2]
La década de 1690 marcó el punto más bajo de la Pequeña Edad del Hielo , de clima más frío y húmedo. [6] Esto redujo la elevación a la que se podían cultivar los cultivos y acortó la temporada de crecimiento hasta dos meses en años extremos, como sucedió en la década de 1690. [7] Las erupciones masivas de los volcanes en Hekla en Islandia (1693) y Serua (1693) y Aboina (1694) en Indonesia también pueden haber contaminado la atmósfera y filtrado cantidades significativas de luz solar. [8]
{{cite book}}: Falta o está vacío |title=( ayuda )