The Horrifying Reality of The Great Famine
You know it’s bad when people start eating each other
It began in April 1315. Heavy rainfall devastated Europe for 150 days. Everywhere north of the Alps and west of the Urals was affected, including Britain, France, Germany, and Scandanavia.
Historians and scientists do not know the precise cause of this prolonged weather event. But we do know about the horrifying consequences.
Devastation and Hunger
After near-constant rainfall for months on end, agriculture across Europe had been devastated. The floodwaters had washed away acres of valuable crops: supplies of wheat, barley, oats, and rye were scarce.
This poor crop surplus was disastrous for the farm animals. Cows, horses, pigs, and sheep were all valuable assets to the farmers of fourteenth-century Europe, but many died from disease or a lack of nutrients.
Infestations of fluke worms — parasitic organisms that flourish in damp conditions — spread through herds of sheep. And matters weren’t helped by outbreaks of rinderpest (also known as cattle plague), which wiped out groups of animals across northern Europe.
Malnutrition and starvation soon became widespread, particularly in poorer communities, but the situation…
