A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, argues that the two millennia of foreign invasions and internal wars in China were caused more by climate cold than by feudalism, class struggle, or poor governments.
According to research, lack of food and crop failures were enough to spark civil unrest or force hordes of starving nomads from the steppes of Mongolia.
These disastrous events were always linked to long periods of Cold weather. In contrast, the moments of greatest stability and prosperity in China occurred during warm periods.
The theory remains controversial for historians. In general, there is a tendency to try to find causes that come from society itself to explain social processes. The intervention of climate it is usually a very secondary factor in the elaboration of historical hypotheses.
But the study is not without seriousness. Chinese and European scientists, led by Zhang Zhang, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing investigated information from more than 1,900 years of history. Searching historical records, they analyzed the frequency of battles, the rise in the price of rice, the appearance of plagues, droughts, and floods.
The collapse of the agricultural-based dynasties of They have (25-220), Tang (618-907), song north (960-1125), song southern (1127-1279), and ming (1368-1644) are closely associated with the low temperatures or the rapid drop in temperature”, the researchers conclude.
Food shortages may have weakened these dynasties, and pushed northern nomads (even more vulnerable to low temperatures) to invade their Chinese neighbors.
“When climatic conditions worsen beyond what technology and the economic system can compensate for, people are forced to move or starve,” explains Zhibin Zhang.
The study found more floods and droughts during colder periods, but the phenomena that most directly contributed to war and the fall of dynasties were plagues and the rise in the price of rice. The Roman Empire, and the Mayan civilization also fell during cold periods, the scientists add.
“Historians commonly attribute the transition of dynasties or historical cycles to the quality of government or class struggle,” says the article published in the British magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “However, the climatic fluctuations they may signify a factor that interacts with social structures and affects the fall and spread of cultures and dynasties.”
Sources: Discovery News / Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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