Early modern Europe · 1600-1789

The Little Ice Age in Europe

Colder winters freeze the Thames, the Baltic and the lagoon of Venice. Students use the Weather of History layer to explore frost fairs, failed harvests and a volcano in Iceland, and ask how climate shaped wars, food and daily life between 1600 and 1789.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1683 to AD 1783
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Colder winters freeze the Thames, the Baltic and the lagoon of Venice. Students use the Weather of History layer to explore frost fairs, failed harvests and a volcano in Iceland, and ask how climate shaped wars, food and daily life between 1600 and 1789.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain what historians and scientists mean by the "Little Ice Age".
  • Use the Weather of History layer to find three cold events between 1600 and 1789.
  • Give two examples of how colder weather affected war, food or daily life.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1683

Frost fairs

Turn on Weather of History and go to 1683. Zoom in on London. What has happened to the river Thames, and what are Londoners doing on it?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1658

A frozen sea

Go to 1658 and zoom in on the islands of Denmark. What does the Weather of History layer show on the sea? How could a frozen sea change a war?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1783

The Laki haze

Go to 1783 and zoom out over Europe. What veil spreads over the map, and where does it come from?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Average temperatures fell only a little, but some winters were extremely harsh. Why could that matter so much for farmers?
  2. Londoners held fairs on the frozen Thames. What does that tell us about how people coped with hard winters?
  3. In 1658 a Swedish army marched across the frozen sea to attack Denmark. How can weather change the course of a war?
  4. How do historians and scientists find out about the weather of the past, long before thermometers were common?
  5. Some historians link the cold and the bad harvests of the 1600s to wars and revolts around the world. Is weather a good explanation for history?
4

Game round

9 min

Play a round of Rule History as Peter the Great. In the bitter winter of 1708-1709 the Swedish army invading Russia froze and went hungry, months before Peter beat it at Poltava. Discuss: when did weather or climate decide events in your game?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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