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The Impact of the Eruption of the Kuwae Volcano of 1452/1453 on Croatian Lands
Krešimir Kužić
orcid.org/0000-0003-3201-539X
Sažetak
At the end of 1452 or the beginning of 1453 an eruption of the Kuwae volcano in the New Hebrides islands (today known as Vanuatu) occurred. The scale of that geological phenomenon was so substantial that in the course of the following four or five years it disrupted the weather conditions in Europe, which was reflected in the ruin of crops of grain. A chronicler from Western Croatia noted snowy precipitation in late June 1453, a report that is in accordance with Italian and German chronicles. In Bosnia and Hum records are not extant, but the severe consequences of disaster and accompanying hunger are visible in the official documents of coastal cities, mostly of Dubrovnik. Starving refugees from the hinterland of Bosnia tried to find food in these cities, and since there was none, they were transferred by the communal authorities of Dubrovnik to the Italian side of the Adriatic. The peasantry was in general in turmoil, partly because of dues that mostly burdened people in the area of Bosnia and Hum. Furthermore, in the hinterland of Dinara there were no larger settlements to absorb the refugee rural population, and nor did there exist institutions that could provide for the distribution of grain. Something similar in legal and practical aspects was organised only in coastal cities. A favourable circumstance for them was also the possibility of transportation of grain by ships (in the case of Dubrovnik), while others might rely on help from their metropolis in Venice. Count John Frankopan bought grain in southern Italy for his subjects, and Duke Stephen Vukčić also acted similarly. The third misfortune was the plague. Of its two endemic centres, for development in Croatia, more important is the one in the Middle East. Together with the aforementioned disturbances, there occurred a proliferation of the population of desert mice and other rodents – the carriers of plague. From ports and merchant centres, the plague spread by means of ship cargos to Venice and by means of the devastating military campaigns of the Ottomans to the Balkans and the Danube basin. From Venice, the disease was transferred to Istria and Dalmatia in 1456 and there left severe consequences. On the other side of the Adriatic, the Ottomans spread plague in the hinterland during the siege of Belgrade of 1456, and the refugees, fleeing from the Ottomans, transmitted the disease to coastal cities. In the hinterland protective measures against the plague did not exist, and in coastal cities they were not efficient, not even in Dubrovnik, where quarantine was enforced first. Everything was based on avoiding contact with merchandise and people coming from the contaminated areas. The fact is that agriculture in the hinterland of Croatia and Bosnia was underdeveloped, so there were no means of avoiding hunger caused by the failure of harvest. The protective measures against the plague epidemics were also inadequate, and the wars with the Ottomans and clashes between local magnates each had a particularly negative impact. The eruption of the Kuwae volcano is designated by some scholars as one in a line of factors stimulating the arrival of the so-called Little Ice Age (from ca. 1400 to ca. 1850).
Ključne riječi
volcano eruption; disasters; hunger; plague; war; Croatia; Bosnia
Hrčak ID:
95086
URI
Datum izdavanja:
28.12.2012.
Posjeta: 2.123 *