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To: AZLiberty
I...now wonder whether this had any influence on early British-American relations, or any long-lasting historical impact.

This event primarily affected Iceland, which experienced a severe famine due to the destruction of crops and livestock by the volcano. However, during the next few years, temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere cooled considerably--Charleston Harbor in South Carolina froze over, as did the Mississippi River at New Orleans.

The event probably had no effect on British-American relations. The War of the American Revolution was winding down in 1783, the main theater of combat having shifted from North America to India.

4 posted on 11/27/2008 10:02:21 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: Fiji Hill; Max in Utah; cogitator; SunkenCiv; All

“any long-lasting historical impact.”

Comment 10 refers to the influence of the subsequent severe winters and crop failures on the French Revolution. The problems were also caused by fluorine gas in the atmosphere. Ninety percent of the livestock in Iceland died from starvation/fluorosis, as well as 10,000 out of a 70,000 population. This was a far higher percentage than the unfortunate 23,000 in England. I wonder how many it was for the rest of Europe. Ben Franklin was there at the time and suggested that the weird atmosphere/weather was caused by something volcanic in Iceland. He realy was a smart guy.

For those interested in volcano weather, check out “The Year with No Summer” as 1816 in New England was called after the monster explosion of Tambora, Indonesia, in 1815. More recently, of course, we have several years of strange weather and 500 year floods from Mt Pinatubo in 1991.


13 posted on 11/28/2008 11:37:29 AM PST by gleeaikin
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