The real question is, what caused the beginning and end of all the previous ice ages on a quite regular cycle?
Glacial/Interglacial periods...
If you look at the chart you can see that a significant drop starts around 74 thousand years ago. That is when Toba the volcano exploded and left a crater about 18 by 65 miles, The impact from that affected the temperture and atmosphere for thousands of years. Also may have significantly shrunk the human population and the gene pool.