The Little Ice Age: Europe's Encounter with North America - Climate History Book for Students & Researchers | Perfect for Academic Studies & Historical Research

Sam White has written a history of the first European colonies in North America, but instead of reviewing what we already know about those colonies, he puts the colonists’ history in the context of the Little Ice Age. He argues that climate change related to the Little Ice Age had a significant impact on the creation, or not, of those colonies and the Europeans’ initial relations with Native Americans.We all know that the initial colonies had a difficult time establishing themselves in North American. Of course, we know the colonists did not prepare adequately, and brought too few supplies and food. White differs in that he addresses that the lack of preparation was due to several assumptions Europeans made from ignorance of the North American climate and their understanding of latitude. The basic assumption they all made was that if Spain, France, or England was on the same latitude as parts of North America, then the climate and weather must be similar. Therefore, they prepared themselves for the same climate in which they lived not realizing how much colder North American was from Europe. (How many people realize today that England is basically at the same latitude as Hudson’s Bay?) This meant the clothing they brought, the animals, and the seeds for their crops were geared around a longer and more tolerant growing season.White also points at that besides the attempted creation of European colonies occurring during the time of the Little Ice Age, the years from the late 1500s through the early 1600s were some of the coldest years in the last two millennia. This meant impact of the weather on colonists, who were not prepared for the harsh reality of North American weather, and the impact on Native American food supplies only exacerbated issues between the colonists and the Natives. There simply was not enough food for everyone.Essentially what makes this book unique and worth reading is its focus on the weather and its implications for the European colonists and Native Americans at a critical time during the Little Ice Age.