Queen Elizabeth II started it, when she dubbed 1992 her “annus horribilis”, and it’s reached its popular zenith in 2020: the modern tendency to declare the “worst. Year. Ever.”
But the Wuhan plague, or more recent calamities from fire and flood to the Global Financial Crisis can’t hold a candle to what historians nominate as a standout candidate for the Worst Year in History.
Not even past disasters or just generally horrible times to live, like the “Iron Century” of 900-1000 AD (“very nearly the darkest of the Dark Ages”), the bloody 7th century, or the Black Death years of the 13th century can compete.
One year stands above the rest in terms of misery; 536AD.
According to research from a Harvard professor, it is a prime candidate for the unfortunate accolade of the worst year in the entirety of recorded history.
1816 is famously known as “the year without summer”, owing to the global cooling caused by the eruption of Mt Tambora. 536 was even worse.
Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia were plunged into 18 months of solid darkness by a mysterious fog.
It caused snowfall in China, continental-scale crop failure, extreme drought, famine and disease throughout most of the northern hemisphere.
The bleak year was triggered by a cataclysmic Icelandic eruption, scientists say, and was an ominous omen for a bleak century of suffering and death.
Europe was already in a pretty bad way by 536. Although there has been a revisionist push to recast the Fall of the Roman Empire as really a kind of gentle transition, historian Bryan Ward-Perkins has recently reaffirmed the traditional view. The Fall of Rome, he argues in his 2005 book, really was a violent, brutal “end of civilization”.
It was about to get worse. Much worse.
‘It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year,’ [Harvard University archaeologist and medieval historian Dr Michael] McCormick said.
The eerie fog created a drab world with darkness residing over the northern hemisphere for 18 months, with an unrelenting dusk persevering through day and night.
Effects on the climate were so severe that the Irish chronicles tell of ‘a failure of bread from the years 536–539’.
As geologist Prof Ian Plimer says, we must be the first humans in historian to be afraid of a warming climate. The wretches of the 6th century would no doubt give Extinction Rebellion ninnies a clip over the ear, as they told them just how miserable a cooling climate really is.
Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell between 1.5°C (2.7°F) and 2.5°C (4.5°F), initiating the coldest decade in the past 2,300 years.
The international devastation triggered by the unidentified fog gave rise to the moniker ‘The Dark Ages’ which has been used to refer to this ominous time.
[…R]esearchers reveal it was likely caused by a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Analysis of ice cores – natural time capsules of Earth’s geological past – also unearthed that two eruptions followed in 540 AD and 547 AD.
Incessant volcanic activity is believed to have produced millions of tonnes of ash which spread over vast swathes of the world.
The authors of the study write that this introduced a period of economic ruin which would steadfastly remain in place until a century later.
It wasn’t until the mid-7th century that evidence emerges of increasing silver production, coinciding with the advent of coin minting, indicating economic recovery. Still, things remained pretty grim for centuries yet: it wasn’t until the end of the first millennium that Europe began to emerge out of the Dark Ages. Even though India and China became comparatively richer than the West, global gdp remained essentially flatlined until the 15th century Renaissance.
H. G. Wells once wrote that everyone waxing nostalgic for the “good old days” would change their mind as soon as they got a toothache. If you’re inclined to grumble about 2020, just thank your lucky stars you weren’t around in 536.
If you enjoyed this BFD article please consider sharing it with your friends.
