The Tumu Crisis, a nomadic invasion of the Ming Dynasty in the 1450s, coincided with the Spörer Minimum—a period of cooler-than-average temperatures known for having triggered famines and unrest in Europe.
Making more beer for eighteenth-century London’s growing population increased the need for clean water. Efforts to guarantee supplies to the brewers had an effect on both urban and rural landscapes.
Kamikōchi is the southern gateway to the Japan Alps, which in 1934 was one of the first areas in Japan to be designated a national park. This was the result of a rapid rise to prominence that followed a 1927 newspaper poll of Japanese landscapes.
Arcadia: Explorations in Environmental History is an open-access, peer-reviewed publication platform for short, illustrated, and engaging environmental histories. Embedded in a particular time and place, each story focuses on a site, event, person, organization, or species as it relates to nature and human society. By publishing digitally on the Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia promotes accessibility and visibility of original research in global environmental history and cognate disciplines.