Weather or Not

[Dr. Bob]

Weather has often played a HUGE role in the events of history. It has changed the course of battles, and led to empires rising and falling.

What meteorological event do you think had a great impact on history?

I will go first!

1529 the wettest summer on record in Europe. Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent invaded Europe, besieging Vienna, the dominant fortress of the Habsburg dynasty.

Armies were bogged down and the siege did not start until late in the year. Roads turned to quagmire and his heavy artillery could not be moved up to batter down the walls. It all failed; Moslems withdrew, and Europe remained "intact".

Think of Ottoman control of much of Europe. Habsburg dynasty NOT in control. No safe place for Luther and Protestant Reformation to take root. Henry VIII could divorce his Habsburg wife with papal blessing and no Church of England needed.

All because of the wettest summer in eastern Europe.

[ September 13, 2003, 04:00 PM: Message edited by: Dr. Bob Griffin ]

 

[Tanker]

Yes, if it had not rained that year in copius amounts, you might be sponsoring an Internet forum on the Muslim faith.

 

[Roy]

Is anyone suggesting that a Muslim culture would be intollerant?

Of Biblical significance, I believe that the destruction of Ninevah had a lot to do with the weather. Nahum had prophesied Ninevah's destruction at a time when such a thing seemed laughable because Ninevah was such a heavily walled and fortified city. It was the capital of the Assyrian Empire.

As it happened,(according to my understanding)heavy rains began falling about the time that the Babylonian army began it's march toward Ninevah. The Euphrates River became extremely swollen, over-flowed it's banks and eroded a good portion of the city's wall, which left it wide open. The Babylonians rushed in and sacked the city before the Assyrians could stage a defense.

Roy

 

[NeilUnreal]

The blight that caused the Irish potato famine was exacerbated by unusually wet weather.

-Neil

 

[rsr]

Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 both failed because of the weather. In the latter a typhoon devastated the Chinese fleet.

The winds that prevented Mongol success became known in Japan as "kamikaze," (Divine Wind).

If the Mongols had succeeded, would Japan had attacked the United States in 1941? If not, would the United States have gone to war with Nazi Germany? If not, would we (assuming we were of the master race) be typing now?