ANCESTRAL LIVES IN CONTEXT

Wayne Shepheard takes us back across the millennia to explore the many different reasons why our ancestors might have left their home village, region or even country

Wayne Shepheard

Migrating Peasants in a Southern Landscape: painting by Aelbert Cuyp, c.1652

Introduction

Within recorded history we can trace the dislocation of families – indeed whole communities – due to war, politics, religious persecution, racial and cultural intolerance, employment or lifestyle prospects, and any number of other societal-related reasons.

Sometimes moves were just across a parish or county; sometimes they were across the country; sometimes people moved from rural to urban settings; sometimes moves involved travel to other parts of the globe.

It is not always easy to recognise how changes in the natural environment affected economic, political or military conditions or policies. If you look closely, though, one may well see that Mother Nature played a major role in important historical events, particularly with respect to the impact on living conditions. In many instances, setbacks in the ability of people to support themselves were the root causes of social upheaval and unrest and perhaps ultimately in the decisions to move.

If you look closely, one may well see that Mother Nature played a major role in important historical events, particularly with respect to the impact on living conditions

Circumstances where Mother Nature had a major impact on the decisions people made to move include:

• loss of homes, businesses or family members from natural disasters (e.g. floods, storms, earthquakes)

• gradual alteration of habitat through natural processes (e.g. river shifting, coastal erosion)

• long-term changes to the environment (e.g. climate change)

Impact of climate change

Throughout their existence, humans have been understandably preoccupied by the need to obtain food. During the last 10,000 years – the Holocene Epoch – cultivated crops became the main foodstuff of choice as opposed to hunting and gathering. Communities became more entrenched as farming took over from hunting and foraging.

What facilitated the development of agriculture and expansion of societies were favourable climatic conditions.

During the Holocene there have been many warm and benevolent periods alternating with cold and inhospitable times.

Migration occurred during both kinds of periods, people migrating to new lands favourable for farming during the warm times and moving to find better living conditions when the climate turned cold and miserable.

Migration period

Major changes in climatic conditions have invariably led to migration, more so during the cold periods. One of the most notable was the Migration Period during the early decades of the 1st millennium AD.

The world began cooling as it entered what has come to be known as the Dark Ages Cold Period (400-900 AD). The result was an exodus from a colder and less hospitable Northern Europe into western and southern Europe where climatic conditions were more benign. By the late 9th century, Germanic tribes

Schematic diagram of global temperature variations over the last 1,000 years; dashed line represents temperature at beginning of 20th century (modified from Lamb, 1995)