Natural Crisis-Situations in Late Medieval Hungary
by
Andrea Kiss
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary

Natural Crisis-Situations in Late Medieval Hungary

From the 13th century, growing number of existing contemporary sources refer to various types of crisis situations caused by natural hazards. In this study, both foreign and local narrative sources as well as contemporary Hungarian charters were examined.

Types of recorded late medieval natural hazards in Hungary

1. Recorded earthquakes and possible surface movements (e.g. landslide): A couple of examples appear in medieval Hungary; considerable effects were recorded only in one case.

2. Problems around weather and climate: The amount of sources referring to weather events is normally very low and not enough for a reconstruction; more sources (or even almost continuous source material) are available for crisis situations: e.g. greatest known crisis of 1241-43, massive ice-cover on the Danube appears in the mid-15th century-sources.

3. Recorded great floods of the 13th-15th centuries: In medieval Hungary, yearly one or two floods on rivers are usual phenomena; nevertheless, the floods greater than usual caused serious problems. It is especially visible in case of the probable flood-crisis of the 1340s.

4. Hunger and diseases (e.g. plague): While the Black Death and the previous hunger years had catastrophic impact on the human population in Western Europe, in Hungary difficulties and high prices (no hunger) were recorded only in very few cases. Black Death, although its appearance can be proved, passed by without crucial impact. The possible impacts of plague epidemics in the late 14th and 15th centuries are, however, more frequently reported. Sources suggest the low but growing impact of plague on human population.

5. Recorded invasions of animals (e.g. locust invasion, beasts etc.): The greatest impacts are connected to the First Mongol Invasion and the great locust invasion of 1338.

The greatest complex crisis in medieval Hungary: the First Mongol Invasion (1241-2)

The First (or Great) Mongol Invasion is probably the most well documented combination of almost all of the above-mentioned crisis-factors. It was both a political and natural crisis situation: besides the great loss of population and the sudden abandonment of huge number of settlements, this one event definitely acted as a catalyst in the processes of social and economic changes, which started much earlier and continued throughout the century. Therefore, normally the political, social and economic significance of the invasion is emphasized. The "unfortunate" event of the frozen Danube is usually mentioned rather as a unique additional information, an unusual, "bad luck" phenomenon which helped the Mongols to cross the Danube more easily. However, on the example of some modern crisis situations, we have to count with the possible influence of other significant factors, too.

In fact, source material suggests a more complex than merely a political as well as social crisis during and around the Mongol Invasion. Four elements appear which together caused the temporary "disturbance or crisis" of the existing ecological system:

1. One part of the winter was unusually cold - thick, stabile ice-cover developed on certain sections of the Danube. The situation is comparable to some 18th-century examples of massive ice-covers.

2. Extensive (mainly lowland) areas of the country remained uncultivated and unpopulated for several years - this most probably caused great changes of the existing ecosystem.

3. The Invasion seriously affected humans and the domestic animal population: great population movements occurred.

4. The changed behavior of wild animals (e.g. wolves) and their mass attacks on humans suggest not only a human but a more complex ecological crisis, which affected the wildlife, too.

Date received: March 22, 2002

Copyright © 2002 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caiq-88.