Demographic Consequences of Sudden Global Cooling in the “Year without a Summer” as Documented by 19th-Century Administrative Records of an Italian Town

Katherine M. Condon, Independent Researcher

The 1815 eruption of Tambora volcano is the largest known historic eruption and responsible for the last major one-year temperature drop in 1816, the year without a summer. The demographic consequences of this sudden global cooling have not been well recognized, particularly on rural 19th-century communities. In this paper I will examine the administrative records of the commune of Pettorano-sul-Gizio in the Abruzzi region to examine the extent of the demographic consequences of sudden global cooling on a rural agricultural community.