Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse
State or societal collapses are often described as featuring rapid reductions in socioeconomic complexity, population loss or displacement, and/or political discontinuity, with climate thought to contribute mainly by disrupting a society’s agroecological base. Here we use a state-of-the-art multi-ic...
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ftunivbern:oai:boris.unibe.ch:160932 2023-08-20T04:07:12+02:00 Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse Gao, Chaochao Ludlow, Francis Matthews, John A. Stine, Alexander R. Robock, Alan Pan, Yuqing Breen, Richard Nolan, Brianán Sigl, Michael 2021-11-11 application/pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/1/Pub_THERA_13_Gao2021_COMMSEEN.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/2/Gao2021_accepted.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/ eng eng Springer Nature https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Gao, Chaochao; Ludlow, Francis; Matthews, John A.; Stine, Alexander R.; Robock, Alan; Pan, Yuqing; Breen, Richard; Nolan, Brianán; Sigl, Michael (2021). Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse. Communications earth & environment, 2(1) Springer Nature 10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7> 530 Physics 950 History of Asia info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion PeerReviewed 2021 ftunivbern https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7 2023-07-31T22:09:30Z State or societal collapses are often described as featuring rapid reductions in socioeconomic complexity, population loss or displacement, and/or political discontinuity, with climate thought to contribute mainly by disrupting a society’s agroecological base. Here we use a state-of-the-art multi-ice-core reconstruction of explosive volcanism, representing the dominant global external driver of severe short-term climatic change, to reveal a systematic association between eruptions and dynastic collapse across two millennia of Chinese history. We next employ a 1,062-year reconstruction of Chinese warfare as a proxy for political and socioeconomic stress to reveal the dynamic role of volcanic climatic shocks in collapse. We find that smaller shocks may act as the ultimate cause of collapse at times of high pre-existing stress, whereas larger shocks may act with greater independence as proximate causes without substantial observed pre-existing stress. We further show that post-collapse warfare tends to diminish rapidly, such that collapse itself may act as an evolved adaptation tied to the influential “mandate of heaven” concept in which successive dynasties could claim legitimacy as divinely sanctioned mandate holders, facilitating a more rapid restoration of social order. Article in Journal/Newspaper ice core BORIS (Bern Open Repository and Information System, University of Bern) Communications Earth & Environment 2 1 |
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BORIS (Bern Open Repository and Information System, University of Bern) |
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English |
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530 Physics 950 History of Asia |
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530 Physics 950 History of Asia Gao, Chaochao Ludlow, Francis Matthews, John A. Stine, Alexander R. Robock, Alan Pan, Yuqing Breen, Richard Nolan, Brianán Sigl, Michael Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
topic_facet |
530 Physics 950 History of Asia |
description |
State or societal collapses are often described as featuring rapid reductions in socioeconomic complexity, population loss or displacement, and/or political discontinuity, with climate thought to contribute mainly by disrupting a society’s agroecological base. Here we use a state-of-the-art multi-ice-core reconstruction of explosive volcanism, representing the dominant global external driver of severe short-term climatic change, to reveal a systematic association between eruptions and dynastic collapse across two millennia of Chinese history. We next employ a 1,062-year reconstruction of Chinese warfare as a proxy for political and socioeconomic stress to reveal the dynamic role of volcanic climatic shocks in collapse. We find that smaller shocks may act as the ultimate cause of collapse at times of high pre-existing stress, whereas larger shocks may act with greater independence as proximate causes without substantial observed pre-existing stress. We further show that post-collapse warfare tends to diminish rapidly, such that collapse itself may act as an evolved adaptation tied to the influential “mandate of heaven” concept in which successive dynasties could claim legitimacy as divinely sanctioned mandate holders, facilitating a more rapid restoration of social order. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gao, Chaochao Ludlow, Francis Matthews, John A. Stine, Alexander R. Robock, Alan Pan, Yuqing Breen, Richard Nolan, Brianán Sigl, Michael |
author_facet |
Gao, Chaochao Ludlow, Francis Matthews, John A. Stine, Alexander R. Robock, Alan Pan, Yuqing Breen, Richard Nolan, Brianán Sigl, Michael |
author_sort |
Gao, Chaochao |
title |
Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
title_short |
Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
title_full |
Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
title_fullStr |
Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
title_full_unstemmed |
Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse |
title_sort |
volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of chinese dynastic collapse |
publisher |
Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/1/Pub_THERA_13_Gao2021_COMMSEEN.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/2/Gao2021_accepted.pdf https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/ |
genre |
ice core |
genre_facet |
ice core |
op_source |
Gao, Chaochao; Ludlow, Francis; Matthews, John A.; Stine, Alexander R.; Robock, Alan; Pan, Yuqing; Breen, Richard; Nolan, Brianán; Sigl, Michael (2021). Volcanic climate impacts can act as ultimate and proximate causes of Chinese dynastic collapse. Communications earth & environment, 2(1) Springer Nature 10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7> |
op_relation |
https://boris.unibe.ch/160932/ |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00284-7 |
container_title |
Communications Earth & Environment |
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2 |
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1 |
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1774718676309639168 |