Historians compile list of "the most stressful years in world history" - do you agree?
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  Historians compile list of "the most stressful years in world history" - do you agree?
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Author Topic: Historians compile list of "the most stressful years in world history" - do you agree?  (Read 650 times)
Blue3
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« on: December 28, 2021, 10:35:42 PM »

https://www.enjoybloom.com/post/most-stressful-year?lang=en

Quote
Most Stressful Year in WORLD History

1348 topped the rankings by a wide margin but at least one historian chose each of the following, ranked in order:

1. 1348 – Peak year of the Black Death, which kills a third of the population across Europe and the Middle East – up to 200 million by some estimates.

2. 1944 – The Holocaust at its height; Europe engulfed in war.

3. 1816 – “The Year Without A Summer”: A huge volcanic eruption in Indonesia blocks out the sun, causing devastating crop failures in Europe, China, North America – millions starve.

4. 1644 – The Thirty Years’ War rages in Europe; the Ming Dynasty collapses in China.

5.  410 – The sack of Rome by barbarians; chroniclers believe the end of the world has come.

6.  2020 – The world battles the global pandemic of Covid-19; over a million die.

They also selected the 3 worst in American history:

Quote
Worst year in American history

In a separate question, about just American history, 1862 was judged the most stressful year in specifically American history, since the time of the first European settlers.

“That was the darkest year in the Civil War, when it was clear that the price had already been high but the Union might still break apart permanently”, says Philip Parker. It also included battles such as Antietam, the bloodiest single day in US military history, which took a terrible toll on both sides.

Its nearest rivals for the title of America’s most stressful year were 1929, when the Wall Street Stock Market crash sparked the start of the Great Depression; and 1838, when the still new United States started pushing many Cherokees out from their lands in mid-winter on the murderous trek known as the “Trail of Tears”.
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #1 on: December 28, 2021, 11:12:21 PM »

I don't agree with premise of ranking years by stress in the first place, so no.

As much as I personally loathe 2016, I know lots of good things happened too.

1944 had a lot of bad things, but Iceland also broke away from Denmark.
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Antonio the Sixth
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« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2021, 10:43:41 AM »

1942 had to be worse than 1944, since by 1944 the writing was clearly on the wall for the outcome of the war. Of course that was cold comfort for the people who died, but at least there was a sense that it would be over soon. In 1942 it seemed plausible that Germany would win, or at least fight to a draw that would see it dominating most of continental Europe.
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sparkey
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« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2021, 02:37:40 PM »

2020 over 1258? Absurd presentism. Also something is wrong with the list, it says 410 is both on and off the list
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Unconditional Surrender Truman
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« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2021, 03:53:55 PM »

Basically all historical rankings, tbh.
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Statilius the Epicurean
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« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2021, 08:31:19 PM »

1177BC imo
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progressive85
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« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2022, 08:01:22 AM »

Wouldn't the entirety of Nazi Germany's rule (early 30s-1945) be the most stressful years in world history?  Certainly from the perspective of a Jewish person living anywhere in the world, but especially in Europe?
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World politics is up Schmitt creek
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« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2022, 11:45:10 PM »

1944 had a lot of bad things, but Iceland also broke away from Denmark.

Plus my aunt, then aged four, called an in-law of hers called Anna "Gorg" Gorglione a bitch in public and had her mouth scrubbed out with carbolic soap, one of her earliest memories.

Microcosm and macrocosm. Trippy stuff.
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afleitch
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« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2022, 06:00:16 AM »

To be fair, the Cola Wars were pretty brutal.
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Frodo
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« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2022, 05:44:15 PM »
« Edited: January 09, 2022, 05:49:04 PM by Frodo »

451 AD should at least be considered a runner-up.  As much as the British during the First World War cast the Germans under the Kaiser as the 'Huns' for propaganda purposes, the real Huns under Attila were on the verge of conquering all of western Europe until the combined might of the (Western) Romans, Alans, and Visigoths at the battle of the Catalaunian Plains stopped them in their tracks.  Like the battle of Antietam, it was a stalemate but it robbed the Huns of their momentum, stripped them of their myth of invincibility, and Attila died a few short years later.  The heavy losses suffered by the Visigoths and Alans as well as the Romans ensured Frankish dominance over Gaul, and established more broadly that Europe's destiny would be determined by the Germanic tribes that later spawned kingdoms that eventually became the countries we know them today.  
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RINO Tom
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« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2022, 08:33:26 PM »

Come on now!

536 AD - Worst Year in History
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