We realised in 1877 that climate affects everyone

Dry spells cause crop failures, water shortages, and economic hardship. The Brazil event was pivotal.

Drought can strike at any time and place. We recently explained that it never disappears. Spain’s reservoirs have had above-average water levels for months over the last decade. Even then, we have not reached a water “agreement”. History shows that one case inspired the rest.

The Great Dry. The meteorological phenomenon behind this name changed the perception of people who lived in areas where natural phenomena seemed to be inaccessible. Northeastern Brazil experienced it at the end of the 19th century, but it could have happened anywhere. We discovered a rare and powerful weather pattern that year.

The phenomenon was not caused by climate change at the time. Thus, the equation of events was thought to be random or caused by climate oscillations. The result: nearly three years without rain, nearly half a million deaths, and Brazil’s worst drought.

ENSO. Imagine La Niña and El Niño alternating as unpredictable events. The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) refers to changes in tropical Pacific ocean temperatures and atmospheric patterns, including El Niño (warming waters) and La Niña (cooling waters).

In Brazil’s drought, the phenomenon warmed the equatorial Pacific Ocean, altering atmospheric circulation and causing extreme rainfall shortages. How? The El Niño phenomenon altered precipitation patterns in the northeast, a semi-arid region reliant on seasonal rains. For several years, El Niño reduced monsoon rains, leading to dry conditions. A catastrophe.

Deserts first. Cearense saw the first signs of hardship in midsummer January 1877. Despair letters from the time stated, “The lack of rain is already felt. According to Sobral and other province locations, the drought is causing significant damage. A March letter from a man stated that the drought was severe. and only God knows how painful this scourge will be.” Another: “The drought is devastating everything, the cow mortality rate is astonishing.”

The situation did not improve as March and the late rainy season turned to winter. One Assaré correspondent feared total human annihilation in the countryside, while another lamented the “emaciated bodies of our little children, wives and parents.” A depressing letter published several days before Christmas ended 1877: “We are already in the middle of December and there is no rain! The drought and its horrors threaten to swallow everything.”

Effects. Although the Great Drought ended in 1878, its effects lasted longer. The drought crippled Northeast sugar workers, whose investments had failed since the early 19th century. Cotton farmers, who thrived during and after the Civil War (1861–65), faced new headwinds, while cattle ranchers lost hundreds of thousands of head.

The worst drought in Brazilian history, exacerbated by two strong El Niños, had a devastating economic impact, depleting capital and hindering development. Most importantly, drought victims and survivors needed work, especially in Ceará.

Exodus. That scene has repeated throughout history. Millions of desperate Ceará residents migrated to major cities to find work without livestock or crops. Brazil’s booming rubber industry, with its high wages and proximity, was one of the migrants’ few options. Most enclaves ended up in Fortaleza, the capital.

These shocking images of emaciated men, women, and children became national symbols. Remember that it was the first drought photographed in Brazil. Since some southern Brazilians thought the northern provinces’ events were exaggerated, the goal was to raise awareness and alert people to their seriousness. To illustrate, newspapers reported women who prostituted themselves for food and parents who sold and ate their children.

Rubber boom. After French explorer Charles Marie de La Condamine observed natives using a “milky, viscous liquid” from the Hevea Braziliensis tree to make boots, toys, and bottles in the late 18th century, Brazilian rubber production began in Amazonas and Pará.

Raw rubber and rubber products exports increased until the early 19th century. Charles Goodyear’s 1839 discovery of vulcanisation, which made rubber heat-resistant, boosted trade. Rubber wasn’t important in Brazil until the 1880s, when price increases and cheap labour increased its export share to 10%.

The Great Dry offered merchants a great opportunity due to labour shortages.

Exploitation. Ceará residents, hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants who ate whatever they found and were “desperately needed” by the rubber industry, took jobs few others would, including tapping rubber trees in a hot, disease-ridden rainforest. During the Great Drought, Amazonas and Pará labour recruiters relied on Ceará.

We realised in 1877 that climate affects everyone

Dry spells cause crop failures, water shortages, and economic hardship. The Brazil event was pivotal.

By knl9j

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