Editing Little Ice Age (section)

===Africa===
The Little Ice Age influenced the African climate from the 14th to the 19th centuries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Thomas C. |last2=Barry |first2=Sylvia L. |last3=Chan |first3=Yvonne |last4=Wilkinson |first4=Paul |date=2001 |title=Decadal record of climate variability spanning the past 700 yr in the Southern Tropics of East Africa |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0083:drocvs>2.0.co;2 |journal=[[Geology (journal)|Geology]] |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=83 |doi=10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0083:drocvs>2.0.co;2 |bibcode=2001Geo....29...83J |issn=0091-7613 |access-date=11 November 2023}}</ref> Despite variances throughout the continent, a general trend of declining temperatures in Africa led to an average cooling of 1&nbsp;°C.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Klein |first=Richard G. |date=December 2000 |title=The Earlier Stone Age of Southern Africa |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3888960 |journal=The South African Archaeological Bulletin |volume=55 |issue=172 |pages=107–122 |doi=10.2307/3888960 |issn=0038-1969 |jstor=3888960}}</ref>

In Ethiopia and North Africa, permanent snow was reported on mountain peaks at levels at which it does not occur today.<ref name="cdc">{{cite journal |last1=Reiter |first1=Paul |year=2000 |title=From Shakespeare to Defoe: Malaria in England in the Little Ice Age |journal=[[Emerging Infectious Diseases (journal)|Emerging Infectious Diseases]] |volume=6 |issue=1 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.3201/eid0601.000101 |pmc=2627969 |pmid=10653562}}</ref> [[Timbuktu]], an important city on the trans-[[Sahara]]n caravan route, was flooded at least 13 times by the [[Niger River]], but there are no records of similar flooding before or since that time.<ref name="cdc" />

Several paleoclimatic studies of Southern Africa have suggested significant changes in relative changes in climate and environmental conditions. In Southern Africa, sediment cores retrieved from [[Lake Malawi]] show colder conditions between 1570 and 1820, which "further support, and extend, the global expanse of the Little Ice Age".<ref name="Johnson2001">{{cite journal |doi=10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0083:DROCVS>2.0.CO;2 |year=2001 |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=83 |bibcode=2001Geo....29...83J |title=Decadal record of climate variability spanning the past 700 yr in the Southern Tropics of East Africa |journal=Geology |last1=Johnson |first1=Thomas C. |last2=Barry |first2=Sylvia L. |last3=Chan |first3=Yvonne |last4=Wilkinson |first4=Paul |s2cid=20364249}}</ref> A novel 3,000-year temperature reconstruction method, based on the rate of [[stalagmite]] growth in a cold cave in South Africa, further suggests a cold period from 1500 to 1800 "characterizing the South African Little Ice Age".<ref name="Holmgren2001">{{cite journal |author=Holmgren |first1=K. |last2=Tyson |first2=P. D. |last3=Moberg |first3=A. |last4=Svanered |first4=O. |year=2001 |title=A preliminary 3000-year regional temperature reconstruction for South Africa |journal=South African Journal of Science |volume=97 |pages=49–51 |hdl=10520/EJC97278}}</ref> The δ18O stalagmite record temperature reconstruction over a 350-year period (1690–1740) suggests that South Africa may have been the coldest region in Africa and have cooled by as much as 1.4&nbsp;°C in summer.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sundqvist|first1=H. S.|last2=Holmgren|first2=K.|last3=Fohlmeister|first3=J.|last4=Zhang|first4=Q.|last5=Matthews|first5=M. Bar|last6=Spötl|first6=C.|last7=Körnich|first7=H.|date=December 2013|title=Evidence of a large cooling between 1690 and 1740 AD in southern Africa|url= |journal=Scientific Reports|language=en|volume=3|issue=1|pages=1767|doi=10.1038/srep01767|issn=2045-2322|pmc=3642658|bibcode=2013NatSR...3.1767S}}</ref> Also, the solar magnetic and Niño-Southern Oscillation cycles may have been key drivers of climate variability in the subtropical region. [[Periglaciation|Periglacial features]] in the eastern [[Lesotho Highlands]] might have been [[relict (geology)|reactivated]] by the Little Ice Age.<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.17159/sajs.2016/20160045 |title=A multi-disciplinary review of late Quaternary palaeoclimates and environments for Lesotho |journal=South African Journal of Science |year=2016 |last1=MacKay |first1=Anson W. |author-link1=Anson W. Mackay|last2=Bamford |first2=Marion K. |last3=Grab |first3=Stefan W. |last4=Fitchett |first4=Jennifer M. |volume=112|issue=7/8 |page=9 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Another archaeological reconstruction of Southern Africa reveals the rise of [[Great Zimbabwe]] because of ecological advantages from the increased rainfall over other competitor societies, such as the [[Mapungubwe]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huffman|first=Thomas N.|date=January 1996|title=Archaeological evidence for climatic change during the last 2000 years in southern Africa|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/1040-6182(95)00095-x|journal=Quaternary International|volume=33|pages=55–60|doi=10.1016/1040-6182(95)00095-x|bibcode=1996QuInt..33...55H|issn=1040-6182}}</ref> Pollen records derived from [[rock hyrax]] middens in the [[Cederberg|Cederberg Mountains]] of southwestern South Africa indicate an increase in humidity in the region at the start of the LIA.<ref name="ValsecchiEtAl2013">{{cite journal |last1=Valsecchi |first1=Verushka |last2=Chase |first2=Brian M. |last3=Slingsby |first3=Jasper A. |last4=Carr |first4=Andrew A. |last5=Quick |first5=Lynne J. |last6=Meadows |first6=Michael E. |last7=Cheddadi |first7=Rachid |last8=Reimer |first8=Paula J. |date=1 October 2013 |title=A high resolution 15,600-year pollen and microcharcoal record from the Cederberg Mountains, South Africa |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031018213003301 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |volume=387 |pages=6–16 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.07.009 |bibcode=2013PPP...387....6V |access-date=16 November 2022}}</ref>

Other than temperature variability, data from equatorial East Africa suggest impacts to the hydrologic cycle in the late 1700s. Historical data reconstructions from ten major African lakes indicate that an episode of *drought and desiccation" occurred throughout East Africa.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nicholson |first1=Sharon E. |last2=Yin |first2=Xungang |date=2001 |title=Rainfall Conditions in Equatorial East Africa during the Nineteenth Century as Inferred from the Record of Lake Victoria |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/a:1010736008362 |journal=[[Climatic Change (journal)|Climatic Change]] |volume=48 |issue=2/3 |pages=387–398 |doi=10.1023/a:1010736008362 |bibcode=2001ClCh...48..387N |issn=0165-0009 |s2cid=130327434 |access-date=9 September 2023}}</ref> The period showed drastic reductions in the depths of lakes, which were transformed into desiccated puddles. It is very likely that locals could cross Lake Chad, among others, and that bouts of "intense droughts were ubiquitous". That indicates local societies were probably launched into long migrations and warfare with neighboring tribes, since agriculture was made virtually useless by the dry soil.