All Activities
History

Climate and History

Overview

Students explore how shifts in climate have driven major historical events, from civilisation collapse to mass migration.

Learning Objective
Students understand how climate change throughout history has affected human societies and contributed to the rise and fall of civilisations.

Resources needed

  • None

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Ask: can you think of a historical event that might have been influenced by weather or climate?
  2. 2 Introduce: historians increasingly recognise that climate has shaped human history profoundly.
  3. 3 Give examples: the Little Ice Age in Europe, drought contributing to the fall of the Maya, the Dust Bowl in America.
  4. 4 Ask: how does climate affect food supply? How does food supply affect everything else?
  5. 5 Discuss: is climate deterministic — does it force certain outcomes — or do human choices still matter?
  6. 6 Ask: how is contemporary climate change similar to and different from historical climate events?
  7. 7 Discuss: what does history tell us about how societies can or cannot adapt to climate change?

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Focus on one case study: the collapse of Bronze Age civilisations around 1200 BCE.
  • Trace how one climate event triggered a chain of historical consequences.
  • Debate: how much of history is driven by environment versus human agency?
More information

Teach: climate, drought, famine, adapt, collapse, Little Ice Age, determinism, agency. The food chain — climate affects crops, crops affect people — is the central mechanism.

Focus on one clear and dramatic example rather than multiple global cases.

Can students explain how one historical climate event contributed to a significant human event? Can they evaluate whether climate determines outcomes or humans retain choices?

Entirely discussion-based. No resources needed.

Students think climate change is purely a modern concern. Establishing that climate has shaped human history throughout builds essential context.

Climate history connects history to science and geography and provides essential context for understanding contemporary climate change as both a scientific and a historical phenomenon.

Activity details
Secondary Medium 25 minutes no prep Small Group, Whole Class Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Climate History Environmental Factors Historical Change