Although sediment accumulation occurs in all ports to some degree, it was more common in older times. This caused severe problems in ancient times, which often proved insurmountable. It also affected the lives of original fishermen and commercial enclaves. Alvaro Aragon (geographer and historian) states this. He also highlights the role that climate changes in the past have played in this process, such the “little Ice Age”, which cools the earth from 1550 to 1800.
“Its effects affected the tides, sedimentation, and clogged many estuaries, or reduced their depth. This caused maritime traffic to be affected to the point where this excess of sand forced establishment of a hierarchy at a European-level port hierarchy,” Explain. Bilbao was the Cantabrian coast’s most unemployed. It was the “most buoyant economically” and became the main port for exporting wool from the peninsula.
The climate change of these centuries had a profound impact on the lives of many people living near the coast. Because even fishing has changed. He explains that the whales moved more towards Norway, and ships had to sail there. However, sea bream catches increased and that led to a flourishing specialty in the Cantabrian Sea for preservation in pickle. This was later sold in Castile.
Galicia was one example. The sharp drop in sardines led to many ports being forced into bankruptcy. It also had an impact on the interior, where it favored the substitution for American corn with millet and barley. American corn was a crop that was used as ornamental plant and given to cattle until then.
These changes didn’t happen overnight. Instead, they were gradual over time, over years and generations. Many people tried to diversify their business activities at an economic level. He reels: “The sailor had sometimes a farm, orchards, cattle, and the carpenter made everything, from furniture to boats, and other people decided to go to the Americas.”
The mentality was also able to adapt to these situations. Alvaro Aragon explains that “as they didn’t know they were suffering from climate change in those days, something we now know centuries later, they blamed divine providence and lived it naturally.” Each area is unique and each has its own distinct way of life. In the northern region, they prayed for good harvests and “just enough” rain. Meanwhile, in Levante, where they were fed up with droughts they prayed for rain.