10 Hardest Years to Survive In History

10 Hardest Years to Survive in History

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the deadliest years in human history.

#10: 1520

The sixteenth century was a time of major upheaval for the indigenous people of the Americas, as European colonizers began flooding into their lands. And as anyone who took eighth grade history knows, the deadliest things the invaders brought with them weren’t their weapons, but their diseases. Smallpox arrived in what is now Mexico in 1519, and it ravaged the population. From 1519 to 1520 alone, it killed between 5 and 8 million people. The virus spread rapidly across Central and South America, wiping out entire families and villages. Aztec Emperor Cuitláhuac died from the disease after just 80 days on the throne. The devastation smallpox caused to Native North and South Americans is incalculable.

#9: 1783

The eruption of the Laki volcano in Iceland on June 8 has been called one of the most devastating environmental disasters in European history. It spewed lava over 4,000 feet into the air and continued for months. But the lava wasn’t the biggest problem. The volcano dumped hundreds of millions of tons of poisonous gasses into the air, including sulfur dioxide and fluorine. This went on for eight months. The smoke and toxins spread all over the globe, causing extreme weather events and poisoning land and crops. It killed millions of horses, sheep, and cows and caused widespread famine. Around a quarter of Iceland’s population died, and the effects were felt as far away as Africa, India, Japan, and the Americas.

#8: 1929

The Wall Street crash in October 1929 kicked off the Great Depression, one of the most devastating times in U.S. history. Unemployment and homelessness skyrocketed, and even those who kept their jobs had their wages slashed. Over the following years, thousands of banks closed their doors, and hunger and malnutrition affected millions of people. It’s difficult to estimate how many died as a result. On top of that, the number of people who took their own lives jumped by more than 20%. This major economic downturn affected Europe too. Germans turned to the Nazi party for relief, while in the Soviet Union, Stalin’s agricultural policies caused a major famine. It was a tough time to be alive anywhere in the West.

#7: 2020

We don’t blame you if you’re trying to block this year from your memory. The World Health Organization estimates that the COVID-19 pandemic killed more than 3 million people in 2020 alone. It also caused a massive global recession and forced millions of people out of work. Amidst all of that suffering, you might have forgotten that 2020 was also a catastrophic year for the climate. Huge wildfires raged across Australia and the western U.S., and major tropical storms impacted much of North America. For many, 2020 was the worst year in living memory

#6: 1600

The Huaynaputina volcano erupted in southern Peru on February 19 of this year. Unlike the eruption of the Laki volcano, this one lasted less than 24 hours, but the effects were devastating. The explosions launched around 30 cubic kilometers of rocks into the air, and at least 11 villages nearby were buried almost instantly, killing over a thousand people. Even more died from the earthquakes and floods that followed. Tons of ash and smoke were dumped into the atmosphere, reducing the amount of solar energy that could reach the ground. Over the next two years, countries around the world experienced record low temperatures, and many crops failed. It’s believed to be the largest volcanic eruption in the recorded history of South America.

#5: 1945

The final year of World War II was one of the deadliest. As the Allies gained ground in Europe, the Nazis began evacuating prisoners. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and Soviet and Polish civilians died on these death marches and in concentration camps during this time. The U.S. continued its assault on Japan, and a single firebombing of Tokyo in March killed around 100,000 people. In August, Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing somewhere between 150,000 and 250,000 more people. The death toll of 1945 is rivaled only by 1943. That year saw some of the bloodiest conflicts, as well as a famine in British India that killed between 1 and 4 million people.

#4: 1816

On the island of Sumbawa in what’s now Indonesia, a volcano called Mount Tambora began erupting in 1815. The most violent volcanic eruption in recorded history, it spewed up to 45 cubic kilometers of rock and ash into the atmosphere. Several smaller eruptions had occurred over the previous eight years in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean. The effects of all of these combined to trigger a volcanic winter. 1816 was widely known as the Year Without a Summer. The extreme cold caused flooding in some parts of the world and droughts in others, and people in the U.S. reported ice and frost in July and August. This wild weather resulted in widespread crop failure and starvation across Europe, the Americas, and parts of Asia.

#3: 1918

When a global pandemic breaks out during a world war, you have a recipe for massive human casualties. The Spanish flu didn’t actually originate in Spain – the first known case was recorded in the U.S. in March 1918. Over the next two years, it would infect nearly one out of every three people on Earth, and kill somewhere between 17 and 50 million. World War I also killed around 17 million soldiers and civilians, and the devastation it wrought made the pandemic even worse. Stressful living conditions, poor sanitation, and the mass movement of people created a breeding ground for other diseases too, like the epidemic of encephalitis lethargica that killed another half million people.

#2: 1348

The plague virus had been around a long time before it reached Europe in 1347. When it did, it spread like wildfire, causing the horrific pandemic that came to be known as the Black Death. Between October 1347 and June 1348, it moved from Sicily, across northern Europe and into England. It also hit northern Africa and the Middle East. Without treatment, 80% of people infected with the bubonic plague die, and it’s not a pleasant way to go. It’s hard to know for sure how many people it killed, but historians estimate that up to 50 million people succumbed to the disease. That includes between a third and half of the entire population of Europe and a third of the Middle East.

#1: 536

Volcanic winter is no joke. It’s the reason historian Michael McCormick called 536 “the worst year to be alive.” We still don’t know what caused this period of global cooling, but evidence points to a major eruption in Iceland that carried smoke and ash across Europe, the Middle East, and into Asia. Scholars of the time wrote of a strange fog that dimmed the sun for more than a year. Crops failed, causing an unparalleled global famine. To make matters worse, an outbreak of the plague started in 541 and spread across Europe and the Middle East. In some cities, it killed up to 5,000 people per day. Whether you were rich or poor, the mid-6th century was an incredibly difficult time to survive.

Which of these years do you think would be the worst to live through? Let us know in the comments.