Abstract
Solar activity has important effects on terrestrial environment in which human population lives. Long-term and short-term periodicities in solar activity had influence on secular climate changes, little ice ages and climatic optima.
The article summarizes briefly the results and methods of historical climatology. The text resumes the methods of research of the solar activity variation over the last 1 500 years, through physical methods as well as through preserved written sources.
The basic mechanisms of the effects of solar activity on terrestrial environment and human population are explained as well as the predictions of the upcoming solar activity. This may indicate that we are at the beginning of another long-term solar minimum.