Complex sentence: Several ruinous civil wars in the late 1600s had squandered the country's human and other resources; the 1690s also saw several years of wide-scale crop failure, which brought famine.
Split into simpler sentences: Several ruinous civil wars in the late 1600s had squandered the country's human and other resources. The 1690s also saw several years of wide-scale crop failure, which brought famine.