The Great Potato Famine Essay

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The Great Potato Famine was an event that drastically affected the lives of the Irish in a bad way. This paper covers the history of the potato, the migration of the potato blight to Ireland, land consolidation, and agriculture laws in Ireland. Also, the food exports in Ireland during the time of the famine, potato dependency, and the relationship between the Irish and the English at that time. Now let’s give you some background knowledge on the potato.
In the ancient ruins of Peru and Chile, archaeologists have found potato remains that date back to 500 B.C. The Incas grew, ate, and worshipped the potatoes. Also, the Incas would bury the potatoes with their dead. The Incan potatoes had purplish skins and yellow flesh. The Incas called them papas like some people still do today.
In 1565 the Spanish found the potato when they were in search for gold. A conquistador names Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada brought the potato back to Spain to compensate for the gold that he was unable to find. When the potatoes were seen, the Spanish thought that the potatoes were a kind of truffle and so they started calling them tartuffo. In 1589 Sir Walter Raleigh, a British explorer, first brought the potato to Ireland and planted them at his Irish estate in Myrtle Grove, Youghal, near Cork, Ireland. Now that you have the information on the potato, let’s get to the dependency of the potato at that time.
The Irish people greatly depended on the potato plant. It was their main crop that they grew. Also it was the main food source for a majority of the people. When the Phytophthera infestans attacked the potatoes it caused a great crisis. One of the crisis’s that the P. infestans caused was the potato blight. This led to the starvation of more than a mil...

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...ine month period in the year of 1847 where the Irish exported grain-derived alcohol to England. They exported 874,170 gallons of Porter, 278,658 gallons of Guinness, and 183,392 gallons of Whiskey. The total amount of grain-derived alcohol exported from Ireland was 1,336,220 gallons.
The Great Potato Famine was an event that drastically affected the lives of the Irish in a bad way. This paper has explained this to you. The potato has evolved and has come a long way it came from 500 B.C. and still exists today. Ireland has went through a rough time from dealing with a trying to get their independence and supporting the Irish people and the English people. This was all happening while the potato blight was happening causing the death of many people and the migration of many others. This was a bad time and now you know why it was a terrible time for the Irish people.

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