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great irish famine
the great irish potato famine of 1845
the effects of th great irish potato famine
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During 1845-1846 events in Ireland would change the lives of many. The Great Potato Famine was a major incident that shocked the entire world. This incident was cause by a disease that traveled from ships overseas. The Great Potato Famine affected one of the biggest crops at the time, which was the potato. Many people got sick from this disease otherwise known as, Phytophthora Infestins. Phytophthora Infestins killed about 1 million people in Ireland.
In the ruins of ancient Peru and Chili, the remains of potatoes dating back to 500 B.C. have been found. Potatoes were such a part of Incan life that they not only ate them, but they worshiped them. "O Creator! Thou who givest life to all things and hast made men that they may live, and multiply. Multiply also the fruits of the earth, the potatoes and other food that thou hast made, that men may not suffer from hunger and misery."- Incan Prayer used to worship potatoes.
Due to the relative ease of growing the potato it became the major staple in the diet of the people in Ireland. An Irish legend wrecked of the Irish coast in 1558, were carrying potatoes and some of them washed ashore (Stradley, 2004). The potato was cultivated by the Inca Indians from Peru in about 8,000 B.C. to 5,000 B.C. (Potatoes Goodness Unearthed, 2014). It is believed that the potato arrived in Northern Europe because of Spanish exploration (Mann, 2011). Forty percent of the Irish ate no solid food other than potatoes. In fact, according to Cecil Woodham-Smith, "That cooking any food other than a potato had become a lost art. Women hardly boiled anything but potatoes. The oven had become unknown after the introduction of the potato prior to the Great Starvation." Small land holders could grow potatoes easily ...
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...sh potato famine lasted for several years, resulting a reduction of land holdings for small farmers and nearly a million Irish dead. Those farmers who survived the Phytophthora Infestins were able to buy land back from the land lords under the Encumbered Act of 1849 (Johnston). A non-violent peasant revolution occurred as the number of farms over 15 acres increased from 19 percent from 1841 to 51 percent in 1851 (Johnston).
In conclusion, this potato affecting disease, Phytophthora Infestins, resulted in killing over a million people in Ireland. In the time, the Irish relied heavily upon the potato crop. This devastating even greatly impacted the people through starvation, migration, and loss of land. The climatic change led to the end of the Phytophthora Infestins affecting the potato crop. The future generation diversified their food sources as a valuable lesson.
“It must be understood that we cannot feed the people” (Kinealy Calamity 75). The mid 1800s in Ireland were characterized by extreme poverty, death, and emigration. The Great Potato Famine, also known as “The Great Hunger,” first hit in 1845; however, its effects lasted into the 1850s and can still be seen today. Prior to the famine, Irish manufacture and trade was controlled and suppressed by British government, which made Ireland an extremely poor country. Farmers in Ireland were forced to export crops such as corn, wheat, and oats to Britain, which left the potato as the main dietary staple for the people, especially the poor. Therefore, when the fungus Phytophthora infestans caused some, and eventually all, of the crop to rot over the next couple of years, the reliance on the one crop made the people of Ireland extremely susceptible to the famine. The effects were devastating, and poverty spread across the nation causing a huge increase in homelessness, the death-rate, emigration, and a change in the Irish people and country overall.
In Ireland, at the time, there was only one strain of potatoes being grown. At the time, citizens of Ireland were mainly eating potatoes and drinking milk. These two menu items provided them with all the necessary nutrients required for a healthy diet(History Magazine). The Irish were only growing one strain of potatoes at the time. When a fungus came through Ireland that only affected that strain of potatoes, it wiped out the entire potato population in Ireland, causing a famine to occur. This famine killed one million people and caused two million to move out of Ireland in a quest to find food. Potatoes killed one million people, or should I say the lack of potatoes killed one million people. This famine became one of the deadliest famines in history. After the potatoes were wiped out, the Irish started growing more than one strain of potatoes in order to ensure that another famine similar to the Irish Potato Famine of 1845 could not happen again. The Irish Potato Famine led to the Industrial Revolution(Ted Talks). When 2 million people were forced out of Ireland while the famine was going on, they moved to European countries. This boost in population aided the Industrial Revolution because now there were enough people to sustain the positions needed to run factories. We do not know where the world would be if the famine had not happened, but it definitely would not be in the same place it is
The Irish began immigrating to North America in the 1820s, when the lack of jobs and poverty forced them to seek better opportunities elsewhere after the end of the major European wars. When the Europeans could finally stop depending on the Irish for food during war, the investment in Irish agricultural products reduced and the boom was over. After an economic boom, there comes a bust and unemployment was the result. Two-thirds of the people of Ireland depended on potato harvests as a main source of income and, more importantly, food. Then between the years of 1845 and 1847, a terrible disease struck the potato crops. The plague left acre after acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot. The failure of the potato yields caused the prices of food to rise rapidly. With no income coming from potato harvests, families dependent on potato crops could not afford to pay rent to their dominantly British and Protestant landlords and were evicted only to be crowded into disease-infested workhouses. Peasants who were desperate for food found themselves eating the rotten potatoes only to develop and spread horrible diseases. ¡§Entire villages were quickly homeless, starving, and diagnosed with either cholera or typhus.¡¨(Interpreting¡K,online) The lack of food and increased incidents of death forced incredible numbers of people to leave Ireland for some place which offered more suitable living conditions. Some landlords paid for the emigration of their tenants because it made more economic sense to rid farms of residents who were not paying their rent. Nevertheless, emigration did not prove to be an antidote for the Famine. The ships were overcrowded and by the time they reached their destination, approximately one third of its passengers had been lost to disease, hunger and other complications. However, many passengers did survive the journey and, as a result, approximately ¡§1.5 million Irish people immigrated to North America during the 1840¡¦s and 1850¡¦s.¡¨(Bladley, online) As a consequence of famine, disease (starvation and disease took as many as one million lives) and emigration, ¡§Ireland¡¦s population dropped from 8 million to 5 million over a matter of years.¡¨(Bladley, online) Although Britain came to the aid of the starving, many Irish blamed Britain for their delayed response and for centuries of political hardship as basi...
Looking for a better life away from death, oppression, and destruction the Irish headed to America by the thousands in the 1840’s. Ireland’s staple food was the potato, it was the main means of subsistence for the poor. Then in the 1840’s cataclysm struck, the potato blight caused famine, disease, death and despair. Close to a million deaths were blamed on the potato blight in Ireland. The potato blight was caused by a disease that rendered the potatoes inedible. It lasted for several years, from 1845-1849 the country suffered great hardships, sickness, and death. The blight was the final straw to push many immigrants out of Ireland and to America looking for a chance of survival (Marger, 2015, pg. 284)
Phythophthora infestans was the lethal fungus that infested Ireland's potato crop and eventually ruined all of the land it grew on. This time is called the Great Famine and has impacted Ireland due to its destructive extinction of the potato farms which caused disease, extreme poverty, and death.
In the mid 1800s the course of Irish history was changed forever. The Irish were devastated by The Great Potato Famine of the mid to late 1800s. Population declined from over eight million people in 1840 to under 4.5 million in 1900 due to death and immigration (O’Rourke 2). The poorer Irish people, unlike many British citizens, relied almost entirely on agriculture. The Irish immigration not only affected Ireland and Britain, but its affects were felt over much of the world, including the United States. The famine had a significant effect on the future of Irish history including Home Rule legislation, The Easter Uprising of 1916, and the eventual creation of an Irish free state in the early twentieth century.
...ber in order to assess the damage that the potato crop failure had had. A challenge soon presented itself in the form of differing assessment reports so it was not clear exactly how much damage had been done. A detailed report from an agriculturist however estimated the loss of the potato crop to be between one third and one half of the potatoes that were originally thought to be free from the fungus. More charitable relief works were being set up in order to care for the now starving people. Local clergy began to devise means for the labourers to receive his provisions at a cheaper rate and to find a way of bringing food into the country in order to prevent further starvation. Following a damp Spring and Summer the complete potato crop failure occurred in 1846 and from this began a series of potato crop failures that resulted in the decade long famine in Ireland.
The potato famine in Ireland from 1845-1852 sent thousands of poor farmers to America in hope of finding jobs. The Irish were overly dependent on the potato for a means of income, so when it faltered, so did their source of income. In America, the Irish worked in factories with
During the mid 1840’s, blight in the potato crops in Ireland caused widespread starvation and migration of Irish citizens to the United States. Yet, the massive loss of life and massive exodus could have been avoided if British taxation upon the working class of Ireland was nullified. Though the struggle for liberation was already taking place, the potato famine furthered the cause and helped spread awareness. Furthermore, the potato famine made the average Irish family more reliant upon the government for subsidies and supports to get by.
With 3 million either gone or dead from the island of Ireland, 1845 was possibly the most painful year in its history. It was also obvious that something was afflicting Ireland, with the smell and sight of the crops. Death rate grew high, and immigration even higher during this time period of the famine. The Great Potato Famine of 1845 had a massive effect on Ireland in population decrease, the reactions of the people, and effects it had on the future of Ireland.
Beginning in 1845 and lasting until 1861 the Great Potato Famine of Ireland killed over a million people, and causing another million to leave the country. The famine began in September 1845 as leaves on potatoes suddenly turned black and curled, then rotted. The cause was an airborne fungus (phytophthora infestants) originally transported by ships traveling from North America to England. Many other factors contributed to this devastation.
The blight caused a catastrophic effect on the Irish peasantry. The blight is a combination of parasitic fungus and bird droppings imported as fertilizer (Kelley 136). Furthermore, the farmers did not know what a problem this fertilizer would cause, which ended up ruining all of the Irish crops. The parasitic fungus, also known as phytophthora, is a destructive spreading fungus causing a brownish rot in plants. In addition, the blight first infected Irish potato crops in September of 1845 (Kelley 136). The blight caused the potato to rot in the ground, making it inedible (Kinealy, The Great Irish Famine 34). In addition, spreading the fertilizer all over the land not only ruined the crop, but the crop field as well. Consequently, the crop fields were in no condition to produce new crops for many years because the land was ruined. There were “recurrent infestations of the blight, which led to the failure of the potato crop in three seasons out of four” (Kelley 136). The blight traveled to Ireland from North America and Cont...
“It began with a blight of the potato crop that left acre upon acre of Irish farmland covered with black rot.”(The Irish Famine, 1) This of course is in reference to the Irish Famine. The Irish Famine was another cause of the tensions in Ireland. As crops across Ireland failed, the price of food soared. This made it impossible for Irish farmers to sell there goods, the good which the farmers relied upon to pay their rent to their English and Protestant landlords.
...atoes, corns, and peppers, were introduced into the Old Word; while coffee, oranges, banana and sugar cane were introduced into the Americas. Potato was one of the most important crops in the World that was introduced into the Old world. As a substitute for wheat, potatoes provided billions of people food to survive worldwide. However, diseases also rose among potato plants and destroyed millions of plants and caused famine which killed millions of people. The origin of potatoes was first found to be domesticated by South America Andes and learned by Europeans, and then it was spread into Africa, Asian and at last North America. Potatoes also caused political, social and economic issues from its production, such as late blight, the Great Famine, and increase in Chinese population; these issues had brought some serious consequences that even lasted until modern days.
The Great Potato Famine was a huge disaster that would change Ireland forever. The people in Ireland were extremely dependent on potatoes and when the blight came the economy went down. When the fungus attacked the potato crops slowly crop by crop throughout Ireland, people began to lose their main source of food. With the people in Ireland’s huge dependency on the potato, people began to starve or get sick from the potatoes. No one had any food to eat. The potatoes were black inside with molds through out it that came from the fungus from something in nature. The weather that brought the blight also was one of the causes because they could not control how the weather was bringing the fungus. Ireland was under the British government and did not help Ireland when they needed Britain. The aftermath of the Great Famine was not only a huge drop in population, but emigration, and much more.