The Potato Famine in Ireland

911 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on potato

In the mid-1800s Ireland heavily relied on the growth of the potato. The phytophthora infestans spread Ireland quickly infecting all of the potato crops. This paper will cover the many different parts of the potato famine. The potato, The person invented the potato, how much Irish people relied on the potato and many other interesting things, as well as the development of the potato. One of the main reasons of that caused the potato famine was that many people slept in one cabin sharing it with many f animals and sleeping on straw beds that are on the ground. That spread many diseases throughout Ireland. The people got incredibly sick from the P infestans and it would not go down without a fight
The history of the potato states to the plant and its edible tuber. The potato was first domesticated about 7,000 years ago in southern Peru and Bolivia. The potato developed to be one of the most eatable vegetables in many places in the word, including Ireland. (Smithsonian) During the eighteenth century the popularity of the potato went through the roof. The potato was easy to move because unlike wheat the potato is really durable and grows underground. The potato is used in many ways. It can be used to feed livestock and starch is used in plant research. The potato is high in carbohydrates and is known for its nutritional value. The top two potato producing countries in the world are China and India. China produces 23.3% of the world’s potatoes. Right behind it India produces 12.2%of the world’s potatoes.
The immigration of the potato blight was in the 1840’s. A firsted disease of potatoes was reported in Philadelphia in 1843. In 1845 the disease was reported to be in Canada and in the Northern United States. (Fry, Goodwin, Dyer, ...

... middle of paper ...

...net.org.
Museum, G. I. (n.d.). Irelands Great Hunger Museum. Retrieved jan. 15, 2014, from ighm.com: http://ighm.nfshost.com/exports-in-famine-times/
Musuem, I. G. (n.d.). Ireland's Great Hunger Musuem. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2014, from http://ighm.nfshost.com: http://ighm.nfshost.com/exports-in-famine-times/
Place, T. H. (n.d.). The History Place. Retrieved Jan. 15, 2014, from The History Place: http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/famine/begins.htm
Smithsonian. (n.d.). Historyof the potato. Retrieved Jan 15, 2014, from Smithsonian.com: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-potato-changed-the-world-108470605/
State, N. (n.d.). Irish Exports During the Famine. Retrieved Jan 15, 2014, from nde.com: NDE.state.ne.us./SS/irish
Witness, E. (n.d.). The potato Famine. Retrieved Jan 15, 2014, from the Potato famine: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/irishfamine.htm

Show More
Related

  • Ireland Starves and Lives to Tell: The Effects of the Great Potato Famine

    1583 Words  | 4 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Angela's Ashes Essay

    764 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frank McCourt’s reputable memoir embodies the great famine occurring in the 1930s of Limerick. During the twentieth century of Ireland, mass starvation, disease and emigration were the causes of numerous deaths. Likewise, food is in high demand in the McCourt family; practically, in every chapter the family is lacking essential meals and nutritious food. However, the McCourt family isn’t th...

    Read More

  • The Irish Famine 1845-1849

    3944 Words  | 8 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... n that after nearly seven hundred years of attempted domination, the British oppression of the Irish had deprived them of all but the bare necessities of survival, and caused such destitution that when the potato famine struck, the poor could not avoid the worst privations, given the social and political conditions controlling their lives. The British government’s ineffectual attempts at relieving the situation played a major role in worsening the situation; they allowed prejudice and State and individual self-interest, economic and religious dogma to subjugate even the least consideration for humanity. Ultimately British politicians bear considerable blame because they were not prepared to allocate what was needed to head off mass starvation, and they as the parent government did nothing to protect its subject people.

    Read More

  • Irish Immigration To Canada

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Irish Immigration in the 1840's: Escaping the Great Famine

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    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)

    Read More

  • The Fall of the Potato: Causes of the Great Famine

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    - Edwards, R. Dudley and T. Desmond William. The Great Irish Famine: Studies in Irish

    Read More

  • British Irish Relations over the past 300 years

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Essay On The Whig Party

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Causes Of The Great Potato Famine

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...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).

    Read More

  • Causes of the Easter Uprising

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Essay On Potato Famine

    1158 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Irish Immigration 18001880

    2146 Words  | 5 Pages

    INTRODUCTION The history of Ireland "that most distressful nation" is full of drama and tragedy, but one of the most interesting stories is about what happened to the Irish during the mid-nineteenth century and how millions of Irish came to live in America (Purcell 31). Although the high point of the story was the years of the devastating potato famine from 1845 to 1848, historians have pointed out that immigrating from Ireland was becoming more popular before the famine and continued until the turn of the twentieth century. In the one hundred years between the first recording of immigrants in

    Read More

  • Causes Of The Potato Famine

    1066 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How Have Potatoes Changed Over Time

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Great Potato Famine

    1658 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about The Potato Famine in Ireland

Open Document