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The potato famine in ireland government intervention
The effects of the Irish Potato Famine
The potato famine in ireland government intervention
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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.
Britain played a huge role in the potato famine, not so much in finding a cure for the potatoes but trying to help the Irish from starvation. Some people have argued that the British deliberately let the Irish starve to death, but others argue that they were unaware of the situation at hand. After the Napoleonic War ended Britain set “corn laws” to keep agriculture a healthy business. These laws set high tariffs on imported foods. (Stork) These laws were good and bad for Ireland, because they were able to sell their crops for a good amount of money, but it distracted them from the industrial side of things that would’ve given jobs to the poor during the famine. (Stork) Once Sir Robert Peel received the information about the hunger, he sent 100,000 pounds of Indian Corn to America, which was cheap enough to not effect Britain’s economy, but fed the Irish. The problem never was supply as much as demand, because most Irish had no corn to sell which left them with no money to buy the corn or other food imported. Once Prime minister Lord John Russell was elected, who was a conservative who believed that things should be left and nature will do its thing. He immediately stopped the importing of cheap corn and other grains (the only thing most Irish could afford) which left many families with no food...
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...o Ireland, but this only hurt them worse. Potatoes are very nutritious, and the transition of corn which lacked the nutrients caused scurvy. But in the end the British assumed if they just kept buying from the Irish they would pay their rents and buy some of their food from Britain. (History)
In my opinion Britain had all the opportunities to help the Irish but were to proud and cared to much about its own economy and the well being of themselves. If i were an official at the time and I knew I could have done more to help I would've carried all of those deaths on my back for the rest of my life! Eventually Ireland rebuilt and is now starting to strive. In this report I learned a lot of things I never knew or would never know throughout my life. It gives you a thankfulness for being in a place were foods always been on the table and a roofs been over my head.
While Maize thrived among Mediterranean countries, potatoes were met with prejudice do to its ugly appearance but eventually became a staple of Ireland, who used the calories to provide wheat for England. New crops increased output pin the same area of land, allowing England to have plenty of food, land, and export enough to begin industrialization. Coal further increased production in Britain, allowing it ti collect large enough profits in industrial goods to import foods, freeing up
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.
The Success of the British Government in Trying to Deal with the Irish Troubles in the Years Since 1972
By the 1900s the high levels of poverty, eviction and enforced emigration had disappeared for the great Irish majority. Even though post Famine Ireland saw the continuation of small farms, the way Irish farmers saw agriculture changed. There was a great fall in the acreage devoted to potato cultivation from 2.1 million acres (1840s) to 587,000 acres (1908) . Instead of cultivating potatoes, pasture farming became more capital and by the end of the century Ireland saw twice as many dry cattle and sheep than 50 years prior to the famine . Additionally, between 1854-6 the Crimean War gave a temporary stimulus to the demand for grain.
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...
- Edwards, R. Dudley and T. Desmond William. The Great Irish Famine: Studies in Irish
As crops across Ireland failed, the price of food soared. This made it impossible for Irish farmers to sell their goods, the good which the farmers relied upon to pay their rent to their English and Protestant landlords. These people were thrown into the streets with no money and nothing to eat.
Ireland is a beautiful country in Europe, about the size of Maine. Today, Ireland is mostly populated with middle-class families. Irish is famous for its potatoes, but in 1845 a disease attacked the potato crops. The potatoes were what most of the Irish families lived on. They ate and sold potatoes in order to make a living, so when the potatoes stopped growing, people ran out of money. This is known as "The Great Potato Famine". It was so bad; people were actually starving to death. Two million people died. There was almost no help from the British government. Often people rebelled against the government, angered by its carelessness. Many people didn't want to leave their beloved country, afraid of change. With no food to eat, emigration seemed to be the only solution for most of the population. People often talked about "streets paved with gold" in a country called America. There was said to be many job opportunities in this new country. America seemed like the best choice to settle down and finally start a new life.
...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).
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.
The Great Potato Famine was a problem that did not only cause starvation and disease but a drop in the economy. Known as the greatest epidemic of the 19th century the Potato Famine will have forever made an impact on Ireland. The Irish were damned from the start with little to no assistance from England with the exception of what they could get for themselves. With laws restricting the grain trade and no regulation on other goods Ireland had no fighting chance to make a turn around. With England living off of the principle “Irish property must pay for Irish poverty” Ireland was in need of outside assistance and that is exactly what many countries came to do.
Less children were born. Despite the major population decrease, Great Britain did not actually do a thing to help the Irish.... ... middle of paper ... ...(“Ireland – Becoming a Free State”)Now the Republic was formally free of allegiance to the Crown, and a decline in anti-British feelings.
In order to gain natural resources from the colonies, the imperial powers forced the colonized people to grow certain crops that are specifically grown to be sold which is why they are named “cash” crops. These include plants like tea, indigo, cotton, coffee, jute, and other crops that are not food. However, this increased production cash crops took the place of food crops, which led to food shortages. Additionally, to increase their gains, the imperial powers forced the colonized people to sell these crops at extremely low prices. Because of this, the colonized people grew less food but did not earn enough money selling cash crops to buy the food they needed. This situation led to widespread hunger and famines, which led to many of the colonized people dying of starvation. For example, the Indian people were forced by the British to convert to growing cash crops instead of food crops. This caused increased famines in the late 1800s. (p. 358). From 1876 to 1900, there were 18 famines and an estimated 15 million deaths from starvation in India. (Historical Investigation-The Development of Nationalism in India Worksheet). In this case, one can see that producing the cash crops instead of cash crops was directly linked to food shortages throughout India as well as a loss of self-sufficiency. This shows how the wants of the imperial power
From the time of their creation in 1919, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) has always been a fighting force behind the independence of Britain for all of Ireland. The IRA was an organization that was meant to help Ireland in their fight for independence and be the military support going into the future. Nevertheless, did the creation of the IRA really help Ireland in the end, or did it cause more problems than the Irish already had? Although the IRA was created to help aid Ireland in the fight for independence, their brutal tactics and their inability to compromise ultimately led to destruction and problems rather than peace for Ireland. Early on in the Irish kingdom, it was clear that Great Britain wanted to own Ireland.
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