The Fall of the Potato: Causes of the Great Famine 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. There are several circumstances to take into consideration when looking at the causes of the Great Potato Famine in Ireland. Due to the great dependence the Irish people had on the potato, it is clear how blight could devastate a country and its people. To understand the Irish people's dependence on the potato for diet, income, and a way out of poverty, it is necessary to look at several key factors that were evident before the famine. Factors such farming as the only way of life, rise in population, and limited crops explain why the people of Ireland relied on the potato. But not only do these reasons clarify why the famine hit the Irish people so hard, other important factors play into effect as well. By looking at the weak relationship between England and Ireland through parliamentary acts and trade laws, it is more evident what the causes of the Great Famine are and why it was so detrimental. The relationship between Ireland and England played a major role in the causes of the Great Famine. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801 due to the Act of Union (Edwards & Williams 19). Under this act, Ireland was placed under "the jurisdiction of the richest and most industrially advanced empire in the world" (Kinealy 33). From this act, Ireland's parliament was abolished and became controlled by England through political leadership established throughout the Irish state. A... ... middle of paper ... ...remier. EBSCO. Roesch Library, Dayton, Ohio. 19 January 2004. http://library.udayton.edu/research/article/ - Edwards, R. Dudley and T. Desmond William. The Great Irish Famine: Studies in Irish History 1845-52. Dublin, Ireland: Browne & Dolan, Ltd., 1957. - Kinealy, Christine. “How Politics Fed the Famine”. Natural History 105 (1996): 33-3. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Roesch Library, Dayton, Ohio. 19 January 2004. http://library.udayton.edu/research/article/ - O Grada, Cormac. The Great Irish Famine. England: MacMillan, 1989. - O Tuathaigh, Gearoid, ed. Ireland before the Famine, 1798-1848. Dublin, Ireland: Gill & MacMillan, Ltd., 1972. - Poirteir, Cathal. The Great Irish Famine. Dublin, Ireland: Mercier Press, 1995. - Whelan, Kevin. “Pre and Post-Famine Landscape Change.” O Tuathaigh 19-34.
The analysis of the Irish economic problem, the Great Famine, was a remarkable topic to study by several classical authors such as, Thomas Malthus, John Stuart Mill, David Ricardo or William Senior. A contextualization skim of the economic characteristics of the country is required in order to know about their main ideas with respect to the topic, taking into account the aspects like the land property, the political power and the relation between Ireland and England.
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...
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.
The narrator in “Famine” by Xu XI was raised by her parents A-Ba and A-Ma in Hong Kong. Her Father made her quit school after her primary school was over which was the through the sixth grade. She was then forced to take care of her aging parents till they died in their mid-nineties. Her father was abusive and very controlling over everything in her life while her mom chose to do nothing about it. She was rarely aloud out with friends or to have much fun at all she never experienced much in life. She wanted to do something she really wanted to learn, but her father said no in order to continue her education to become an English teacher she went on several hunger strikes to rebel her father wants. Food seemed herd to come by in her house particularly, they were forced vegetarians by A-Ba’s decision, they ate very little and the food was also bland. A-Ba and A-ma were not very loving parents, they expected a lot out of their
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.
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 economy started to grow, and along with that, a new measure of political stability. (“Ireland – Becoming a Free State”) On December 14, 1955, the Republic joined the United Nations with the admission of other communist and noncommunist nations. (“Ireland – Becoming a Free State”) The Great Famine was destructive, and affected population, people, and the future of Ireland.
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.
The Irish Potato Famine killed many innocent Irish people. Its legacy left with deep and lasting feelings of bitterness and distrust toward the British. Far from being a natural disaster, many Irish people were convinced that the famine was a direct cause of British colonial policies. To support this, many have noted that during the famine's worst years, many Anglo-Irish estates continued to export grain and livestock to England.
Over the years, the people of Ireland have suffered many hardships, but none compare to the devastation brought by the Irish potato famine of 1845-1857. A poorly managed nation together with ideally wicked weather conditions brought Ireland to the brink of disaster. It was a combination of social, political and economic factors that pushed it over the edge.
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.
The actions of the British government during the potato blight constituted genocide against the Irish people. Over hundreds of years the British had looked down on their Irish neighbors as nothing more than barbarians. Even when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom the Irish were still seen as second class citizens, repressed by misrule and neglect. This neglect was mainly influenced by the british accepting a Laissez-faire, hands off, form of government for rule of Ireland which meant that the British took no part in the governing of Ireland. In the early 1840s a blight stuck much of Europe, destroying countless crops over the three successive years that the potato blight lasted; but the Irish were hit the hardest. The Irish suffered
The great famine of Ireland began around the year of 1845, when a deadly fungus reached the crops, leaving thousands of acres of land filled with black rot, and diseased crops (Szabo). This disease has become commonly known as the blight. The blight was a “mysterious disease” that “almost universally affected the potatoes on the island” (Kinealy 31). This suspicious “blight” had traveled to Europe from North America, affecting mostly Ireland (Bloy). The blight turned the potatoes black, making them deadly for people to eat. Problems with agriculture came to an all-time high during the famine (Foster 201), and the crop most affected by this blight was the potatoes. The cause of the potato disease was suspected to be due to many factors such as: frost, winds, moon, manure, or thunderstorms; however, the trouble was actually due to an unknown fungus (phytophthora infestans) which caused mould on the potatoes (Kee 78). The Irish had experienced blights before this, but did not cause famine; this was the first case of phytopthora infestans (Poirteir 9). The blight was a major cause of the great famine, however; many other factors attributed to the tragedy that would forever change the great country of Ireland. The geography and history of Ireland had left many of the people dependent for survival on cultivation, specifically reliant on one main crop (Kee 78). This was the potato. When the crop had been introduced to the country, the Irish loved it for numerous reasons. Their land was perfect for growing potatoes; the potatoes flourished in the rich, Irish soil. In addition, they were easy to prepare and cook, very nutritious, and extremely abundant. This caused the potato to be the “staple food” f...
The potato famine of 1845, lead to the death of many Irish people. In the novel it discusses the effects of poverty, in the article “Great Famine” it talks about famine and the exportation of goods. After digging into the poverty that was discussed in the book, the main reason behind why Ireland was dealing with the Poverty and Famine was due to the Blight and its ties with the British exporting.
McCann et al. Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994, 95-109).