Potato To Ireland example essay topic

Ireland in the 1500's was a very unstable country. The country's English rulers fought with the local Irish civilians and the Irish nobles. The Irish nobles also fought among themselves. The English landlords owned the land that the peasants lived and farmed on. As a result of this continual fighting, it was hard for the peasants to grow enough food to feed themselves.

The British passed laws to deny the Irish peasants freedom. They were forbidden to speak their own language, to practice their own religion, to own a horse worth more than ten dollars, to go to school, or to hold a public office. Potatoes were first introduced to Ireland around the 1600's. Some say that Sir Walter Raleigh, an English explorer brought the potato to Ireland to see if it would survive. Another belief is that the potato came to Ireland when some potatoes washed ashore from a Spanish Armada ship that had sunk off the coast of Ireland. The white potato is thought to have originated in the Andean Mountains.

The Spanish discovered it in northern Peru and brought it back to Europe. It was first considered poisonous by the Europeans because it was classified in the same family as the poisonous nightshade. Potato became popular and somewhat of a fashion statement after Marie Antoinette wore potato blossoms in her hair. Once the royalty learned of the potato's nutritional value they ordered the peasants to start to grow it. 1 A potato, also called a tuber, is an underground stem that is short, thick, and fleshy. Thepotato was such a good crop because it has nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrate, and vitamin C. It only lacked vitamin A and calcium.

If it was combined with milk than it would contain all of the elements required for a healthy diet. For nutrition in the mid 1800's a person would have to eat around six and a half pounds of potatoes. The potato was also good because when there were wars going on in Ireland, the soldiers would go and burn all of the farmer's crops. Since the potatoes were underground, they would not be affected by this and could still be dug up afterwards. Ireland's mild, cloudy, and damp climate allows root crops, such as the potato, to thrive and to be grown successfully in their peaty soil.

Many of the people who lived in Ireland at that time were farmers and did not own their own land. Most of them were poor and used subsistence farming. Potato's were also used as cash crops. They paid the rent for the house and the land.

The farmers had to give a share of the crops that they grew to their landlords. The little that was left over was what they used to feed their families. One and a half acres of land planted with potatoes could feed a whole family of six for a year, including pigs, cattle, and fowl. Planting, tending, and harvesting the potato's was very hard work.

The potato soon became the single major crop of Ireland. Almost ninety percent of the population was dependent on it. It was very dangerous, as we know now, to be dependent on one crop. If something happens to that one crop, there is nothing else to take its place. The Irish Potato Famine began in the fall of 1845.

It lasted until around the year 1849-1850. This was one of the greatest disasters of the nineteenth century. It became known as the Great 2 Hunger, or the Irish Potato Famine. The fungus first appeared in Maine which is in the United States. It spread across the country to the great plains of the Midwest.

One of the diseased potatoes crossed the Atlantic ocean by ship. This is how the fungus got to Europe. From there it spread to Germany, then Belgium, France, England, and finally Ireland in 1845. The cause of this famine is a disease called potato blight. Phytophthora infest ans is an airborne pathogen that spreads rapidly among crops. It began as a funny white growth on the leaves of the potato plant.

When the potato's were dug up they were small and wrinkled. Thepotato stalks turned black and the stench of rotting potatoes could be smelled for miles and miles away. The disease spread all throughout Ireland killing their main, or staple crop, potatoes. This was their chief source of food.

As food ran out some peasants ate the rotten potatoes. From this, entire villages became sick with typhus and cholera. Peasants were evicted by the hundreds and were forced to lived in disease infested workhouses. Even immigration to another country wasn't a good way out for the thousands who died. A famine is when there isn't enough food to go around. It takes place when thousands or even millions of people lack sufficient foods that they need to live.

The effect of the potato famine is where it makes people too weak to do anything. People get too weak to work, play, and to live. Famines can paralyze entire nations. All of the farmers went out of business because they had no other crop to grow. Many people lost their homes and didn't have enough money to buy food for their family. 3 The landlords were not making enough money because the people living on their land could not pay the rent.

There were two methods that the landlords used to take the people off of their land. One method was that the landlord would sue the male of the house for not paying the money to him. Then he would put the husband in jail and throw the wife and the children out into the streets. The second method was that the landlord would pay to send the families out of Ireland, into Canada or America. He promised them money, food, and clothing once they got to the other side. Then the family was packed into an overloaded ship with a bunch of other sick Irish people who had deadly diseases and who hadn't eaten in days.

Almost one third of the people on the ships died before they reached their destination. The conditions were very harsh. There was no sanitation and little water. They did not get to eat much on the ship, and it could take from forty days to three months to reach their destination. Most of them went to St. Lawrence River and were supposed to be treated with medical care.

The medical supplies and treatment were very limited. All this emigration rapidly changed Ireland's population, but also helped them love their native country and hate England. England did not do much to help the financial status of Ireland after the potato famine. England thought that the Irish people were too lazy and that if they just gave them food with out having to work for it, then they would just lay around and do nothing.

This was one of the main reasons that the Irish people blamed the British for the poor conditions in Ireland and for their own poverty. During this time nearly 1.5 million people died and over 1.5 million people left Ireland and came to North America or Australia. The 1850 New York City census showed that 25% of 4 its population had been born in Ireland. In just a few years, Ireland's population decreased from eight million to five million people. As famine, disease, and death moved across Ireland, the Catholic Church grew in numbers and influenced many people. Whenever people have to face death or are about to die, religion becomes a more important part of their life.

In the late 1870's another blight, but a different crop threatened the people of Ireland with another famine. The National Land League was formed so that the poor tenant farmers land could not be taken away, and they could not get thrown into the streets by the greedy landowners. The National Land League organized communities together. Together they had more power, they refused to sell goods or provide labor to landlords who were guilty of evicting or running the tenant farmers off their land. In 1881 the parliament passed the " Land Act of 1881". This act made sure that the tenant farmers paid fair rent, had protection from eviction (being thrown out), and had the right to sell his farm lease to another tenant farmer.

These dramatic changes were more important to the people in the south than the people in northern Ireland. The north used to depend widely on farming, but now they started to depend more on commercial businesses. Tenant farming was becoming less and less important. There are still other famines going on in this world today. Potatoes resistant to potato blight are being developed through genetic engineering, and some varieties of potatoes seem to have natural immunities. 5.