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Joel Mokyr's Did The Great Famine

1373 Words6 Pages

The Great Famine of Ireland was caused by a disastrous potato disease and is one of the most famous famines in history. 33% of the Irish population depended on potatoes for nourishment, and the beginning of the disease outbreak in 1845 sparked incredible starvations lasting until 1853. The huge Catholic population was overthrown by British rule, and forced the Irish to no longer own land or possess employment. When the disease hit, ships owned by the British prohibited other nations from transporting food aid. Ireland forced an evacuation, with 2 million plus people escaping the country. To its result in 1853, approximately 1.5 million Irish were deceased. There is a prominent viewpoint as to why such a disease caused such a disastrous epidemic. …show more content…

After the defeat, a ruling Protestant class arrived out of Ireland and was authorized by inequitable laws approve to abolish Catholicism. These laws inhibited Catholics from engaging in politics and inheriting or purchasing land. These laws made it impossible for Catholics to own land. These now Protestant landowners would rent out smaller plots of land at high costs to Irish peasants who were troubled with growing sufficient food amounts for survival and paying the expensive rent per unit of land. The debut of the potato let poor Irishmen to access nutrients necessary for themselves and their livestock without much difficulty. The potato proved to be a very attainable crop whose nourishing effects were enough to increase the Irish population for a long time. Mokyr provides this information to show how the potato fits into the scene of dependency due to the disagreement between Ireland and England.
That is, before the population would be affected by a destructive fungus-like eukaryote growing on the potatoes (O'Neill 35). Ireland was hit the hardest in 1846 when deaths were officially documented as a result of starvation. This course had a disastrous encounter for people who were entirely dependent on the potato for food (Kennedy 68). In addition to starvation, the Irish people were evicted from their land due the inability to come up with rent payments. The English government did anything but address the problem for

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