Why did the Irish Famine occur? Historical background of the outbreak of the Irish Famine

The Great Irish Famine, commonly known as the potato famine, was a famine that occurred between 1845 and 1850. In the five years between 1845 and 1850, the population of British-ruled Ireland was decimated by nearly a quarter; this number included, in addition to those who died of starvation and disease, about a million Irish people who emigrated as a result of the famine.

A major factor in the famine was the loss of potato harvests due to potato rot caused by an oomycete called Phytophthora infestans. The potato was the main source of food for the Irish at the time, and this disaster, coupled with a wide range of social and economic factors, resulted in a widespread loss of harvests that severely impacted the livelihoods of poor farmers. Famine on Ireland's social, cultural, demographic have far-reaching impact, very many historians to Ireland's history is divided into two parts of the pre-famine, after the famine. In Ireland during the potato famine Great Britain still imported a lot of food from the Americas, some of them even through the Irish port transit; but the hungry Irish can not afford to buy these foods, the British *** to provide assistance is also very scarce, and ultimately resulted in a high proportion of the Irish died of starvation.

Potatoes were the only crop on which the Irish depended in the 19th century, and the British, as landowners, were only concerned with the export of grain and livestock. Natural disasters as well as political repression forced people to rise up, but ultimately failed. The tragic deaths of more than a million Irish by famine galvanized the Irish national consciousness, and under its guidance, the Irish Free State was established in 1922.

Causes of the famine

The main factor in the famine was the late blight of potatoes caused by an oomycete called Phytophthora infestans. The potato was the main source of food for the Irish at the time, and a combination of very many social and economic factors led to widespread crop failures that hit the livelihoods of poor farmers hard. The famine had a profound impact on Irish society, culture and population, and many historians have divided Irish history into two parts: pre-famine and post-famine.

Predatory rule

Poverty resulting from Britain's colonial policy of total plunder of Ireland was a deep-rooted cause of the crisis.

The prosperity of the British Empire grew out of the expansion and plunder of its colonies. Ireland, as its first overseas colony, was the first to be targeted for plunder due to its geopolitical ties. Since the middle of the 17th century, Ireland's land was almost entirely occupied by British landlords, and most of the large landowners resided in England and were only concerned with the export of grain and livestock, so most of Ireland's agricultural income was therefore exported abroad. As a result of the serious annexation of land in Ireland, most Irish peasants became tenant farmers of the English landed aristocracy. And the land area they were given was so small that the only way to feed their families was to grow potatoes.

Plus, since the union, Ireland's thriving industrial and commercial sector has been hit by the free import of British industrial goods manufactured under more favorable economic conditions. As a result, the Irish people lived almost entirely off the land, with no outlet for industry, and the brutal colonial depredations created extreme poverty among the peasantry and made more than half of Ireland dependent on potatoes. This over-dependence on a single crop, as well as the poor, who were not the center of attention of society, became the hidden danger of the outbreak of the Great Famine in Ireland.

Poor relief

The British *** relief effort was poor and slow. Britain was at its peak during the Victorian era, and had completed the Industrial Revolution and was recognized as the world's factory. Britain led the world in colonization, political system and economic development, and was a huge colonial empire with nearly a quarter of the earth's land mass and nearly a quarter of its population. Britain was a symbol of the prosperity, development and civilization of that era, and its national power was among the best in the world. Even four years before the Great Famine, Britain had gone to great lengths to open the door to China by sending warships from India to wage the Opium War.

At this time, Britain was in the process of organizing the first World Expo in the history of mankind.

However, in the face of the unprecedented famine in Ireland, but indifferent to the spread of the disaster and the Irish people to throw bodies everywhere. Even later, when the disaster was critical, when the first food ship reached Ireland, the delivery of relief corn was inedible (original source: inedible), even if the inedible corn, the application also requires an extremely complex program. Even the British *** blocked spontaneous humanitarian relief.

According to a January 2012 report in Turkey's Today's Zaman, then-Ottoman sultan Sultan Abdülmecid I announced that he would donate 10,000 pounds to the starving people of Ireland. However, Queen Victoria asked the Sultan to donate just ￡1,000, as the Queen herself was only donating ￡2,000. So the Sultan donated ￡1,000 and then "quietly" sent three shipments of food to Ireland to help the starving people. In addition, in 1847, the American Indian Choctaw tribe (Choctaw) also raised $ 710 to donate to the Irish famine.

Selfish Acts

Britain, out of self-interest, repealed the Grain Act in 1846 during the Great Famine, destroying the right of Ireland to freely import grain into Britain, and depriving Irish wheat of its monopoly in the British market, which in turn undermined the Irish agricultural economy. British landowners in Ireland, since the repeal of the Grain Act, ignoring the famine in Ireland, most of them changed from wheat cultivation to animal husbandry. The ability to resist the famine was greatly diminished, thus increasing the development of the famine considerably.

Making hay while the sun shines

During the worst years of the famine, Ireland still exported grain to mainland Britain. And Ireland was a net exporter of food throughout the famine. This inhumane practice of taking advantage of the fire and pulling the rug out from under the Irish people made this natural disaster rapidly turn into a human catastrophe. And the famine of 1782-1783, when Ireland *** closed its ports, all the food prices fell dramatically to save themselves.

Historical Background

In the early 19th century, visitors traveling through Ireland were horrified to discover how poor it was. The living conditions of the rural population were at the bottom of the European scale. This backwardness was sometimes blamed on religion, sometimes on the turbulent political situation, population explosion or lack of daring, while the more sympathetic thought that it was caused by the tyranny of the landlords and the poor management of the British ***.

The Irish are the descendants of the ancient Celts, and have lived on the island of Ireland for generations. in the 5th century, with the introduction of Roman Catholicism, the Irish gradually believed in Catholicism. at the end of the 8th century, a unified civilization and law emerged on the island of Ireland, but there was no political unity of the country. at the end of the 12th century, King Henry II took advantage of the division of the situation in Ireland, and led his troops to land on the island of Ireland. Irish island and forced the lords to come and swear allegiance by force, beginning the conquest of Ireland. During the Tudor period, Britain strengthened its control over Ireland and set about establishing a legal and political order on the island.

The conquest in its true sense began in the 16th century. Over the next two centuries, wars, rebellions, and the confiscation of land marked the expansion of the English authorities. There were entire regions ravaged by English, Welsh and Scottish colonizers, whose inhabitants were driven out and then emigrated in various ways to increase the population.

In 1603, the Stuarts came to England, and a systematic colonization of Ireland ensued. At the instigation of the ***, a large number of Protestant Scottish and English immigrants came to the northern province of Ulster. Large tracts of Irish land were appropriated, the Catholics were mostly driven to the desolate west, and the small number that remained were reduced almost to tenant farming. Through nearly a decade of colonization, England finally succeeded in establishing a Protestant colony in the Ulster region, where Protestant settlers had outnumbered the native Catholics, thus sowing the seeds of conflict. During the English bourgeois revolution, Cromwell launched a colonial war against Ireland. The Catholics were massacred and the land was divided among the English settlers.

By the end of the 17th century, the island of Ireland was under British control.

Under the influence of the North American War of Independence and the French Revolution, the Irish launched a large-scale uprising against the British. The British authorities carried out a brutal suppression, and in 1801 passed the "Act of Amalgamation of Britain and Ireland", which formally incorporated Ireland into the British Empire, and Ireland has since completely lost its political and economic independence. After the union, Protestantism was declared the state religion of Ireland, while Catholics were deprived of their basic political and civil rights. The national conflict between Britain and Ireland became more intense, and the struggle of the Irish for national liberation continued to rise." Catholic liberation movement", "abolition of the amalgamation movement", "Fenian" armed revolt, "Young Ireland movement", have time and again shaken the foundation of British rule.