The Great Famine (Ireland)
In the autumn of 1845, the fungal pathogen Phytophthora infestans devastated Ireland's potato crop. The potato had become the staple food of a third of the Irish population — the poorest third, living in rural areas on small plots. As blight returned each year from 1845 to 1852, approximately one million people died of starvation and disease (mainly typhus and dysentery), and at least another million emigrated. The famine reduced Ireland's population from about 8 million to 6 million, a decline that continued for decades through continuing emigration. The British government's response was shaped by laissez-faire economic ideology, moral concerns about creating "dependency," and the belief that Irish suffering was partly divine punishment for improvidence. Food exports from Ireland continued throughout the famine, as landlords continued to export grain protected by British troops — a fact that became central to Irish nationalist memory. Mass emigration to the United States created the Irish-American community that would shape American politics and fund Irish nationalism for a century. The famine's legacy poisoned Anglo-Irish relations and became a foundational grievance driving the Irish independence movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Year: 1845 CE
- Category: Social
