the Irish famine

the Irish famine

causes of the Irish famine
1. potato blight
  1. in 1845a new fungal disease stuck the Irish crop. the big Latin name for it is phytophthora infestans,but it is usually called the potato blight
  2. the first sign of a problem is when the leaves of the potato plant go black and die
  3. it was to late when they noticed as the disease spread especially quickly in moist, mild conditaions
  4. the potatoes became a stinking black mess, even if any of them did survive they would have died in the pits in the fields
  5. this was a disaster as the Irish farmers and the Irish as there main food was potato main food was potatoes
2. John Mitchell view
  1. a famous nationalist historian writing in 1860 believed the English "created" the famine
  2. he claimed they "they died of hungry in the midst of abundance". (this quote means the Irish died of hungry because they gave the food to the English)
  3. he went on to exclaim "the almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine
3. The population of Ireland
  1. there was a large population between 1800_1841
4. subdivision of land
  1. many farmers had subvided there land between there sons. different parts of Ireland depended on different agriculture
chronology
1. by 1845 200000 people lived on 5 acres of land per family while 135000 lived on 1 acre of land. the land was a huge problem in ireland

Resource summary

	Created by robert mcfarland over 7 years ago