irish patato famine Essay -- essays research papers

Ire come to in the 1500s was a very unstable country. The countrys English rulers foughtwith the local anesthetic 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 thiscontinual fighting, it was hard for the peasants to grow plentiful food to feed themselves. TheBritish passed laws to deny the Irish peasants freedom. They were forbidden to address theirown language, to practice their own religion, to own a horse expense more than ten dollars, to go toschool, or to hold a normal office.Potatoes were first introduced to Ireland around the 1600s. Some say that Sir Walter Raleigh, an English explorer brought the murphy to Ireland to see if it would survive.Another belief is that the potato came to Ireland when some potatos washed ashore from a Spanish Armada ship that had sunk off the coast of Ireland.The gaberdine potato is thought to have originated in the Andean Mountains. The Spanish discover it in northern Peru and brought it back to Europe. It was first considered poisonousby the Europeans because it was sort out in the same family as the poisonous nightshade.Potatos became popular and somewhat of a fashion statement after Marie Antoinette wore potato blossoms in her hair. Once the royal line learned of the potatos nutritional value they ordered the peasants to take up to grow it.1 A potato, also called a tuber, is an underground stalking that is short, thick, and fleshy. Thepotato was such a good crop because it has nutrients, such as protein, carbohydrate, andvitamin C. It only lacked vitamin A and calcium. If it was combined with milk than it wouldcontain all of the elements involve for a healthy diet. For nutrition in the mid 1800s a personwould have to eat around six and a one-half pounds of potatoes. The potato was also good because when there were wars going on in Ireland, the soldierswould go and burn all of the farme rs crops. Since the potatoes were underground, theywould not be affected by this and could still be dug up afterwards. Irelands mild, cloudy, anddamp climate allows root crops, such as the potato, to thrive and to be grown successfully intheir peaty soil. Many of the p... ...reatened the people of Irelandwith some other famine. The National Land League was formed so that the poor inhabit farmersland could not be taken away, and they could not get thrown into the streets by the greedylandowners. The National Land League organized communities together. unneurotic they hadmore power, they refused to sell goods or provide labor to landlords who were guilty of evictingor running the tenant farmers off their land. In 1881 the parliament passed the Land coiffure of1881 . This act made sure that the tenant farmers paid fair rent, had trade protection from eviction(being thrown out), and had the right to sell his farm lease to other tenant farmer. Thesedramatic changes were more imp ortant to the people in the southmost than the people in northernIreland. The north used to depend wide on farming, but now they started to depend more on commercial-grade businesses. Tenant farming was becoming less and less important. There ar still other famines going on in this world today. Potatoes repelling to potatoblight are being developed through hereditary engineering, and some varieties of potatoes seem to have natural immunities.5