the irish potato famine officially started in 1829.
when did the irish potato famine officially start?
1829
the recovery of food imports after the napoleonic wars (1803–1815) and the resumption of american trade following the war of 1812 (1812–1815) led to the enactment in 1815 of the corn laws (protective tariffs) to protect cereal grain producers in britain against foreign competition. these laws were only removed in 1846 after the onset of the irish potato famine in which potato late blight ruined most of the irish potato crop and brought famine to the irish people in 1846–50. though the blight also struck scotland, wales, england, and much of europe, its effect there was far less severe since potatoes constituted a much smaller percentage of the diet than in ireland. despite this, ireland still produced agricultural surpluses during the famine- most of the food was exported to english cities and british authorities refused to close the ports. hundreds of thousands died in the irish famine and millions more emigrated to england, wales, scotland, canada, australia, europe, and the united states, reducing the population from about 8.5 million in 1845 to 4.3 million by 1921.
british agricultural revolution
the great famine of the 1840s caused the deaths of one million irish people and over a million more emigrated to escape it. it is sometimes referred to, mostly outside ireland, as the "irish potato famine" because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. the proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight. a census taken in 1841 revealed a population of slightly over 8 million. a census immediately after the famine in 1851 counted 6,552,385, a drop of almost 1.5 million in 10 years.
1840s