Research Paper On The Irish Potato Famine
The Irish Potato Famine was a great famine that took place in Ireland between 1845 and 1852. The famine was caused by a potato disease, also called a potato blight. This was a huge problem especially considering that much of Ireland’s population was heavily reliant on potato crops. The famine itself killed around one million people. The question of genocide comes in when the British are taken into account. Ireland was dependent to Britain, much like how today countries like Puerto Rico are dependent on the United States, so it can be expected that when a famine like this hit Ireland, Britain would do anything they could to aid Ireland and regain stability in the country. Britain did the complete opposite; if anything they made the suffering
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However, the remaining crops that farmers could grow - corn, wheat, barley, grain - had to be used to pay rent. It could not be eaten by the families or they would have nowhere to live. And that was only if you were lucky enough to afford seeds for these crops. Many families could not afford these crops, and others had these crops forcefully taken away from them by British occupants of Ireland. The British would sometimes hold the Irish at gunpoint and forcefully take their crops so they could export and trade them for profit. When farmers were evicted, they were left out to rot. They had no money, no food, no hope. They would beg for food but would get none. The British even sent troops to guard export ships that had plenty of food on them. The famine should not have even occurred. If the British would have lifted the laws that were passed more than a century before the blight hit, none of these tragic events would have taken place. The British neglected Ireland’s needs and did many things to make life more difficult for them. The term “genocide” is defined as the systematic destruction of a group or groups of people, usually by a government, with the intent of destroying or dehumanizing said group of people. What the British did to the Irish during the famine was a clear indication of this. It could not have been said any better by John Mitchell, a young Irish leader, who claimed that this was an “artificial famine,” and that "The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the
However, the remaining crops that farmers could grow - corn, wheat, barley, grain - had to be used to pay rent. It could not be eaten by the families or they would have nowhere to live. And that was only if you were lucky enough to afford seeds for these crops. Many families could not afford these crops, and others had these crops forcefully taken away from them by British occupants of Ireland. The British would sometimes hold the Irish at gunpoint and forcefully take their crops so they could export and trade them for profit. When farmers were evicted, they were left out to rot. They had no money, no food, no hope. They would beg for food but would get none. The British even sent troops to guard export ships that had plenty of food on them. The famine should not have even occurred. If the British would have lifted the laws that were passed more than a century before the blight hit, none of these tragic events would have taken place. The British neglected Ireland’s needs and did many things to make life more difficult for them. The term “genocide” is defined as the systematic destruction of a group or groups of people, usually by a government, with the intent of destroying or dehumanizing said group of people. What the British did to the Irish during the famine was a clear indication of this. It could not have been said any better by John Mitchell, a young Irish leader, who claimed that this was an “artificial famine,” and that "The Almighty indeed sent the potato blight, but the English created the