Aim: What were the causes and impact of the Irish Potato Famine? A famine is an extreme scarcity or shortage of food. Do Now: What conditions may lead to a famine?

I How Did Potatoes Come to Ireland? A) Potatos crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Peru (in South America) to Europe through the Columbian Exchange. B) The potato fed Europe’s growing population that developed during the Industrial Revolution.

II Causes of the Irish Potato Famine (Great Famine) In the 1600s, Britain colonized Ireland and took the best farmland. The British used this farmland to grow uninfected crops for export out of Ireland, leaving the Irish with the infected potatoes. By the early 1840s, the potato was the main source of food of Ireland’s rural poor. 1845 – 1852 a blight (fungus) destroyed the potato crops.

III The British Response The Irish landowners themselves were expected to provide relief.  However, when the poor and starving ran out of money to pay rent, the landlords soon ran out of funds with which to support them. The British government limited their help to loans, soup kitchens, and providing employment on road building and other public works.

Primary Source: The British Response Charles Trevelyan was in charge of Irish relief efforts during the famine. He believed in minimal intervention and attempted to encourage the Irish to be more self-reliant. “...Besides, the greatest improvement of all which could take place in Ireland would be to teach the other people to depend upon themselves for developing the resources of the country, instead of [relying on] the assistance of the government on every occasion…”

IV Impacts of the Irish Potato Famine By 1852 1 million people had died in Ireland due to starvation or disease (1/8th of the population). By 1855 2 million people had fled from Ireland. On experiencing a “coffin ship” leaving Ireland. “We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely visible, from the smoke and rags that covered them, were three children huddled together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and ghastly, their little limbs— on removing a portion of the filthy covering— perfectly emaciated, eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last stage of actual starvation.” William Bennett, The Peoples of Ireland

Coffin Ship Painting by Rodney Chapman

Victim of the Irish Potato Famine Analysis of nitrogen and carbon in human teeth can identify victims of starvation even 100s of years later.

Escaping the Famine, Irish Faced Discrimination (Even in the US)

Key Vocabulary Blight Coffin Ship Great Famine Irish Potato Famine