The Potato and the Great Irish Famine
Written by Studio AM.
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Potatoes reached Europe from the Andes in the sixteenth century. In Ireland, the crop produced many calories on small plots and became especially important to poor tenant families. By the 1840s, poverty and an unequal landholding system left many people heavily dependent on potatoes while they had little money or land for alternatives.
In 1845, potato blight began ruining harvests, and it returned in later years. Yet blight alone does not explain the scale of the Great Irish Famine. Ireland still produced other foods, and food continued to leave Ireland through trade. Many hungry families could not afford that food or control the land that produced it. Relief policy also mattered. British government programs changed over time, but public works and other aid proved inadequate, while policies shaped by laissez-faire ideas limited responsibility. Evictions made the crisis worse for many tenants.
The catastrophe had several causes: a destructive plant disease, deep dependence on one crop, poverty, land and trade structures, and an insufficient state response. About one million people died, and large numbers emigrated during and after the crisis. Remembering all of those causes does not make the blight unimportant. It explains why the same crop failure became a human disaster of such enormous size.
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Questions
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Question 1 of 4
What is the passage mainly arguing?
The answer is C: Blight became catastrophic through crop dependence, poverty, land structures, and inadequate policy.
The final paragraph gathers the interacting causes: disease, dependence, poverty, land and trade structures, and state response.
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Question 2 of 4
What does the passage say continued even while people were hungry?
The answer is A: Food continued to leave Ireland through trade.
The second paragraph states that Ireland produced other foods and that food continued to leave through trade.
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Question 3 of 4
Why did the presence of other food not prevent widespread hunger?
The answer is C: Many families lacked the money or control of land needed to obtain it.
Other food existed, but many families lacked the money or land access needed to obtain it.
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Question 4 of 4
In the second paragraph, “relief” means
The answer is D: aid given to people during a crisis
Public works and other aid are examples of relief offered during the crisis.
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