The Great Irish Famine - Research Paper Example

IRISH POTATO FAMINE OF THE MID 19TH CENTURY WAS AN ACT OF GENOCIDE CARRIED OUT BY THE BRITISH EMPIRE AS A MEANS OF RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL CLEANSING Introduction The Great Irish famine which happened in the mid 19th century still remains to be eon of the most remembered event in the history of the country. It has also been considered as one of the greatest peacetime tragedies in the history of Europe. It was one of the events that led to the Irish nation to carry out major economic and social reforms due to the devastating effects of het famine. The famine has great historical significance owing to the many social, political and economic factors that had been tied to it. The great hunger otherwise called An Gorta Mor which translates to The Bad life reduced the population of Ireland by about 20 to 25 percent. This was only in a time period between 1845 and 1852. Although the famine was caused by the bacteria phytophthora infestans, it had various social political dimensions. Even though most of the damage was done on crops, the damage that was caused on the Irish population remains to be some of the most memorable events in the Irish people. The great famine still remains a major topic of debate in the life of the people. The scar of the famine remains in the minds of most Irish people more that one century later. It still remains to spark memories of the suffering and agony that the people of Ireland had to go thro ugh in the hands of their masters who were the Britons. It still remains them of the long walk to acquire their current social status and equity to the Britons. But the role that was played by this great famine in shaping the identity of the Irish people is still evident even today through the imprint shown by the modern consciousness which equate horror of famine devastation with other tragedies that continue to occur in the developing world. This is because the nature of the Irish nation dependant on the foreign nations was the sole cause of the devastation since the foreign nation had the power to manipulate the famine and control the nation. This is the same fate that holds the developing nation to the control of the foreign nation. (Bluett, 2004) In this case the Irish people dependant and exploitation by Britain can be directly attributed to the devastating effects of the famine. Their reliance on the British government was the main factor that led to their exploitation. There is evident of hidden agenda in the way Britain foreign relief was used to mask the indirect cultural and religious cleansing that was being carried out on Irish people at the time. The only alternative that the Irish people had was either to live as slave or die as freeman. Therefore the British had the chance to make the Irish dance to their tune and instill their control over the nations. (Connolly, 1998) Background of the famines and the Ireland relations with Britain Before 1801, Ireland had remained to the colony of Britain and it was recognized as the most fertile colony. In 1801, it ceased to the British colony and formed its own parliament. This was the outcome of the act of union which made it an integrate part of the United Kingdom which comprised of Greta Britain and Ireland. There were many factors that led to the signing of the Act of union which was entirely aimed at securing control of Ireland by the Britain. The America was of independence encourage the Irish to wage the same war in order to liberate themselves from the rule of Britons. The French revolution was another factor. There were fears that the rate of French revolution was very fast and soon French militants would be at Irish coast. This endangered the control of Ireland by the British. Ireland was also weakly linked to Britain and there was need to have a strong link such that it would be protected in case of attack. The monarch felt that there was a weak control of Ireland and therefore there was a need to sign the union which would give the monarch more control. There were also other internal factors like the 1798 United Irishmen Rebellion which further weakened the control of the monarch. The Wolf Tone and The Society of United Irishmen were also other organizations that were campaign to have the signing of the Act of Union. Apparently the Union served to cement the control of the monarch further on Ireland. Therefore the act of union was singed in 1800 and it brought Ireland under the control of the British government. Under this act, Ireland was governed under the Act of union and as a part of the United Kingdom. The exclusive power of the land was vested in the hands of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Chief Secretariat for Ireland. They were both appointed by the British Government and therefore they acted as their trustees for the land. Under the agreement of the Act of Union, Ireland sent 105 members of parliament to the British House of Commons. There were also 28 members who were elected to sit in the House of Lords. But the representation was skewed to the rich elites of the society. Between 1832 and 1859, most the represents almost 75% of them were landowner or were relatives and sons of the land owner. Therefore right from the start the system of land distribution in Ireland was skewed and favors the elite members. After the signing of the union, there was a period of relative calm that lasted to 1841. In this case there were fewer riots from the population as the government seemed to work for the people of Irish. In 1841, the first major census was conducted. At that time the total population was 8.5 million people. There were fears that the pollution had been growing at a high rate while there was little economic development which could have corresponded with the rate of the growth in population. The earlier censure that has been held indicated that the population stood at 2.6 million people. This means that the population had growth by 225% in a period of less than one century. Still there was widespread poverty in the population as the system of economic distribution failed to achieve equality in access to resources. (Murray, 1990) According to the census, the population was mixed. There were Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, descendants of Elizabeth and Cromwellian Plantations, emerging catholic middle class who were mainly concentrated showing a mixture of population. By 1829, the level of poverty in Ireland had been biting. This led to the emergence of catholic emancipation which saw the rise of Catholics to 80% of the population. Majority of these lived in poverty and insecurity. There was the rise of social class system in which at the top of the class was the ascendancy class of the English and Anglo-Irish families. The owned and control of most the land and had more power over their tenants. For example the Earl of Lucan owned more the 60,000 acres of land. Most the land holders were absentee landlords who live in England and had never set their foot in Ireland. All they collected were taxes from the tenant who were paid minimal wages to raise crops and livestock to be exported to England. Due the explosion of the population in that short period, there was great subdivision of land. There was an increase subdivision of arable land to unviable land units which was only fit for subsistence production. Still majority of the land holding remained with the elite class. According the land and liberty survey at that time, 23.6% of the land owned ranged between 1 to 5 acres, 24.4% ranged between 5-10 acres which was the same percentage of those who help 10 to 20 acres. 18.4% held between 20 to 50 acres while 9.2% held above 50 acres. However majority of the population which was 1345,000 owned less that one acre. This was apparently the largest population percentage. This shows that there was a great subdivision of land that could be directly attributed to the increased population within a short period. (Tom, 1997) As a result there was reduced food production as most of the land units were small and not useful for commercial production. In order to satisfy the growing population of the Britain industrial class, the only solution which could be found to this problem was to get rid of the cottiers/sharecropper in order to commercialize food production. This would help in the consolidation of land in order to create large farms which could be used of produce food. Economic environment of Ireland The economic system of Ireland was mainly based on agriculture. There was growing rural agriculture economy which was mainly controlled by the landowners. Apparently Ireland was the greatest Britain’s farmland. It had fertile soils and therefore served as Britain food cupboard. There were large estates which practices commercial agriculture producing food crops which were mainly exported to Britain. There was little industrialization Ireland at that time. The Britain government had worked to encourage large scale farming in Ireland in order to provide food for its growing industrial population. This was seen as deliberate move by Britain in order to suppress the industrial growth of Ireland and therefore promote production of food for its industrial population. This was clearly reflected in the economic policy that the British government upheld in Ireland which ensured that there was suppression of industrial growth. On the other hand it seemed to encourage the development of industries in Britain. (Jackson, 1990) Growing dissidents among the Irish There were several attempts that were made in order to look at the system again. By the time the potato blight attacked Ireland in 1845, there has been growing political confrontation in the land. The mass movement that had been formed in order to repeal the Act of Union to bring some equity had failed when the founded Daniel O`Connell dies in 1847. Still it has not achieved its objective. The rebellion was taken over by a young generation of Irish from 1848 but they were also not successful. (Gallagher, 2001) The rebellion had been aimed at ensuring that the Irish were given more power to elect their representative to the parliament. There were also growing dissent from the fact that the hunger had already set in and the government was doing little to mitigate the condition. The Potato famine The Irish people had depended on the potato as their food crop for along time in their history. They had depended on the potato since it was easily grown in their land and it was also easily harvested. The crop was also nutritious and therefore satisfied the demand of their body. The seed were also inexpensive since they could be stored for a long time and reused later for polkaing. In the culinary practices, the crop was easily mixed with other food staffs like pork meat, milk an others. It was an important part of their diet. According to the estimate at the time, the demand of the crop had risen to more than seven million tones every year in order to feed the population. (Smith, 2001) Prior to the great hunger, there were other small famines that had happened at the time. These were however localized and therefore they did not have the much devastating effect on the population. Down their history there were other 24 crop failures before the big hunger had set in. For example in 1739, all the crops were destroyed in an attack. In 1800 there were another general failure of the cope and in 1807 about half of the potatoes were also lost in another failure. There were many other instances that had resulted to the failure but which were localized. (Campbell, 2001) What were the causes of the Great Famine? There are many possible cause of the famine but all of them seem to have been integrated in causing the famine. There is no one causes that can be contributed directly to the famine owing to the fact that there was as set of causes that could have conspired to intensify the famine One of the possible causes of the hunger was the migration of the blight which was first recorded in Belgium in 1845. The bacteria which cause the blight called phytophthora infestans is said to have been transported by potatoes which were carried by passengers on ships. it is estimated that this blight spread to Ireland an infected most of the potato crops. It is estimated that the pathogen could have arrived with a ship from America in 1830s. Although the pathogen can be directly attributed to the causes of crop failure, there were other factors which intensified the spread of its effects. In this case the factor of land consolidation which removed most tenants from their land intensified the problem since most of them could not cultivate other crops in order to mitigate the situation. Over half a million people are recorded to have been evicted from their land. The other factor which could have contributed to worsening of the famines was the fact that the Irish people had so much relied on potato crop as their staple food. Therefore there was less diversification of crops. Failure of the potato meant that the whole population was no endangered with hunger. (Keating, 1996) During the time of the famine when the staple food had failed, there was increased export of other foods to England. Despite the hunger biting in the population there was Ireland remained a major exporter of food to Britain. Food was exported through armed vehicles under the guard of the military personnel. There was constant lobby from merchant who wanted the government to ban the export of the food. There was increased export of other foods like calves, livestock bacon and ham throughout the five years of the famine. Reaction of the government The reaction of the government was not of any help to the suffering Irish neither were there effort of put in place a policy that could help the government to mitigate the situation. According the Britons, it was seen as a God punishment on the reckless, irresponsible and morally bankrupt race of Irish people. The then British Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel also had the same expression that the famine was a punishment from God for the failure of the Irish people to live according the true religion. Sir Robert was convinced that the problem of Ireland was rooted in the social backwardness of the population. Therefore the only solution that could be found to the problem was to replace potato with maize n order to enhance food security of the country. But this was a sinister move that was aimed at making sure that the sharecropper were evicted in order to give space for the large scale production of foods to be exported to England. There were several relief measures that were organized in order to help the suffering population. Peel had an approach that was meant to ensure that the local landowners who ere mainly Anglo-Irish ascendancy took control of the relief measure. In this case the system of relief commission was organized by the landlords who ensured that there was the hand of British in every relief operation that was carried out. One of the facts was that it was only the British state which could help to alleviate the catastrophe. There was other charity mission like the soup kitchen, aid from America, Queen Victoria contributed 2000 pounds, Choctaw Indians who contributed 710 pounds, and others. Punch magazine at the time depicted that the famine was a moral issue and blamed it on the depravity of the native Irish. The magazine depicted Irishmen with simian features in satirical cartoons. There was widespread food riots in the country while the government was determined to kept food deports closed till the last result of selling food at market price. There was increase death and the rate of crimes also increased. There was increased date from malnutrition and other related diseases. There was a dramatic decrease of the population by 50% from 1850 to 1911 as more and more people were evicted. (Steve, 2000) Among other effect there were several social changes that happened along the same line. There was death of traditional tradition rituals, there was mass emigration from Ireland, and there was the death of Irish Language, increased destitution. The family structure was destroyed and the social fabric was also affected. On the other hand there was the reorganization of agriculture which saw mass immigration to towns and cities. The rate of industrialization also increased. On a political note there was also the repeal of the Act of union. References Bluett, A. (2004). Things Irish. Ireland: Mercier Press Campbell, S. (2001). Black potatoes: The story of the Great Irish Famine. New York: Houghton Mifflin Connoly, J. (1998). Irish history. Oxford University press Gallagher, T. (2001). Prelude and Hatred in Ireland 1846-1847. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jackson, T. (1990). Ireland her own: Irish Struggle. New York: International Publisher Keating, J. (1996). Irish Great Famine. Dublin Murray, D. (1990). Of Irish Ways. New York: Harpers & Row Smith, W. (2001). The great hunger, Ireland 1845-1949. New York :Penguin Books Steve, T. (2000). Views of the famine. Oxford University press Tom, H. (1997). Irish Hunger: personal reflection on the legacy of the famine. Colorado: Robert Rinehart Publishers. Read More