an gorta mór the irish potato famine 1845-1850. p. infestans phytophthora infestans causes the...
TRANSCRIPT
P. infestans Phytophthora infestans
causes the serious potato disease known as blight
Blight - any of numerous plant diseases resulting in sudden conspicuous wilting and dying of affected parts
Famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food Usually accompanied or followed by regional
malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality.
Food shortages in a population are caused either by a lack of food or by difficulties in food distribution; it may be worsened by climate fluctuations and by extreme political conditions related to oppressive government or warfare.
Famine Some elements make a particular region
more vulnerable to famine. These include: Poverty Inappropriate physical infrastructure Inappropriate social infrastructure A suppressive political regime A weak or under-prepared government
Famine One of the
proportionally largest historical famines was that of the Great Famine in Ireland.
It began in 1845 because of potato disease and occurred even as food was being shipped from Ireland to England.
Ireland’s Great Famineranks among the worst tragedies in
the sweep of human history. Between 1845 and 1850, approximately 1.5 million Irish men, women and children died of starvation or related diseases.
Ireland’s Great Famine By 1855, more than two million more fled
Ireland to avoid a similar fate. This decimation of her population makes Ireland’s Great Hunger both the worst chapter in the country’s history, and arguably, the single worst catastrophe in 19th century Europe.