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The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger (Irish: an Gorta Mór [ənˠ ˈɡɔɾˠt̪ˠə ˈmˠoːɾˠ]), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, [1] [2] was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact on Irish society and history as a whole. [3]
An 1849 depiction of Bridget O'Donnell and her two children during the famine, Kilrush Poor Law Union The legacy of the Great Famine in Ireland (Irish: An Gorta Mór [1] or An Drochshaol, litt: The Bad Life) followed a catastrophic period of Irish history between 1845 and 1852 [2] during which time the population of Ireland was reduced by 50 percent.
The famine of 1740–1741 is different from the Great Famine of the 19th century. By the mid-19th century, potatoes made up a greater portion of Irish diets, with adverse consequences when the crop failed, causing famine from 1845 to 1852. The Great Famine differed by "cause, scale and timing" from the Irish Famine of 1740–1741.
Peasant rebellion in China inspired by famine; [11] [12] Huang Chao captured capital: China: 927–928: Famine caused by four months of frost [13] [14] Byzantine Empire: 942–944 Famine in the Yellow River Basin caused by severe drought and locust plagues. During the first month 5387 families fled, then approximately 10% of the remaining ...
On the eve of the Great Famine the population of Ireland had risen to 8 million, most people living on ever-smaller farms and depending on the potato as a staple diet. By the 1840s, many farms had become so small that the only food source that could be grown in sufficient quantity to feed a family was potatoes.
The effects of the illusion of superabundance were significant, leaving some historians to argue that it was the major cause of much of the starvation throughout China. Yang Dali argued that there were three main consequences from the illusion of superabundance:
Farmers are increasingly demanding potato varieties that are higher-yielding and less susceptible to disease, particularly late blight, which caused the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-19th century ...
[citation needed] Similarly, in Ireland, the potato famine saw a rise in Irish nationalism, exemplified in the 1848 Young Irelander Rebellion, again partly caused by discontentedness with hunger and the British government's perceived role. [citation needed]