Irish Potato Famine
Definition
An event that occurred between 1845-1852 where potato crops failed repeatedly leading to mass starvation and emigration from Ireland due its heavy dependence on potatoes for sustenance.
Analogy
Imagine if your favorite fast food restaurant, the only one in town and your main source of food, suddenly closed down. You'd be left hungry and would have to find another place to eat or move somewhere else where there's food available. That's what happened during the Irish Potato Famine.
Related terms
Emigration: The act of leaving one's own country to settle permanently in another.
Famine: Extreme scarcity of food.
Monoculture: The cultivation of a single crop in a given area.
"Irish Potato Famine" appears in:
Study guides (1)
Practice Questions (4)
How do the motivations for the Irish Potato Famine migration parallel those of the Dust Bowl migration within the US?
Which European country experienced significant emigration during the Irish Potato Famine in mid-19th century?
Which is a shared aspect between Irish Potato Famine (1845–1852) emigration & Dust Bowl era (1930s) internal displacements within USA?
How does Irish Potato Famine (1845-1849) relate to Rwanda Genocide (1994) under the concept of forced migration?
Resources
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