In 1845, farmers around Europe suffered from a blight that devastated the potato crop.

This lasted for several years, but nowhere was in more pronounced than it was in the island of Ireland,

where it resulted in death and mass migration.

The effect of this potato blight can still be witnessed. where it resulted in death and mass migration.

The effect of this potato blight can still be witnessed in the world today.

Learn more about the Great Irish Famine, also known as the Irish Potato Famine,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. To understand how and why the Irish potato famine occurred there are a few things we need to understand first.

And the most important was the economic and political situation in Ireland at the time.

Despite the fact that Ireland was supposedly fully integrated into the United Kingdom, it was in reality a colony.

Having been conquered by England, almost all major landowners in Ireland were English or Anglo-Irish.

In theory, they had representation in Parliament in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords,

but almost all of those people were also wealthy Englishmen.

Many of the land owners in Ireland also didn't even live there.

They simply had no connection to the land or the people who worked

on the land. It was simply an investment. Almost all of the land was confiscated by force by

aristocratic English starting back in the 17th century. Irish Catholics were for

all practical purposes second-class citizens in their own country. The way the

absentee landlords would make money was by renting their lands out to peasants who would grow crops for export. and in Ireland and collected all the rents. These agents held great power,

and they could and did abuse this power on a regular basis.

Their bosses weren't there, and quite frankly didn't really care,

so long as their rent were paid.

Almost all of the money made in Ireland

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