The An Gorta Mor, commonly known as The Great Hunger, was started by a wide spread disease that infected the potatoes in Ireland in the year 1846. Because of the Active Union in 1801, Ireland was apart of the British Empire. The potatoes, which the Irish were most greatly dependent on for survival during this time period, were infected with a bacteria called Phytophthora Infestans, which caused the potatoes to become not only inedible, but also toxic. Potatoes were at the time the easiest crop to grow on the Irish plantations because they could be grown at anytime of year and they were also high in calories which was very good for the Irish peasants. The British government had popular beliefs that were referred to as laissez-faire.This encouraged
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Historian Cecil Woodham-Smith stated, “Adherence to laissez-faire was carried to such a length that in the midst of one of the major famines of history, the government was perpetually nervous of being too good to Ireland and corrupting the Irish people by kindness, and so stifling the virus of self reliance and industry” (NJCHE 4). Although the infected potatoes were strictly responsible for many deaths, that alone would not have killed millions as the famine did. English protestants were technically the properties owners renting their land to Irish peasants to grow plantations on, but as soon as the potato infestation struck, they kicked the Irish planters off of their property. The Irish could no longer grow their crops, which put them at an even greater disadvantage. The English protestants could not be stopped from doing this because it was considered a private business affair and the government getting involved would “violate” laissez-faire opinions. Dennis Clark, and Irish-American historian wrote, “The British government’s insistence on ‘the absolute right of landlords’ to evict farmers and their families so they could raise cattle and sheep, was a process as close to ‘ethnic cleansing’ as any Balkan war ever enacted” (NJCHE 2). The British Government recognized that the English protestants were at fault, but claimed it was not with in their role of authority to protect the Irish from this
Historian Cecil Woodham-Smith stated, “Adherence to laissez-faire was carried to such a length that in the midst of one of the major famines of history, the government was perpetually nervous of being too good to Ireland and corrupting the Irish people by kindness, and so stifling the virus of self reliance and industry” (NJCHE 4). Although the infected potatoes were strictly responsible for many deaths, that alone would not have killed millions as the famine did. English protestants were technically the properties owners renting their land to Irish peasants to grow plantations on, but as soon as the potato infestation struck, they kicked the Irish planters off of their property. The Irish could no longer grow their crops, which put them at an even greater disadvantage. The English protestants could not be stopped from doing this because it was considered a private business affair and the government getting involved would “violate” laissez-faire opinions. Dennis Clark, and Irish-American historian wrote, “The British government’s insistence on ‘the absolute right of landlords’ to evict farmers and their families so they could raise cattle and sheep, was a process as close to ‘ethnic cleansing’ as any Balkan war ever enacted” (NJCHE 2). The British Government recognized that the English protestants were at fault, but claimed it was not with in their role of authority to protect the Irish from this