At present, the whole world is facing the corona epidemic due to which the death toll is increasing continuously. But today in this episode we are going to tell you about a country where there were more than 10 lakh deaths and their cause was potato famine. Yes, we are talking about Ireland where in the year 1845 a special fungus named P. infestans was found in the potato crop, due to which the entire crop was ruined.
This cycle did not stop for one or two years, but after seven full years in 1852. By then more than one million Irish people had died from starvation and eating spoiled potatoes. Millions of individuals fled Ireland for other nations during this time. Ireland's population is said to have been reduced by a quarter of a million people due to the potato famine.
The Irish government alerted Queen Victoria of the famine brought on by the potato disease and pleaded for help from the public. At the time, the British controlled Ireland. The Corn Law was repealed by Queen Victoria, who assisted the cause. The removal of the Corn Law reduced grain prices, but the famine remained.
Ireland was mostly an agrarian country in the eighteenth century. However, due to famine and pestilence, he became quite destitute. During the potato famine, 70% of Ireland's population ate potatoes. The reason behind this was that they could neither grow nor buy anything else. A large part of Ireland's population was severely affected by the disease outbreak in the potato crop.
Britain's brutal attitude
Millions of families in Ireland died of starvation and malnutrition. But despite this, Britain continued to import things like grain, livestock and butter from Ireland. In 1847, large quantities of items such as peas, beans, rabbits, fish and honey were exported from Ireland to Britain. Even in this bad period of Ireland, the attitude of the British government remained strict. As a result, about 25 percent of the country's population either perished or went to North America and Britain.
Native America offered help
Native Americans, known as the Choctaw, tried to help during the potato famine in Ireland. In the year 1847, when Native Americans came to know about this famine, they sent a small deposit of about $170 in aid. The Irish people could never forget this help. Now that Native American people are also corona infected, the people of Ireland are continuously sending money by creating funds.
