Cause of the great famine and its place in the demographic and migration history

Résumé du document

In the 1800s, Ireland was essentially a rural country. Its economy depended only on agriculture, and its industrial system was very weak. Therefore, Ireland was very poor compared with its neighbour, England. It is considered most of all as an island belonging to England and integrated by this fact into its economic system. Its population was rural and its economy was late, although this country knew some progress in the last decades. It is in this specific context that in 1845, a terrible famine appeared that had dramatic consequences on the future of the country. But, why did Ireland suffer so much from this famine, while the other European countries that too were affected, were largely spared? What were the direct and indirect causes of the Great famine in this country, and what consequences did it have on the demographic and migratory evolution of this country?

Extraits

[...] It upset strongly the Irish society, principally on demographic and migratory aspects. So, the Great Irish famine, as we saw, was one of the biggest disasters in the modern History of Europe. We are now going to examine more particularly, in this part, the impact that this famine had on the population and the consequences for the demographic and migratory future of this country. During the years 1841-1851, Ireland enormously changed. The most important and the most visible transformation was the indisputable decline of its population. [...]

[...] It also fuelled hostility against Great Britain and thus strengthened the movements for national independence. Moreover, the population continued to drop for nearly a century until 1960. So, finally, the Great Famine accelerated to a large extent the phenomena that Ireland knew during the 19e century, some of which can be considered by some historians, as beneficial to the country. As historian C. Kinealy put it: it was finally an important tool in the regeneration of Ireland” FOSTER R. F. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, there are other factors that explain the importance and dramatic situation of this disaster. Indeed, during this period, the Irish economy was very vulnerable. The context preceding the Great Famine contributed partially to weaken the country and can be also considered as one of the causes of this crisis. Since 1815, the farming knew disturbances, further to Napoleonic wars. It suffered first of all, of a depression of the prices, after the battle of Waterloo. So as one witness to parliamentary commission said: " It would have been better for the Irish farmer if Bonaparte never lived or never died. [...]

[...] Irish farmers had on average only about half as many acres on which to work as their British counterparts Naturally, one of the big problems of Ireland, was the fact that it remained dependent on its farming. Its industry was little developed. It was one of the big weaknesses of this country, which, therefore did not know how to manage correctly this crisis. The Irish cotton industries started to decline at the beginning of the 18th, as well as premises industry cottage. So, the Great famine underlined in Ireland and in other countries, the importance of industrialization, which could compensate to a certain extent in the event of a crisis. [...]

[...] Another important consequence in the demographic history of the country was the increase of emigration. Indeed, the number of emigrants increased sharply in 1846, to finally double in 1847. This disaster upset in fact the attitude of the people towards the emigration. This phenomenon turned into a sort of "hysteria", that is to say, more like refugees' moves than common emigration. The people wanted to leave miserable conditions of life. The emigration thus appeared to them as the only solution to their problems. [...]