this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2025
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Explanation: While the Irish Potato Famine in 1847 was triggered by potato blight, a fungus-like parasite, the deeper cause of its devastation was the exploitation of the English landlords and the bizarre ultra-free-market policies of the British Empire at the time, leading to English absentee landlords getting richer as their tenants were literally dying, and Ireland exporting food at a time when starvation was rampant.
Steal lands, call it "free market"
classic liberalism
While the land theft was an important component of English oppression of the Irish, I mean in terms of the famine - if the landlords were Irish instead of English transplants, it's unlikely that their behavior would have been significantly different in terms of grain export, unless a feudal or clientistic power structure was retained. The free market, rather than the land theft, is in the core of this issue.
A lot of them were Irish who buggered off to London after the Irish lost home rule. Led directly to the collapse of a lot of things.