Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Second Department
History
Reader 1
Urmi E. Willoughby
Reader 2
Melinda Herrold-Menzies
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2024 Wyatt A Bandy-Page
Abstract
Ireland’s Great Hunger (1845-52) cannot be reduced to merely potatoes and blight. This thesis approaches the Great Hunger in the context of agricultural and land use changes under British colonialism (1534-1852). Across seven centuries, successive waves of settlers seized the most productive lands, eventually giving rise to a series of plantation schemes designed to maximize the extraction of Irish human and natural capital. Land use transformations under colonial rule severely restricted Gaelic foodways and kept the Irish laboring classes at bare subsistence levels, while the produce of Irish plantations fueled English economic development. Following the onset of blight in 1845, regressive British policies worsened conditions, turning blight into famine. This analysis rethinks the traditional scaling of the Great Hunger by assessing the role of British colonialism in producing Ireland’s famed dependency on the potato.
Recommended Citation
Bandy-Page, Wyatt, "The Ecological Underpinnings of Famine: Irish Agriculture and Land Use Under British Colonialism, 1534-1852" (2024). Pitzer Senior Theses. 196.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/pitzer_theses/196
