jan 1, 1840 - 1840s The Irish Potato Famine

Description:

During the 1840s almost all Irish peasants grew and ate potatoes as their main source of food. Most of them were very poor and this was all they had to eat while wealthy landowner grew grain and other cash crops in Ireland to ship out to Europe and England. In 1845 all of the Irish potato crop rotted in the fields which was caused by diseases. This took away millions of people's main source of food and starved them. This caused many poor Irish families to move overseas to the colonies to get away from the famine.

Added to timeline:

Date: