WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -What caused the Great Famine? The Great Famine was caused by a failure of the potato crop, which many people relied on for most of their nutrition. A disease called late blight destroyed the leaves and edible roots of the potato plants in successive years from 1845 to 1849.

Detailed explanation-2: -By the mid-19th century, potatoes made up a greater portion of Irish diets, with adverse consequences when the crop failed, causing famine from 1845 to 1852.

Detailed explanation-3: -The famine and its effects permanently changed the island’s demographic, political, and cultural landscape, producing an estimated 2 million refugees and spurring a century-long population decline. For both the native Irish and those in the resulting diaspora, the famine entered folk memory.

Detailed explanation-4: -Scientists have long known that it was a strain of Phytophthora infestans (or P. infestans) that caused the widespread devastation of potato crops in Ireland and northern Europe beginning in 1845, leading to the Irish Potato Famine.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Great Irish Famine was caused by the failing of local crops due to disease and late blight. Late blight is a fungal disease of potatoes which results in the destruction of the crops through dry brown rot. By the late 1840s, many people across Ireland relied on potatoes as a vital part of their diet.