2021년 영어I(YBM한상호)-Lesson5-3분석

The Irish Famine
The impact of the potato in Europe was not entirely positive. It was much more complicated. Because the people of Ireland were excessively dependent upon the potato for food, when a potato disease hit Europe in 1845, it led to a disastrous situation. Many countries were affected, but Ireland suffered the most. In two months, the disease wiped out almost half of the potato crop in Ireland. The situation continued to worsen. By 1852, more than one million Irish people, about 20 percent of the population, had starved to death, while another two million people had fled Ireland, and almost three-quarters of them had migrated to the United States. It was one of the deadliest famines in history.

 

 

The Beginning of the Modern Pesticides
Despite the terrible outcome of the potato disease in Europe, it was perhaps less important in the potato's history than the Colorado potato beetle was in North America. In the 1860s, the potato beetle was carried by horses and cows from Mexico to the state of Colorado in the United States. There it attacked potatoes and spread quickly when potatoes were shipped to other parts of the country on trains and steamships. Until that time, American farmers had only planted a few varieties of potatoes, and the potatoes that they planted were extremely vulnerable to the pest. As a result, farmers were practically defenseless against this pest. After a series of desperate attempts, one man eventually found that Paris green, a toxic chemical used for making green paint, killed the beetles. Soon farmers were spraying it on their potatoes. Farmers were not the only people to find a new use for Paris green. Chemists saw what the farmers were doing and decided to try Paris green on other pests. They then decided to try other chemicals for other problems. Scientists began to do research and discover chemicals and substances that were effective for many different agricultural problems. That was the beginning of the modern pesticide industry. 

 

 

 

Often, the course of history is changed by seemingly insignificant things. In this case, it was changed by the potato. The potato changed Europe first by freeing the European people from hunger. It then went on to prepare the ground for the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the European empires, and new techniques in farming. As a result, this simple vegetable, which was once unwanted and thought to be ugly, has shaped the modern world as we know it.