Term Paper on "Irish Emigration to America and Canada"

Term Paper 4 pages (1171 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Irish emigration to America & Canada

The Irish are among the people most renowned for having immigrated into wealthier countries due to the poverty that has existed in their land for centuries. There is much controversy surrounding the issue of how Irishmen are seen abroad as people tend to criticize them. The Irish have chosen to leave their country in favor of Northern America ever since it turned into a seemingly prosperous part of the world.

Unlike the other people that have come into Northern America, the Irish did not do so because they wished the American dream to come true for them. Instead, the Irish have left their country due to the fact that they merely wanted to escape the poverty in their country. The Irish have begun to encounter difficulties within their homeland during the late eighteenth century. People in Ireland were beginning to feel the effects of the war between England and France. With the Englanders needing resources to sustain the war, Ireland as its ally had to support the cause. During the war it seemed like Ireland could benefit greatly because of the fact that its high productivity of crops would turn into profits.

However, as the war between France and England ended, the Irish economy fell into recession with the population growing and the land becoming too small to support it. Moreover, the growth of the population led to a wave of peasants wanting their own land on which to grow crops on. Some of the lands in Ireland had been owned by British landlords that had now begun to evict the poor peasants because they had not had enough finances to pay the rent for the land. Most of the peasants had to live in small districts filled with poverty and disease but some of them had been more fortunate. Some of the British landlords offered to finance their peasants in order for them to leave to America. (Magnusson)

The first massive waves of people leaving Ireland for America had been in the early 19th century. Tens of thousands of Irish had flown into America and most of the immigrants had been hired to build water canals.

The crops in Ireland had now become very difficult and somewhat unprofitable to grow with the land being not big enough for all the people. The Irish turned to growing their crops on every piece of land that had shown the slightest sign of fertility. Matters appeared to be saved with the potato which proved to be the perfect crop for the situation. It could grow on almost every terrain regardless to the ruggedness that it had and it grew in large quantities on small areas. As a result, almost all the existing lands had been converted into having potato crops on them.

With the potato having become the main source of food in Ireland for approximately 3 million people, Ireland had become a safe haven once again. but, shockingly, a fungus which attacked potato crops developed near the half of the 19th century. Almost every existing potato crop had been affected and people almost immediately observed that their food stock had been at risk. Soon after, nearly all of Ireland's people had been threatened with starvation. (Magnusson)

Around ten percent of Ireland's population had died subsequent to the period of starvation which became known as the "Irish Famine." The Irish found the British landlords as being the decisive factor which lead to the "Irish Famine."

Again, the Irish began to become… READ MORE

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