Food Shortage In Ireland During The 19th Century
During the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of people moved to the United States. A large chunk of these people came from Ireland. The biggest motivations for the Irish people to immigrate were a major food shortage in Ireland, railroad advertisements, and urbanization in the U.S. In Ireland, the primary food source was the potato. Conveniently, a disease started to spread around Ireland that killed most of their potatoes. This disease caused a huge famine that killed a large amount of the Irish population. Since most of the Irish people didn’t want to starve to death, they decided to leave Ireland. Now that the people decided to leave Ireland, they needed to figure out where to go. The United States was arguable the most tempting place
to go. At this point in time, the United States needed a lot of workers to build the railroads because of the growing railroad industry. To get these workers, they sent advertisers around the world to convince people to come to the U.S and work on the railroads. Some of these advertisers came to Ireland to invite people to come to the U.S to work. These advertisers would also help pay for transit to the U.S which solved any potential transportation issue the immigrants would have to face (besides the poor conditions). Considering the options were starve to death in Ireland or get a decent job in America, a lot of people left Ireland to work on the railroad. Another reason that the Irish people who left chose the U.S as their next home was the fact that the U.S was urbanising. Urbanisation would make life much easier for immigrants because they wouldn’t have to be as self sufficient as they would in a non-urbanised country. If these immigrants chose a non-urbanised country to move to, they would have to make their own clothes, farm their own food, collect their own water, build their own homes, and many other things that most people (probably) didn’t want to do. Therefore, a large amount of the Irish population moved to the United States in the 19th century because conditions in the U.S were much better than they were in Ireland. The United States had food, jobs, and urbanization. If someone dying of starvation was given food, it’s pretty obvious that they would take a bite and worry about consequence later.
to go. At this point in time, the United States needed a lot of workers to build the railroads because of the growing railroad industry. To get these workers, they sent advertisers around the world to convince people to come to the U.S and work on the railroads. Some of these advertisers came to Ireland to invite people to come to the U.S to work. These advertisers would also help pay for transit to the U.S which solved any potential transportation issue the immigrants would have to face (besides the poor conditions). Considering the options were starve to death in Ireland or get a decent job in America, a lot of people left Ireland to work on the railroad. Another reason that the Irish people who left chose the U.S as their next home was the fact that the U.S was urbanising. Urbanisation would make life much easier for immigrants because they wouldn’t have to be as self sufficient as they would in a non-urbanised country. If these immigrants chose a non-urbanised country to move to, they would have to make their own clothes, farm their own food, collect their own water, build their own homes, and many other things that most people (probably) didn’t want to do. Therefore, a large amount of the Irish population moved to the United States in the 19th century because conditions in the U.S were much better than they were in Ireland. The United States had food, jobs, and urbanization. If someone dying of starvation was given food, it’s pretty obvious that they would take a bite and worry about consequence later.