This history of potatoes is insane #shorts

[IsaacYoung]

Always remember: the reason potatoes got popular is government sanctioned crime

[Herr_Bismarck]

Member of the Royal family: nah fam I ain't touching that shit

[chrisigoeb]

Theres the great story about Frederick the Great where he ordered his potato fields to be guarded so the people would think it is something extremely valuable. So they began to steal potatoes off the field and Frederick told his guards to just ignore them and let them steal the potatoes so they would eat it

[tiredman]

My mom said potatoes aren't a vegetable but they almost contain enough nutrients that you could live almost off of potatoes exclusively

[sinisterisrandom]

Potatoes made a Japanese submarine surrender.
So I honestly am surprise how amazing and versatile the food/weapon can be.

[TBStudios]

If I remember correctly, it was the members of the Merovingian family (and later the Carolingian) who were thought to heal by touching the ill. This was also the inspiration for Aragorn's ability to heal Eowyn in the Return of the King (the book, but perhaps also in the extended edition)

[johnfraire]

Just wanna point out that stakuyi is specifically talking about Europeans when the potato first arrived in the continent. The Inca like many south americans had been cultivating the potato for centruries before and had perfected the process of storing them in such a way that they couldn't go bad for centuries, helping protect the people of starvation when famines happened. They stored such potatoes in these storehouses, and even though this one whole Spanish army was cut off from their supplies during the conquest, the entire army lived off of ONE of these storehouses for MONTHS, eating nothing but these years-old dried up potatoes. And even after an entire army ate through that storehouse, it would still take years of Spanish use for the storehouse to be depleted.

Also I hope he talks about my boy Freddy G

[mrreaper]

People also thought tomatoes were poisonous because they ate tomatoes off of lead plates. They got lead poisoning from the plates

[vikingraider]

Was never hated in its homeland. Thousands of different types of potatoes in the Andes, incredibly important food there

[Zetact_]

England: "Let's make the Irish so impoverished that they basically have to live entirely off potatoes."
Irish: * get malnourished and sick *
England: "Must be the 'taters."

[conductorcammon]

Folks thought tomatoes were poisonous as well. Some guy sat on a roof and ate them all day...to prove they werent.

[tysonbay]

Potato’s arrival in the old world created a population boom due to calorie efficiency

[giovanni]

In my classroom, i think we watched the same Cartoon about the history of the potato atleast 15 times. Potatoes truly are an integral part of danish and in extension european culture.

[mozeyad]

people thought that potatoes gave you ligma too

[jacobelgan]

there's also the first time potatoes were imported to russia, which was a complete mess that almost ended in an execution of a priest

[libraryofpangea]

A good book on the subject is the Botany of Desire, which goes over the history of Potatoes, Cannabis, Tulips & Apples and how crops can impact human history.

[seiyuokamihimura]

Actually only Europeans thought that. The andeans and Peruvians have known about the godliness of the potato for hundred of years

[Pandolfinstein]

Priest: potatoes gave you syphilis
Peasant: huh so that's where I got syphilis from.... Wait I've never eaten a potato before!
Priest: that's just the madness from syphilis

[Sven]

Germans and irish: POTATOES AND BEER, THE BRITS WE SHALL KICK IN THE REAR!

[robertphillips]

People once thought that Tomatoes were Poisonous like Potatoes!