History through the eyes of the potato - Leo Bear-McGuinness

Baked or fried, boiled or roasted, as chips or fries; at some point in your life you’ve probably eaten a potato. But potatoes have played a much more significant role in our history than just that of the dietary staple we have come to know and love today. Leo Bear-McGuinness shares how without the potato, our modern civilization might not exist at all.

Lesson by Leo Bear-McGuinness, animation by Black Powder Design.

[jimbo]

The potato was a major player in Finland's population growth in the 1800's! The potato is suited well for the cold climate and short summer of Finland. The fact that it can survive cold temeratures as long as the ground doesn't freeze made it a good food item.

[onemouthymerc]

Not to mention Matt Damon wouldn't have stood a chance on Mars.

[Joakim]

In Finland the word for potato is "peruna" in reference to its peruvian ancestry

[drudometkin]

I went to Peru for 2 weeks & they sure are proud of their potatoes. I was told probably 10 times they came from there. love that country

[henryteccsi]

"You're welcome"
-All Peruvians

[nyasshole]

Don't forget the accidental invention of potato chips.

[HairJordan]

So basically the entire world was just waiting for potatoes so that it could develop into the modern world that we now take for granted

[BlckDrgn]

As a Peruvian, this makes me proud :)

[StarMonkies]

Interesting video but I can't watch a video mentioning the Irish potato famine without mentioning the conditions the natives lived in at the time. Land was taken off the native Irish and plantations were given to Scottish and English protestants. The native Irish then had to work the land and pay high rent to the landlords. This created a situation where much of the crops grown by the native Irish were sold and exported to Britain and the rest of Europe and the natives were dependant on a small patch of land to grow potatoes to feed themselves and their large families. When the potato crop failed all other crops were still being exported out of Ireland while the Irish starved to death. There tended to be a very laissez faire attitude to dealing with the crisis in Ireland with the British crown giving a pitiful amount of money at the time (Some will argue it was intentionally laissez faire). For this reason many Irish people call it a genocide rather than a famine. Whether intentional or not, millions of Irish died or immigrated due to the decisions of the crown and landlords that ruled the Irish at the time. Ireland's population went from 8 millions to about 4 million. Much worse than this video reported.

Now I don't bitterly hold on to the past or have any bad feeling towards the British today. However there is a lack of acknowledgement from British and Irish about what really happened during "an gorta mór" (meaning the great hunger). I'm sure its a combination of just not being aware of what really happened plus a fear of reopening old wounds and hurting British and Irish relations. So it wasn't as simple as the potato crop failed. There was food being grown in Ireland but it was being sent to Britain and the rest of Europe. It was policy, rather than lack of food that killed the Irish.

[GalileaLiandy]

The potatoe is a big part of my culture (peruvian culture), now we have more than 3000 varieties and we are proud of it. I hope some day TED-Ed make more videos about Incas soon.

[pupycron]

I have never thought my ancestors created so much history, proud to be a potato!

[el_naif]

All over Peru, you can find the surprising number of 10 different varieties of potatoes in any market (white, yellow, cocktail, blue, huayro...) but in fact there are actually 3000 scientifically known varieties. We know so little.

[fiachradillon]

Actually England took all of Ireland’s food and aided the the blite disease. They stopped all food coming into Ireland but Turkey managed to bring 2 boat loads in secretly into Drogheda’s harbor. (Because of this Drogheda has adopted the star & crescent as it’s towns emblem to thank them) It wasn’t a famine that happened in Ireland it was Genocide

[sadaque]

Potato in Spanish is PAPA that comes from Quechua Language who is one of the Languages of Ancient Perú. ♥️

[samuelmaucaille]

Here in Peru, we have a lot of species of potatoes in many forms, size, taste, and colors (approximately: 3000).In my mother's birthplace, a little town in the Andes there was unique species.Regrettably, they disappeared due to the pollution in the environment. Now our government it's working in save and take care all of those species. I'm very happy for that. :)

[Azrel]

Did you know? Peru got over 5000 varieties of potatoes.

[pen]

When I had to go for an interview for an engineering course, the first question the interviewer asked was "what is the role of the potato in world history?" I pulled something together about the Irish potato famine and increased emigration to America and he said it was one of the best responses he heard but I would have loved to have seen this video before and appear to be omniscient being.

[glomerglomer]

THANK YOU PERÚ!
MY LIFE WITHOUT FRIED POTATOES WOULD BE BORED

[JessicaQ]

I'm flattered that you made a video about me 😊

[whitedragon]

my father is from peru and all of that is true. when I visit there they had so many kinds of potatoes.