the Great Irish Famine

Mine is a blog about food and drink, isn't it? Yes, of course. But dealing with the topic, it is also important to talk about the consequences that food and agricultural problems can (or could) have on population.

The first idea that comes to my mind about this topic is Ireland and potatoes. Why? If you have ever been to any city, town or village in Ireland, you'll discover that potatoes are basic when cooking anything: a steak or a fillet with a side-salad or vegetables and... fried potatoes and boiled potatoes, smashed potatoes and a grilled great potato, ... altogether.

If you think about it, the result is that when potato crops failed in older times, poor families had really "nothing" to eat. Then they decided to migrate to a new place where they thought there would be no problems: America. It happened between 1845 and 1952.

Bad crops were a frequent problem all over Europe. But the catastrophe was worse for Ireland as one third of Irish population was entirely dependent on potatoes for food.

The importance of the Great Irish Famine is so great that the famine became part of folk memory and it produced as a consequence nationalist movements. It is also recognized as the worst human disaster of 19th century, with 8,5 million people dead (al least one million in terrible conditions), one million people as refugees.

The Potato Blight is often considered as the greates wave of Irish immigration to America, when half a million had arrived in America to start a new life. Due to this fact, many families from Irish origin took Catholic religion (St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York) , Irish traditions (St. Patrick's) and well-known names to different aspects of American life (The Kennedys in politics are a good example). You will learn more about the Potato Famine in Ireland and the Irish immigration to America and how Americans accepted the immigrants in the Web and in other entries in my blog.

Boston Tea Party

What was the Boston Tea Party?
On Monday morning, the 29th of November, 1773, a handbill was posted all over Boston, containing the following words: "Friends! Brethren! Countrymen!--That worst of plagues, the detested tea, shipped for this port by the East India Company, is now arrived in the harbor.

But what was this for? Just for tea? Unbelievable! Or not?

Tea is not only a very well-known British habit. Tea is not only a usual drink in many parts of the world. Tea has unleashed important historical moments. Here is one of the most famous and, perhaps, the one whose consequences were of vital importance.



The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct action protest by the American colonists against the British Government in which they destroyed many crates of tea belonging to the British East India Company and dumped it into the Boston Harbor. The incident, which took place on December 16, 1773, was a major catalyst of the American Revolution and remains an iconic event of American history.

These are the mere facts explained in the simplest possible way but, as we can learn from other 'moments' in history, economy, power, politics and so on are also behind them.

As Europeans developed a taste for tea in the 17th century, rival companies were formed to import the product from the East Indies. When tea became popular in the British colonies in North America, Parliament sought to eliminate foreign competition by passing an act in 1721 that required colonists to import their tea only from Great Britain and the East India Company. Because Parliament heavily taxed this tea and charged the East India company tariffs, both Britons and British Americans found that it was much cheaper to buy smuggled tea, which usually came from Dutch sources—tea imported into Holland was not taxed by the Dutch government. The biggest market for smuggled tea was England, but illicit tea was also smuggled into the colonies to a lesser extent.

Tensions between Great Britain and the American colonies arose in the 1760s when Parliament sought, for the first time, to directly tax the colonies for the purpose of raising revenue. Colonists argued that, according to the British Constitution, British subjects could be taxed only by their own representatives; because the colonies were not represented in Parliament, they could not be taxed by that body. Colonists organized economic boycotts against the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767. By 1773, the British East India Company was in financial distress due in part to the colonial boycotts.

As we all can guess, the British Government decided to act and passed the Tea Act, which allowed the East India Company to sell tea to the colonies directly and without "payment of any customs or duties whatsoever" in Britain, instead paying the much lower American duty. This tax break allowed the East India Company to sell tea for half the old price and cheaper than the price of tea in England, enabling them to undercut the prices offered by the colonial merchants and smugglers granting them a virtual monopoly.[citation needed]

I can continue explaining the facts but it's impossible to describe all the problems, the background, the revolts and riots and the consequences of the Boston Tea Party in 1773. So, dear reader, if you are interested, consult the many linkers associated along the text or the websites at the bottom.

Ir a www.bostonteapartyship.com/, www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/teaparty.htm, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm, www.boston-tea-party.org/

P.S.: Isn't this a blog about 'Food and Drink in the Untied Kingdom? Why then a text about The Boston Tea Party? Remember that Boston was one of the main cities of the British colonies in what is, nowadays the United States of America. It was also the origin of a war that ended up not much later with the Independence of U.S.A. Then, The Boston Tea Party is an important part of British history.