European potato failure

1840s northern European food crisis

The European potato failure was a food crisis caused by potato blight that struck Northern and Western Europe in the mid-1840s. The time is also known as the Hungry Forties. While the crisis produced excess mortality and suffering across the affected areas, particularly affected were the Scottish Highlands, with the Highland Potato Famine and, even more harshly, Ireland, which experienced the Great Famine. Extensive emigration was a result of these famines, but even so large numbers in Ireland starved due to lack of access to other staple food source and the British government exporting other food sources from Ireland.

This keyword could refer to multiple things. Here are some suggestions: