The Politics of the Blight: Why Ireland Starved While the Low Countries Survived

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_67How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Nineteenth-Century Europe; Potato Blight; Great Irish Famine; Low Countries; Relief Policy

Abstract

This paper examines the contrasting outcomes of the 1840s potato blight in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. While over one million died in Ireland due to starvation and disease, the Low Countries avoided such catastrophic mortality. The paper argues that the difference stemmed not from ecological differences but from political and ideological ones. Ireland, as a colony under British rule, was subjected to famine policies driven by the paternalistic desire of the British Empire to “improve” the Irish population, resulting in rigid and often reckless relief. In contrast, Belgium and the Netherlands, where constitutional monarchies with responsive local governance were in place, adopted more pragmatic and localized strategies, including municipal aid, public works, and charity networks, which effectively mitigated food scarcity. The paper distinguishes not only between the political capacities of centralized versus decentralized relief systems, but also the teleological goals underpinning them. Whereas Dutch and Belgian relief aimed to stabilize and protect their populations, British policy in Ireland prioritized social engineering and economic reform over immediate humanitarian needs. By examining the political status and policy goals of each state in depth, this comparative analysis reveals how governance structures and ideological intentions have significantly influenced the human consequences of environmental crises, such as famine.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Antong Zhang
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/15
TI  - The Politics of the Blight: Why Ireland Starved While the Low Countries Survived
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Mental Growth and Human Resilience (MGHR 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 616
EP  - 624
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_67
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-509-6_67
ID  - Zhang2025
ER  -