Potatoes and History

this episode of the history guy brought to you by Magellan TV of all the goods that cross the ocean in the Columbian Exchange perhaps none has become more ubiquitous than the humble potato it's become the centerpiece of hundreds of dishes its parts of all sorts of cuisines but that didn't really happen overnight originally cultivated by the Incas potatoes were brought back to the old world by some of the earliest European explorers but people in Europe didn't initially find them to be well particularly edible it was circumstances at a few diehard potato fans that made the potato popular across the continent it is history that deserves to be remembered but before we talk about potatoes I would like to take a moment to talk about the sponsor of today's episode Magellan TV you've heard me talk about Magellan TV before you know the history guy loves Magellan TV and thinks that everybody should subscribe it's a new type of streaming documentary service it's made by filmmakers it's got more than two thousand find quality documentaries for you to watch I know that many of us are stuck at home right now and trying to figure out even how to fill our time instead of binge watching some old TV show it's a great time to learn and Magellan is a great place to do that one series I've really enjoyed lately is called magnificent 3 which focuses on the impacts on history from three of the world's greatest cities Amsterdam London and New York it's a delightful series that has the interesting details and makes the sort of connections that the history Guy fans love I'm a big fan of history documentaries but you might enjoy science or space or nature all of which Magellan TV offers Magellan TV has the richest and most varied history content available anywhere it's got ancient modern current early modern more biography and of course even not historical genres like at science and crime are historical in nature you can watch magnificent three cities that shaped history anywhere on your television laptop or mobile device Magellan is compatible with roku amazon firetv Apple TV Google Play and iOS and you can even cast from your phone to your television if you have not signed up for Magellan TV already you really should and if you have signed up checkout magnificent three three cities that shaped history it's a great series and you know the best thing is that Magellan is offering one month free trial to fans of the history guy and to get that one month free trial all you have to do is sign up using the link in the description potato seem to have been domesticated between seven and ten thousand years ago by the indigenous peoples of the Andes modern Peruvians still raise hundreds of varieties of potato in those same fields the Inka created countless dishes with potatoes including a very light freeze-dried version that could be carried by the Incan armies in lasted ten years providing a supply against famine potatoes didn't leave the new world until Francisco Pizarro led his conquistadors to conquer the Incan Empire in 1532 it took some time to reach Europe with some of the earliest examples reaching Antwerp from the Canary Islands in 1567 by 1600 the potato had reached most of Western Europe as food the potato was not immediately popular while the Spanish and other Europeans likely used potatoes as food on their voyages from South America potatoes were more often fed to livestock or eaten only as a last resort the first scientific description of the potato came in 1596 from a Swiss naturalist who gave it the name solanum tuberosum the potato was unpopular for a lot of reasons it is a nightshade which Europeans knew to be poisonous and in fact the flowers and growths of potatoes contain the toxic chemical compound solanine another issue was that some such as the russian orthodox church thought the potato suspect because it isn't mentioned in the bible it was sometimes called the devil's apple and some said it was used by witches to make flying ointment most important to understand perhaps is the perspective of the european peasantry accustomed to grains and bread potatoes were an unfamiliar misshapen and dirty vegetable people didn't know what to do with them but after budding into a raw one they were pretty sure it wasn't food in the first years after its introduction potatoes were in a few places like England and Spain considered a delicacy and an aphrodisiac Shakespeare mentions potatoes in this context in several plays and English dr. William Salman said potatoes nourished the whole body restore its consumptions and provoke lust the director of the Royal Botanical Garden said potatoes were purchased when scarce at no inconsiderable cost for those that believed in their powers eventually their stock receipt of Europe began to realize that potatoes had some hidden benefits one of the early supporters of the potato was Frederick the Great of Prussia when Frederick Tests ended the Prussian throne in 1740 Frederick sought to consolidate his kingdoms holdings and strengthen his position on the continent shortly after taking the throne and became involved in the war of austrian secession which lasted until 1748 endemic warfare in europe put frequent strain on food supplies large armies needed to requisition more and more food causing widespread devastation and starvation famines caused by the 30 Years War from 1618 to 1648 were some of the worst in European history with population declines as high as 50% in some regions the introduction of the potato began to change that the first people to figure out the virtues of the potato were peasants who found that armies would ignore them completely when they came to requisition food peasants luckily first ate the potato out of desperation but the food proved to have much greater caloric density than wheat and better nutrition Frederick noted that despite military requisitioning the peasants were staying fed and even if the army did target potatoes they were harder to destroy or take than stores of wheat in 1744 he added potatoes to his army stores and ordered seed potatoes tubers that would grow implanted to be distributed across Prussia Frederick's patronage didn't convince his people at first when the town of Kohlberg received their first cart load they were disgusted and told the king these things have no taste not even dogs will eat them what use are they to us Frederick threatened that any peasants that refused would have their noses cut off but the next year sent a guard who had seen the benefits of potatoes to encourage their planting in Kolberg in 1756 he would even further with the potato edict which ordered everyone in Prussia to plant potatoes wherever they could find room for them this caused an important shift in agriculture as planted to the potato fields would be left fallow to restore the soil now they were filled with potatoes potatoes began to massively change European food production and supply cheap Hardy and less likely to spoil potatoes offered a cushion famine and effectively doubled or more the European food supply frederik actively advertised potatoes in this effort paid off handsomely when the Seven Years War began in 1756 Prussia was faced with wave after wave of invasion but the Kingdom proved remarkably resilient Prussian fortunes were a near thing it was a godsend when the Russian Queen died and Russia switched sides to ally with Prussia potatoes kept the situation at home manageable long enough for the kingdom's fortunes to shift Frederick supported potatoes so enthusiastically that he was called the potato King and people still leave potatoes at his grave Russia's potatoes caught the attention of other European powers in Austria Russia and France all pushed for the peasants to grow potatoes after the war the war also produced one of the most important promoters of the potato antoine augustin Parmentier permit CA was a pharmacist in the French army and was captured several times was in prison for years by the Prussians where he was had nothing but potatoes when he returned to France after the war he was amazed that his health had not suffered it convinced him the potatoes would make a good food source the French had actually banned the planting of potatoes in 1748 I have the suspicion that it caused illness Parmentier began doing pioneering work in nutritional chemistry trying to understand what in food was nourishing to humans in 1772 he won a contest so you can find the best food capable of reducing the calamities of famine the potato Parmentier also convinced the Paris Faculty of Medicine to declare the potato edible he also published a paper explaining how to make potato bread that was similar to wheat bread he hosted a feast made up of only potato dishes which Benjamin Franklin attended in 1767 in 1785 he finally received royal backing for his efforts possibly after presenting king louis xvi and his wife marie antoinette with a bouquet of potato flowers marie wore one in her hair while louis started a fashion of wearing them in the buttonhole potatoes started to become popular at the court though that wasn't necessarily good in the lead-up to the French Revolution it helped to the potato saved a bad grain harvest in 1785 from becoming a disastrous famine his most audacious attempt to popularize the potato came after 1787 when the King allowed Parmentier to plant 40 acres of potatoes near Paris at harvest Parmentier posted guards to chase away onlookers during the day but withdrew them at night the peasants assuming that only something valuable would be guarded stole from the fields this story or a very similar version of it has been told across Europe and attributed the various kings or leaders especially to Frederick the Great of Prussia though no contemporary records seem to prove that Frederick did it before Parmentier the potatoes popularity exploded and the king called parmentier that France will thank you someday for having found bread for the poor though Louis was destined to lose his head only a few years later parmentier became a hero potatoes were declared to be the food of the revolution and royal ornamental gardens were torn up to be replanted with potatoes permit J's influence spread not only to France but across the continent and apparently across the pond Thomas Jefferson had parties worked in his library and became a supporter of the potato in America so he took meals in the White House during his presidency Jefferson a famous Francophile is also credited with being the first to serve fried potatoes that he had seen in France the now ubiquitous french fries it's hard to overestimate the importance of the potato to history Europe was plagued with famines with at least 50 major nationwide famines hitting France between 1500 and 1800 most nations in Europe managed to grow just enough food to satisfy their needs so looting armies bad harvests and crop failures left countries without anything to eat potatoes solve all kinds of problems for Europe for a time it essentially ended famines in Europe massively increased food supply and provide a much better nutrition which improved health and birth rates potatoes provided an easy to prepare nutrient-dense food supply for the Industrial Revolution as factory workers toiled away for up to 16 hours a day the potato played an important role in driving population growth with modern study showing strong correlations with increased population and better health the European population grew from 140 million in 1750 to 400 million 150 years later a 2009 study found that the increase in nutritional carrying capacity didn't just provide food for factory workers but actually helped to drive economic growth and urbanization well it's impossible to know just how much of the changes directly do to potatoes is certain that it was an integral part of the Industrial Revolution and modernization another product from the Americas served to help agricultural production even more guano in 1840 Justus von Liebig published his pioneering work describing the importance of nitrogen in plant growth in the production of chlorophyll in that he also extolled guano as a major source of nitrogen which revealed guano as the world's first high intensity fertilizer the guano boom was historic in itself and it again doubled or even tripled agricultural yields the 1/2 of guano and potatoes created the basis for modern industrial agriculture but all this game came with a risk that no one predicted because potatoes were grown using tubers they were essentially clones of each other creating a dangerous monoculture across the continent nowhere was this risk more exemplified than in Ireland unlike France England or Germany in Ireland potatoes took off quickly it's not clear who first brought the potato to Ireland but certainly they arrive before 1600 Ireland was well suited for the potato and also had a very rural population that was always struggling with the food supply much of the best land was used for raising cattle and cash crops for British markets leaving marginal land to the peasants government policy had allowed subdivision of lands have set no crop other than potatoes would suffice to feed a family while war and shortage drove the adoption of potatoes elsewhere in Ireland they already had no other options by 1800 nearly 40% of the Irish ate no solid food other than potatoes with the number being 10 to 30% in countries like Belgium the Netherlands and Prussia policies had forced Ireland into monoculture making the population particularly vulnerable to a crop blight then came fight Opeth hora infestans translating roughly to vexing plant destroyer it is a water mole that causes potato blight the European potato crop was particularly vulnerable because of its lack of genetic diversity pea infestans seems to have originated in central Mexico and specifically affects nightshade plants like the tomato and potato it was probably brought to Europe as part of the huge volume of trade from South America that was brought on by the guano it seems to have first broken out in Flanders in 1845 but the mold spread quickly to Denmark Germany and England was first reported in Ireland September 13th 1845 the blight destroyed 25 to 35 percent of the crop that year and the damage only got worse until it wound down in 1852 the effects of the blight compounded by land policy that allowed for example food to be exported from Ireland even during the worst years of the famine and evictions that left people with no means to feed their family killed at least a million Irish people and cost two million more to flee the country damage to crops elsewhere notably in Scotland were deep enough to give the 1840s the moniker the hungry forties though nowhere is badly hit as Ireland historically potatoes have been an integral part of the development of the modern world studies have repeatedly shown a correlation between the introduction of the potato and improved health and increased population for the first time a defendant solution had been found to the world's food problem wrote his story in Christian Bandhan broke in the 1970s potatoes along with guano marked the beginning of industrial agriculture and the continued improvement of the world's food production today the potato is the number one non grain food crop produced in the world there's an important part of countless diets around the world from snacks to hearty dinners but blight and other threats remain issues for modern growers forcing producers continually find new pesticides to deal with quickly adapting threats like the Colorado potato beetle potatoes went from a local staple of the Peruvian mountains to an ugly inedible root to one of the most important foodstuffs in history that's quite a journey for a simple tuber I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets a forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on Facebook Instagram Twitter and check out our merchandise on T spring comm and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe you [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 262,231

Rating: 4.9649057 out of 5

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, food history, potato, potatoes

Id: QVbshrHSRo4

Length: 15min 37sec (937 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020

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