DBWI The Irish potato famine an act of nature

1845 to 1849 marked one of the worst Famines in Irish history.

This famine happened because of a small collection of british landlords who purposely introduced the blight to Ireland to get rid of their tenants. This of course spiraled out of control and the potato conspiracy was found out. The Peel administration found them guilty and ordered their excutions, but this was undone when the Russel administration pardoned the 13 men who introduced the blight to Ireland and kept them from being hung.

This incident and the pardoned perminantly poisoned Irish british relations but what if the potato famine wasn't caused by human hands? What if it was an act of nature instead of an act of man how would that change Irish and world history?
 

Dolan

Banned
To his credit, Sir Robert Peel did organize a massive relief effort and practically almost bankrupting the British coffer to keep the tragedy from going worse. English landlords being banned from selling food products outside of Ireland for the duration of the Blight. Massive numbers of Corn and Wheat being exported from America, and when the treasury ends up empty, he, with Queen Victoria's approval, sold the East India Company to bought more American corn.

That did not end well, 200000 still died from starvation, another hundred thousand Irish fled to America, and Britain lost their grip on India, who end up being sold to their own Princely States, with the Sikh quickly gain prominence as they get the bulk of British weapon sale. But so does Hyderabad and the Burmese

...

The loss of India also made Sir Robert Peel unpopular at the time, but he does later wrote in his memorials about how he tried to do the right thing to alleviate the Irish from (in his words) "One of the worst crime against humanity done by My Fellow Englishmen".

Now, if the Irish Potato famine being natural instead of man-made, the British Government might not end up selling the EIC, and this might still end up in control of India. British presence alone will avoid the Sikh-Hyderabad Wars, and Burmese invasion of Thailand that cause millions of deaths, but maybe at the expense of the Irish, so... It depends, I guess...
 
I don't think you can claim it permanently poisoned relations when it enabled Irish as one of the 4 key identities of British nationality (alongside Scottish, Welsh, and English), arguably it's the second key behind English.
And the cooperatives that formed out of the relief effort would help form the Socialist Party that has dominated British politics this last century - four of the last six prime ministers were Irish and Socialist. There's a reason the Welsh Nationalists call the U.K. the Anglo-Irish Co-op!
The UK probably won't even be called the United Kingdom of the British Isles.
 
The British did nothing wrong, it absolutely was an act of nature. The lazy Irish couldn't handle a little natural disaster and instead blamed their landlords for it. Good, hardworking men were defamed by this and fed to their political rivals who eagerly bought into the Irish lies.
 
The British did nothing wrong, it absolutely was an act of nature. The lazy Irish couldn't handle a little natural disaster and instead blamed their landlords for it. Good, hardworking men were defamed by this and fed to their political rivals who eagerly bought into the Irish lies.
You’re just spouting conspiracy theories . It’s been proven in independent investigations by the Dutch danish and American investigators and scholars and botanists that British land owners introduced the blight.
 
The British did nothing wrong, it absolutely was an act of nature. The lazy Irish couldn't handle a little natural disaster and instead blamed their landlords for it. Good, hardworking men were defamed by this and fed to their political rivals who eagerly bought into the Irish lies.
OOC: I assume this is faux outrage for the DBWI? After noone is suggesting that OTL Great Famine was a deliberate event. At least they better not be.
 
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