We are aware that after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the native landlord population to a large extent was pushed beyond the Shannon River into Connacht, and much of the population caught up in the wars were exported as slaves to the West Indies or killed.
However, much of the poorer Catholic population in Ireland merely worked as labourers for the new Protestant landlords and some of those who were dispossessed returned to their land and homes later on, with some Catholic landlords restored to their position in 1662. Almost half of the pre-war Irish population ended up killed or displaced.
However, Cromwell had a true hatred for Catholicism and the Irish and might have decided instead on a course of full extermination of that population had things in England been running more smoothly. What if this course was pursued, and deliberate efforts at ethnic cleansing been taken to the limit? How close to completion would it have come? The economic incentives against it (after all the new landlords needed workers) were strong, but ideologically, the Commonwealth and its army was perhaps extreme enough to make this possible.
What would be the long term effects of a drastically depopulated Ireland to the island's cultural, political, and demographic future?
However, much of the poorer Catholic population in Ireland merely worked as labourers for the new Protestant landlords and some of those who were dispossessed returned to their land and homes later on, with some Catholic landlords restored to their position in 1662. Almost half of the pre-war Irish population ended up killed or displaced.
However, Cromwell had a true hatred for Catholicism and the Irish and might have decided instead on a course of full extermination of that population had things in England been running more smoothly. What if this course was pursued, and deliberate efforts at ethnic cleansing been taken to the limit? How close to completion would it have come? The economic incentives against it (after all the new landlords needed workers) were strong, but ideologically, the Commonwealth and its army was perhaps extreme enough to make this possible.
What would be the long term effects of a drastically depopulated Ireland to the island's cultural, political, and demographic future?