The western part of South America towers over the Andes, the longest mountain range in the world, with an average of 8,900 kilometers from south to north and an average of 300 kilometers from east to west.
The average altitude of the Andes Mountains is 3,660 meters, which is equivalent to the height of China's Cangshan and Niubei Mountains, and its height and length affect the climate of South America, blocking the wind blowing from the Atlantic Ocean, so that most of the rain falls on the Amazon plain, resulting in the formation of a diverse climate region in South America.
The topic of this article is Japan and the United Kingdom, so let's leave the climate in South America aside for the time being, but let's talk about the main points first.
The impact of the Andes on Britain is that they produce potatoes, an essential food for British people every day.
About 7,000 years ago, an Indian tribe was defeated by the enemy, who fled from the primeval forests of the Amazon in the east to the cold Andes Mountains, and settled in what is now the border between Peru and Bolivia, near Lake Titicaca.
The climate around Lake Titicaca is colder than your predecessor's heart, it is difficult for the Indians to grow cassava and corn, they can only hunt while looking for new crops, and finally they accidentally found the earliest wild potatoes of human beings in the ground, and the more they dig, the more excited they became, they dug up all kinds of potatoes, and from then on, the Indians began to eat potatoes as their staple food.
In the 16th century (the middle of the Ming Dynasty), the Spanish invaded South America, and the colonists brought potato seeds back to Europe, but because of the ugly growth of potatoes, everyone thought that potatoes were poisonous and even caused leprosy, so at first they were only planted as ornamental plants.
Later, the French agronomist Obamanch couldn't help but taste it and found that it was not poisonous, and it could be eaten when cooked, and it was simple to cook and had a high yield, so he began to promote French farmers to grow potatoes, and then this crop spread all over Europe, and Britain, Germany, and Ireland began to grow potatoes.
Farmers in Europe quickly fell in love with potatoes.
Because potatoes are very easy to grow, except for saline-alkali land, any arid or humid place can be planted, it can adapt to the average daily temperature of 8 to 30 degrees, the water and heat required to grow potatoes are only half of wheat, in the 18th century, the yield of potatoes per mu has been six times that of wheat, it is rich in nutrients, can make people full, and the growth cycle only takes 4 months, does not require too much care, more stable than other crops, it suddenly makes the whole of Europe ** fried.
To be precise, it was the British, German, and ** people who blew up.
Because before potatoes arrived in Europe, the French had the best land in Europe, and the grain production exceeded their own needs by three times, in 1700 France had a population of 21.5 million, accounting for one-fifth of all Europe, and France's army of 300,000 also accounted for one-third of all Europe.
In 1700, Britain had only 5.8 million people, Germany had a total population of 30 million** to 14.1 million (some sources say only 12 million) because of the Thirty Years' War, Spain had only 7.4 million, Tsarist Russia had only 13 million, and the Netherlands, although at its peak, had only 1.95 million.
In the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France, although the British team won many victories, it was unable to annex France, but was finally defeated by France, because the population of the two countries has always been five times the difference, for example, in 1300, France had a population of 16 million, England only 3.5 million, the main disadvantage of Britain is that the population is too small, and logistics cannot keep up.
France has always been the hegemon of Europe in ancient times, its foundation is fertile land, abundant food, large population, Spanish succession war, countries jointly attacked France, no matter how hard it can not be defeated, France relied on the population to support the status of the first power in Europe, but it is already the first power full of holes.
After the popularization of potatoes in Europe, the advantages of France gradually disappeared, and the British originally thought that their land could only feed 11 million people at most, but they did not expect that potatoes made the British crazy to give birth, reaching 41.6 million in 1900, and the British population increased sevenfold in 250 years.
In 1800, France had a population of 29.5 million, and Germany and Tsarist Russia relied on potatoes, reaching 24.5 million and 35 million respectively, and Tsarist Russia had surpassed France. By 1870, the number of people in Tsarist Russia rose to 67 million, that of Germany rose to 41 million, and that of France was only 38.5 million, and the total population fell to the third place in Europe.
The population of all European countries is soaring, so why is France growing so slowly?Isn't it the best land in all of Europe?
It's all to blame on the French who don't like to eat potatoes.
In 1815, France produced 2.96 million tons of wheat and 1.63 million tons of potatoesBy 1865, French potato production slightly surpassed that of wheat, with potatoes remaining at 8 million to 10 million tons and wheat at 7 million to 9 million tons.
In 1846, Germany produced 7.05 million tons of potatoes and 1.42 million tons of wheatIn 1870, Germany produced 2.41 million tons of wheat and 20.36 million tons of potatoes.
I haven't been able to find data on the UK's potato production over the years, but just looking at the UK's population growth data can tell you how enthusiastic they are about potatoes.
The French don't like to eat potatoes, probably because their life in the past was too superior, potatoes were regarded as a lowly poor food when they were first promoted, the French have long been rich and have improved their tastes, and there is a psychological barrier to eating potatoes, but the Germans and the British do not have this psychological problem, and they eat potatoes very happily.
Potatoes are an agricultural product that is very suitable for the geographical environment of Europe, because it can provide a lot of protein, vitamins, minerals, but lack of vitamins A and D, but these two vitamins can be supplemented by drinking milk, and most of Europe is a temperate maritime climate, and there is the influence of the North Atlantic Warm Current in winter, which makes animal husbandry in Europe very developed, and drinking milk is not a problem, so that a complementary relationship is formed.
I have traveled to Europe twice and found that no matter which country they go to, they will have a ** fries for what they order, which is the result of the close connection between their lives and potatoes.
The advantage of planting potatoes is not only higher yield, but also saving land, turning a lot of agricultural land into industrial land, so that many agricultural people can go to work in factories or join the army, in 1906, the total population of France and Germany is about the same, but there are 5.95 million workers in Germany, while there are only 3.16 million workers in France, Germany's industry exceeds France's, and the industrial output value is higher, which is the result of eating potatoes and wheat.
In 1906, Mendeleev expected that their total population would reach 28.2 billion, it will reach 600 million in 2000, but the story of the population, I introduced it in "Iron and Blood Remnant Germany", they were beaten too badly by the Germans, and they lost 30 million people in the two world wars, and they were beaten into Russia's national shame.
By the way, British food is notoriously unpalatable, and it has a lot to do with potatoes.
Britain had colonized the globe and collected all kinds of delicacies from the earth, and their diet was originally very luxurious, but there was a big break in their diet.
On the one hand, they urbanized and industrialized too early, in 1911, 80% of the population lived in cities, and the early industrialization made everyone very miserable, British workers had to work 14-18 hours a day, did not have time to eat a hot meal, often ate canned food to live, and ruined the diet of the common people.
On the other hand, when World War I and World War II broke out, Britain lost the high-quality ingredients of the colonies and was forced to implement rationing, but there was no restriction on potatoes, and the British could also fish in relatively safe waters.
After the end of World War II, Britain's luxury menu was lost, chefs lost their jobs, cuisines from other countries poured into wealthy Britain, and young people did not want to cook.
Three. In addition to the British, German, and ** people have a deep affection for potatoes, the Irish people are even more unforgettable for potatoes.
As I have said in my previous articles in the UK, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland in England are Celts, and England is Anglo-Saxon, and they are not the same ancestor.
England has been bullying Ireland in ancient times, in 1171 40,000 English captured Dublin, in 1542 King Henry VIII called the king of Ireland, began to colonize Ireland, after which the English continued to seize the land of the Irish, in the mid-18th century, Cromwell conquered Ireland, killing the Irish population from 1.5 million to only 1 million.
In 1652, three-quarters of Ireland's land and five-sixths of its houses were English, and the Irish lived a worse life than pigs and dogs, living in mud huts without stairs and windows, wearing tattered clothes, and farming for the English.
By 1775, the Irish were reduced to only 5% of the island, and the rest were English, who were forced to work for the English as their sharecroppers.
The Irish professed Catholicism, the English professed the Protestant Anglicanism, and the English wanted to force the Irish to convert, but the Irish would not obey, and the English looked down on the Irish even more.
Later, the English often took five-sixths of the harvest of the Irish sharecroppers, regardless of whether the Irish starved to death or not. In the eyes of the English, the Irish, a white slave, as long as they do not die, let them serve themselves from generation to generation.
After potatoes were introduced to Ireland, Irish tenant farmers usually planted wheat and oats to the English, and then relied on potatoes to feed themselves, the yield of potatoes was six times that of ordinary grains, and the population of Ireland also grew, from 1 million in 1760 to 8 million in 1840, and the population density became the largest in the world at that time.
Maybe you don't feel this number, so let me put it this way, by 2023, Ireland will only have a population of 5.12 million, and in 1960, they even had a population of 2.83 million.
Half of this is natural disasters and the other half is man-made disasters.
On some islands in Peru, where potatoes originate, there is a lot of guano that is used as a good fertilizer, and there are laborers in China who dig up guano and then ship it to Europe, but people don't know that growing potatoes with this fertilizer will cause potatoes to get late blight.
In 1845, the late blight first broke out in Belgium, then spread to France, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and England in August, and in September, the symptoms of the late blight also appeared in Ireland.
In just two months, almost all the potatoes planted by the Irish died.
The Irish have a single variety of potatoes, they are the most susceptible to germs, and in order to survive, they are the people who grow the most potatoes in all of Europe, potatoes are their staple food, and without potatoes, they have no hope of life.
The British have always ridiculed the Irish, saying that potatoes are the food of the Irish and clowns, and that potatoes and the image of the Irish are closely linked, and many years later, when Kennedy's father was the British ambassador, he was also ridiculed as "an Irish Catholic who planted potatoes". Because in the world of white Europeans, the Irish live in the worst conditions, and they can only live on potatoes, so they are also the most affected by potatoes.
Natural disasters are accidental, but man-made disasters are deliberate, and what the British did later is outrageous.
In order to rapidly expand their land, British landlords borrowed low-interest loans from British banks and started agricultural finance.
They will sell the future harvest of the land to the grain merchant first, and then the grain merchant will sell the first to the investment institution, and the landlord can borrow money to buy the land as long as he pays the interest on time.
This is the same as buying and selling pre-sale properties now.
But the danger of this financial chain is that in the event of a famine, the landlord cannot touch the surplus grain, which already has a buyer, and if it does, the whole chain will hold him accountable. The English landlords did not want to save people, so they went back to hide in their estates in England.
When there was a famine, the British continued to transport the Irish food, regardless of whether the Irish would starve to death or not, they even took away the Irish cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens, and did not let the Irish have any food**. The Irish could only eat grass roots and bark, and even the flesh of the dead, and many starved to death on the roadside, their bodies gnawed by dogs, but the British turned a blind eye and did not give any aid to the Irish.
The famine lasted four years, and from 1845 to 1849 the population of Ireland was reduced from 8 million to 4 million, of which 1 million died of starvation and disease, and 3 million fled Ireland and emigrated to the United States, Canada, Australia, and other places.
Known as the "Great Famine", the famine was the greatest disaster in Irish history and the worst humanitarian crisis in recent European history, and the cruelty and indifference of the British filled the Irish with hatred and distrust of them.
The Irish have since developed a mixed affection for potatoes, on the one hand, they are their lifesaver to survive the oppression of the British, and on the other hand, they are also a symbol of their sorrow, which has caused them to lose countless relatives and compatriots in the famine.
Potatoes, a crop from the Andes Mountains of South America, changed the history of Europe and the fate of the Irish.