Potato and history of Empires
Well here is something interesting bit I read about one of most favourite food.
Potatoes came from the Andes. They were brought into Europe by the Spanish. This tuber came with special characteristics. It was calorie-dense, could be cultivated on relatively barren land, did not need much looking after and could be transported easily. Long-term storage was a problem that could be solved by planting it. Potato was also quite adaptable to various climatic conditions.
These characters helped create a nutrition surplus in Northern Europe that led to population expansion, allowing them to raise healthier armies and so on. It also enabled easier logistics in the armies. Many prior empires had to time their conquests based on the availability of food and the opening of logistics lines. The arrival of potatoes changed the military logistics equations a lot. In fact, till recently, one of the starting jobs in armies used to be that of a potato peeler.
In his 1999 paper titled “How the Potato Changed the World’s History”, historian William H. Mcneill explained the influence of potatoes on history. He concludes thus:
It is certain that without potatoes, Germany could not have become the leading industrial and military power of Europe after 1848, and no less certain that Russia could not have loomed so threateningly on Germany's eastern border after 1891.
In short, the European scramble for empire overseas, immigration to the United States and elsewhere, and all the other leading characteristics of the two centuries between 1750 and 1950 were fundamentally affected by the way potatoes expanded northern Europe's food supply.
This, then, was the second time Solarium tuberosum played an important role in transforming human societies all around the world.
Aside from all these geopolitical factors, the beauty of potato, as we say in Marathi, is that it assimilates into any dish.
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You’ve got me thinking Rahul! 🤭
A metaphorical potato poem!