On 4 February 1915, in response to the German submarine blockade of Great Britain, the Royal Navy seized all food destined for Germany which led to extreme food shortages. Prior to this, Germany had imported 25% of what was consumed and was not self-sufficient in terms of food. In response to this, a War Food Office was set up in 1916 but its actions were often counter-productive for example when they ordered the killing of 9 million pigs due to that fact they consumed grain. This consequently led to less pork and fertiliser and ultimately had a negative impact. Following the Auxiliary Service Law in December 1919, which required all able-bodied Germans to work for the war effort, there was a sharp increase of social unrest as Germans felt their rights being curtailed.
There were a lot a deaths and diseases that spread among the neighboring Indian tribes that sent a lot of them to an early grave including Captain Gosnold the Projector of the Enterprise. Planter John Rolfe and Captain John Smith mapped the area and intimidated Indians getting food that kept settlers from starving. This ended the mad scramble for gold as well as forced the men to build defenses and plant Indian corn. The economy of the Virginia Colony depended on farming as the main source of money. Due to the climate the colony wasn’t able to produce other crops necessary for survival.
People living during that time period had a very low tolerance for disease due to a weakened immune system. The Black Death killed anywhere from 30%-60% of the population of Europe. In the 14th century, this translated to about 75-200 million people. Because the workforce was significantly decreased because of all the death, it gave peasants more leeway to demand higher wages. Prices for goods increased along with the wages of the people.
Many colonists died in early Jamestown, was it because of the environmental problems, the lack of settler skills, or maybe it was the bad relationship the colonist had with the Indians? The lack of skills by the settlers played a huge role in the many deaths of the colonists. In May 1607, 110 settlers arrived in Jamestown. Of the 110, only 82 had known occupations, and 47 out of the 82 were gentlemen (a gentlemen was a person of wealth who was not used to working with his hands)(Doc. C).
The Spanish forced Native Americans to convert to Christianity. Although the population of Spanish conquistadors (conquerors) only numbered in the hundreds compared to Native Americans who were in the millions, the Spanish had greater advantages, bringing guns, horses, and disease. The quality of European guns and cannons were superior to the arrows and spears of Native Americans. Horses frightened natives in the Americas who have never seen one before. Native Americans had no immunity to the diseases that the Europeans unconsciously carried which wiped out whole villages and resulted in the 90 percent population decline in the 1500s (Ellis
The rough Winter most likely was the cause to 70 deaths. Based on the “Background Essay”, “Then, in the awful winter of 1609-1610, another two-thirds of the settlers died.” Harsh winters were bound to happen. There was nothing anybody could do about it or prevent it. The colonists could have prepared for it, but because they did not have the current technology, they could have not possibly predicted that a rough winter was coming their way. According to “Document D”, in 1607 August through October “Summer sickness kills half the colonists” The summer of 1607 was so severe that it killed 50 people.
Diamond mentions on page 107 that a possible ideology that many people that knew about the processes of farming were thinking was, “Shall I spend today hoeing my garden (predictably yielding a lot of vegetables several months from now), gathering shellfish (predictably yielding a little meat today), or hunting deer (yielding possibly a lot of meat today, but more likely nothing)?” Humans and animals are always prioritizing by availability and preferability of food choices. Availability played a key role because as wild game was hunted, its numbers depleted and became harder to hunt, offering less possibility of a decent payoff. This is possibly why in central and southeastern Europe the hunter-gatherer lifestyle became less effective, thus being a less likely life
First, the food lead to many improvements in health and taste. The food improved the way of life and more people ate the food because of its taste. Some countries in the Old World, like the Irish with their potatoes, went crazy with the new foods and added the foods to their staple crops. You could tell how much new food they were getting because some of the food would look like it didn’t belong in Europe. Since they were getting so much new food, they started cultivating in the New World with plant that’s were hard to grow in the Old World.
The famine had a disastrous effect all over Ireland and with the failure of the then British rulers to help with the food shortage and the exporting of grain to pay landlords their rent Ireland became practically unlivable which was the main reason for Irish immigration in the 1800’s. The famine left over a million people dead of starvation and others who survived with diseases such as cholera and typhus. Making them flee to the United States and Canada as well, as the living conditions were harsh in Ireland, the ship they traveled in to America was poorly as well, it was know as the “Coffin Ship”. The conditions were so poorly that many Irish died during the trip to the United States and Canada, never having the chance to live the better
Between 1840 and 1860 more than 4 million people entered the U.S, this was more than the entire population in 1790. These immigrants came primarily from Ireland and Germany. They headed to the northern states, there was barely any immigration towards the south. Irish immigrants fled for survival since a blight destroyed the potatoes which was the crop on which the lands diet rested. Other Europeans were attracted to Americas political and religious freedom.