Between 1845 and 1852, about 1 million people in Ireland starved to death, and 1.6 million Irish emigrated to the United States. This time in Irish history is referred to as "The Great Starvation". (Known too many as "The Great Potato Famine".)
Many farmers in Ireland were at a "poor" status before the Great Starvation. Much of the land in Ireland was broken up into two parts. One for cash crops which usually utilized the best soils, and one for subsistence crops on the poorer land. However, as marginal land was improved, subsistence croplands were often converted to cash tillage in order to pay rising rents. Thus, landlord pressure for more rents led to subsistence crops being pushed on to the least desirable land. This left many farmers poor because they couldn't crow their crops on land that they had.
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