МЕДИЦИНА, ПЕДАГОГИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ:
ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА
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THE IMPACT OF THE SECOND BREAD ON GEOPOLICY
_____________________________________________________________
Diyorbek Niyatullayevich Turayev
Journalism and Mass Communications University of Uzbekistan
Student of the Political Science Department
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Annotation.
This article is aimed at studying the history of the emergence of the
potato, its global spread, and its impact on human development and land politics. The
research analyzes the origins of the potato starting from South America and its process
of spreading to Europe and other continents, as well as the impact of this process on
agriculture, food security, and economic-political relations. Special attention is given
to the role of the potato in historical events such as Europe's "Potato Revolution" and
its effects on demographic changes, as well as its place in the distribution of land
resources and agrarian policy. This article reveals the strategic importance of potatoes
not only as a food product but also in the formation of land politics.
Key words.
Potato, agriculture, process, revolution, policy, consumers.
Introduction.
The phrase "second bread" evokes curiosity in someone hearing it for the first time;
you might wonder, "What is this 'second bread' they are talking about?!" This product
is the one you and I like to consume, and some cannot imagine life without—the
product known as "potato." Why is it that with so many products, the potato is equated
to bread? This question doesn't leave anyone who hears this information indifferent.
Did you know that potatoes have at certain times served as currency, saved millions of
lives, sparked revolutions, changed world politics in a word, and given a different shape
to the political map of the world?!
МЕДИЦИНА, ПЕДАГОГИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ:
ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА
Researchbib Impact factor: 13.14/2024
SJIF 2024 = 5.444
Том 3, Выпуск 01, Январь
563
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II. Literature Review.
If we delve into the topological history of the origin of the potato, beloved by us all,
this product grew as a wild plant between 8000 and 5000 BCE in the northwestern part
of southern Peru and Bolivia. Moreover, there are views that cultivating potatoes in
South America may date back 10,000 years. There are several views about the genesis
of the potato product, and this situation is still considered controversial. It is no secret
that archaeologists have found potatoes in material sources, that is, among patterns
drawn on pots and jugs. Remarkably, ancient American peoples created templates for
pottery based on the shape of the potato. This indicates that the “second bread” product
had great social significance for these peoples.
One of the first impacts of potatoes on society can be observed in the domestication
of this product. Additionally, this product made its influence felt in the culture of its
homeland, the Andes. In ancient times, this product had an impact not only on food but
also on economics and trade; for example, in the ancient Inca state, dried potatoes were
used as a non-food product, serving as money, and they called it "chuño." "Chuño" also
played the role of money in trade within this state. In the Inca Empire, frozen dried
chuño was collected from farmers as a tax and distributed from the empire's
warehouses to work teams for building roads, conducting warfare, and establishing
monuments. Also, the "Second Bread" saved millions of people from death in its time;
at the end of the 14th century, a drought occurred in the Inca state leading to the
decimation of a large portion of the population. Consequently, the ruler ordered the
distribution of dried potatoes to prevent famine, and this product became a savior of
millions of lives. After the Spanish conquest, chuño was used to feed the slaves in the
silver and gold mines in the Andes. As a result of the cheap labor, a large amount of
gold and silver flowed from America, leading to the prosperity of countries like Spain
and Portugal, which later influenced European politics, and we can say this without
exaggeration.
With the onset of the Humanism era in Europe, the widespread cultivation of
potatoes in this region also began. During that time, as we all know, a large portion of
the population suffered from hunger and plague due to their lack of adherence to
sanitation rules. In some years, when the winter was harsh and grain was lost, the
poorer segments of the population consumed potatoes instead of bread, which is why
this vegetable was called the "Bread of the Poor." For several centuries thereafter,
potatoes continued to save humanity. The King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, also
МЕДИЦИНА, ПЕДАГОГИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ:
ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА
Researchbib Impact factor: 13.14/2024
SJIF 2024 = 5.444
Том 3, Выпуск 01, Январь
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relied on potatoes. In 1744, he ordered his subjects to grow and consume potatoes. As
a result, the advantages of potatoes were recognized during the Seven Years' War that
took place from 1756 to 1763. Specifically, unlike grain crops, which could be burned
or trampled by marauding armies, potato crops remained underground and could be
harvested after the troops departed. Thus, the spread of potatoes in European gardens
and fields fundamentally altered the devastating consequences of the war.
When Vandenburg assessed the state of Europe at the end of the 18th century, he
emphasized: "Thus, the spread of potato cultivation clearly shows that for the first time
in Western European history, a decisive solution to the food problem was found.
Furthermore, the spread of potatoes not only significantly influenced population
growth but also led to an increase in urbanization in the 18th and 19th centuries. In this
way, potatoes contributed to economic development in the 19th century by supporting
the Industrial Revolution in England. By providing cheap and abundant food for
workers, potatoes allowed industrialists to keep wages low and produce goods at low
costs to capture the vast foreign markets on which the entire enterprise relied. McNeill
noted that potatoes, by supplying rapidly growing populations in northern Europe with
food, enabled several European states to dominate much of the world from 1750 to
1950. Vezerford was amazed: What would Ireland be like today without potatoes?
What would the Russians, Germans, Poles, and Scandinavians eat? Without potatoes,
the Soviet Union would never have become a world power, Germany would not have
passed through two world wars, and Northern Europe and the Benelux countries would
not have the highest standard of living in the world.
A historian once said, "For the first time in Western European history, a
fundamental solution to the food problem was found," said the Belgian scholar
Christian Vandenbroeke in the 1970s. By the end of the 18th century, the potato had
become a staple food in much of Europe, just as it was in the Andes. Approximately
40 percent of the Irish consumed no other solid food, eating only potatoes; this figure
was between 10 and 30 percent in the Netherlands, Belgium, Prussia, and possibly
Poland. In the land of the potato, a 2,000-mile area from Ireland west to the Ural
Mountains of Russia to the east, constant famine had almost disappeared. Finally, the
continent was able to produce its own self-sustaining food.
III. Observation
.
"The Second Bread" also went through very tough days from the start. Specifically,
the infectious pathogen: Phytophthora infestans, which approximately means "the
МЕДИЦИНА, ПЕДАГОГИКА И ТЕХНОЛОГИЯ:
ТЕОРИЯ И ПРАКТИКА
Researchbib Impact factor: 13.14/2024
SJIF 2024 = 5.444
Том 3, Выпуск 01, Январь
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https://universalpublishings.com
destructive nuisance of plants." Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete, one of nearly
700 species also known as water molds. It releases small sacs into the air containing
between 6 and 12 spores, usually lifting no more than 20 feet in the wind, but
sometimes traveling half a mile or more. When the sac lands on a susceptible plant, it
bursts open and releases its flagellated spores, technically called zoospores. If the day
is warm and moist, the zoospores germinate and send thread-like filaments into the
leaf. The first clear symptoms - purplish-black or purplish-brown spots on the leaves -
appear about five days later. By that time, it is often too late for the plant to survive.
By August 1845, the disease had reached Paris. A few weeks later, it began to destroy
potatoes in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, and England. Governments panicked.
In Ireland, the disease was recorded on September 13, 1845. Cormac O Grada, an
economist and disease historian at University College Dublin, estimated that Irish
farmers planted about 2.1 million acres of potatoes that year. Within two months, P.
infestans destroyed half a million to three-quarters of a million acres of crop land. The
following year the situation worsened, and it did so again the year after that. The attack
did not stop until 1852. One million or more Irish perished – one of the deadliest
famines in history in terms of the percentage of the population lost. Comparable famine
in the United States today would have killed nearly 40 million people. Nevertheless,
tireless scientists found a solution to this as well.
IV. Conclusion.
The potato, which you and I like to consume, has experienced the ups and downs of
history up to the present, holding a place as the savior of humanity and a staple in
people's diets, with new varieties continually being created, etching its name into the
gilded writings of history.
LIST OF REFERENCES.
1.
How the Potato Changed the World | Smithsonian
The history of the potato: The humble vegetable that changed the world | Sky
3.
The Potato: A Journey through Time, and Cultures | Wikifarmer
History of the potato - Wikipedia
