| Description |
This paper will analyze the circumstances and ideologies that informed the British government's treatment of colonial subjects in the years leading up to and during the Irish Famine of 1845. Using nineteenth-century Great Britain as a case study, this paper will also attempt to draw attention to the importance of looking beyond immediate crisis situations in order to better understand the relationship between resources, ideologies, citizens, and the State in a colonial context. I conclude that Britain offered little help to Ireland during the famine years because of deeply-held economic, religious, and racial theories. A meaningful response to famine conditions in Ireland would have translated into a total rejection of the ideas and philosophies that made up the dominate English worldview in the nineteenth century. A dogmatic adherence to this worldview provided a consistent narrative of British superiority that, in turn, justified the subjugation and neglect of the Irish people. |
