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| Potato
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| Solanum tuberosum L. |
The potato is unrelated to the sweet potato. In the United States it is sometimes referred to as the "Irish Potato" to distinguish it.
The potato plant is thought to be native to the AndesSee also architecture with non-sequential dynamic execution scheduling (ANDES). Please note that the geology in this article reflects views from the first decade of the 20th century. It is a good example of the descriptive geology of that time, but becaus and cultivated originally by the Inca and other Pre-ColumbianThe term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus, in practice the term usually includes indigenous cultures as the people of the region, spreading over time throughout other Native AmericanNative Americans (also Indians Aboriginal Peoples American Indians First Nations Alaskan Natives or Indigenous Peoples of America are the indigenous inhabitants of Americas prior to the European colonization, and their modern descendants. This term compri groups and becoming a staple food.
In the 16th century15th century 16th century 17th century more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. Events Beginning of the " Little Ice Age" a cooling period that resulted in lower crop yi, the Spaniards introduced it to the rest of the world. The name "potato" came from the SpanishThe word Spanish can mean: The Spanish language (also known as Castilian) The ethnic Spanish people Spaniards , see also list of Spanish people From or related to Spain. word "patata" (the original QuechuaQuechua (Quechua, Runa Simi is an American Indian language native to South America and related to Aymara, both members of the Quechumaran linguistic stock. It was the official language of the Tawantinsuyu ( Inca Empire), and today is spoken in various dia word was "papa"). Many other European languages took forms of this Spanish name. In the Americas, the word "papa" is more common in the Spanish language than "patata".
It has long been popularly taught that Sir Walter Raleigh was responsible for bringing the potato to England, but Sir Francis Drake is more likely to be responsible. In 1586, after battling the Spaniards in the Caribbean, Drake stopped at Cartagena in Colombia to collect provisions - including tobacco and potato tubers. Before returning to England he stopped at Roanoke Island, where the first English settlers had been attempting to set up a colony. The pioneers returned to England with Drake, along with the potatoes.
By 1650 potatoes were the staple food of Ireland, and they began to replace wheat as the major crop elsewhere in Europe, being used to feed both people and animals. The first mention of potatoes appearing in North America comes from Irish settlers in Londonderry, New Hampshire during 1719.
Antoine Parmentier after his captivity in Prussia and winning a theory contest in France in the 18th century made it more practical to use it.The potato was such an important food to the Irish that it is permanently associated with them today in the popular imagination, due to a single devastating event—the Irish potato famine. In the 1840s there was a major outbreak of potato blight, which swept through Europe, wiping out the potato crop in many countries. The Irish economy was so dependent on a single variety of potatoes as a staple at this time that the event led to terrible disease, death, famine, and subsequently emigration by many of the survivors to areas where there was more food. The blight marks an important, though tragic, point in Irish history.
Enthusiasts for the possibility of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contacts have argued that potatoes were present in the Old World and Asia before the 16th century. There is however no generally accepted evidence for this.