British in Ireland

The conflict between English imperial control and Irish nationalism began long ago. It started taking place as far back as the 12th century when Henry II, with the Pope's approval, declared himself ruler of Ireland. For many centuries after this occurrence England's control of Ireland was very limited, even though it didn't have any real unified opposition. Much of this, however, began to change as early as the 17th century.

Many things involving this conflict took place in the 17th and 18th centuries. The event that seemed to start all of it was the removal of land from their Irish farmers. This land was given to English and Scottish settlers. This incident led to an Irish revolt, which was quickly ended by Cromwell's English army. This rebellion inspired the British to go even further with their land removal policies. In addition to the confiscation of Irish land, the Dublin Parliament also passed a series of acts that prohibited Catholics from doing many things. These acts, known as the Penal Code, along with the other unfair treatments that the Irish were experiencing from the British further inspired the Irish nationalistic cause.

By the later half of the 18th century many Protestant and Catholics started coming together, despite drastic religious differences, to fight the British intrusion. Two important organizations sprang from these developments. The Society of United Irishmen was founded in 1791 with their main goals being Irish independence and Catholic freedom. This groups did not have much success and an attempted revolt in 1798 was ended easily. As a result to the development of this organization, the Orange Order was founded in 1795. It was, and still is, against iris independence. Determined to end revolts such as the one undertaken by the United Irishmen, in 1801 the English Parliament passed an Act of Union.

One of the most drastic things that has happened at least in some part as a result of English rule was the potato famine of 1846-1847. Although the failure of the potato crop that year was a natural occurrence other things that went along with it were not. The Irish produced more than enough for themselves, but the vast majority of it was shipped to England to be sold at their markets. Also, the English simply didn't seem to mind that almost a million Irish people died or either starvation or disease. It was actually more of a blessing as far as many English