0:00:04.938,0:00:05.188
Baked or fried,

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boiled or roasted,

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as chips or fries.

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At some point in your life,

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you've probably eaten a potato.

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Delicious, for sure,

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but the fact is potatoes have played a[br]much more significant role in our history

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than just that of the dietary staple[br]we have come to know and love today.

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Without the potato,

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our modern civilization [br]might not exist at all.

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8,000 years ago in South America,[br]high atop the Andes,

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Ancient Peruvians were the first[br]to cultivate the potato.

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Containing high levels of proteins[br]and carbohydrates,

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as well as essential fats, vitamins[br]and minerals,

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potatoes were the perfect food source[br]to fuel a large Incan working class

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as they built and farmed [br]their terraced fields,

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mined the Rocky Mountains,

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and created the sophisticated civilization[br]of the great Incan Empire.

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But considering how vital they were[br]to the Incan people,

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when Spanish sailors [br]returning from the Andes

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first brought potatoes to Europe,

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the spuds were duds.

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Europeans simply didn't want to eat

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what they considered dull and tasteless[br]oddities from a strange new land.

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Too closely related to the deadly[br]nightshade plant, Belladonna, for comfort.

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So instead of consuming them,

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they used potatoes [br]as decorative garden plants.

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More than 200 years would pass[br]before the potato caught on

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as a major food source throughout Europe,

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though even then,

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it was predominantly eaten [br]by the lower classes.

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However, beginning around 1750,

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and thanks at least in part

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to the wide availability[br]of inexpensive and nutritious potatoes,

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European peasants [br]with greater food security

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
no longer found themselves

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at the mercy of the regularly [br]occurring grain famines of the time,

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and so their populations steadily grew.

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As a result, the British, Dutch[br]and German Empires

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rose on the backs of the growing groups[br]of farmers, laborers, and soldiers,

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thus lifting the West to its place[br]of world dominion.

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However, not all European countries[br]sprouted empires.

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After the Irish adopted the potato,

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their population dramatically increased,

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as did their dependence on the tuber[br]as a major food staple.

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But then disaster struck.

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From 1845 to 1852,

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potato blight disease ravaged [br]the majority of Ireland's potato crop,

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leading to the Irish Potato Famine,

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one of the deadliest famines[br]in world history.

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Over a million Irish citizens [br]starved to death,

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and 2 million more [br]left their homes behind.

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But of course, this wasn't the end[br]for the potato.

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The crop eventually recovered,

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and Europe's population,[br]especially the working classes,

9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000
continued to increase.

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Aided by the influx of Irish migrants,

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Europe now had a large, sustainable,[br]and well-fed population

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who were capable of manning[br]the emerging factories

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that would bring about our modern world[br]via the Industrial Revolution.

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So it's almost impossible to imagine[br]a world without the potato.

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Would the Industrial Revolution [br]ever have happened?

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Would World War II have been lost[br]by the Allies

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without this easy-to-grow crop[br]that fed the Allied troops?

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Would it even have started?

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When you think about it like this,

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many major milestones in world history[br]can all be at least partially contributed

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to the simple spud [br]from the Peruvian hilltops