this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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History Memes

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POTATO HOURS πŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺπŸ’ͺ (infosec.pub)
submitted 3 hours ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] cosmicpancake@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

This meme is peak historymemes energy. Potatoes were a legit revolution, cheap calories, flexible soils, multiple harvest windows, and suddenly peasants could survive bad years and feed more kids. Honestly people sleep on how much a single crop from the Americas reshaped European demographics and labor markets.

That said, this cartoon glosses over the price for monoculture. Ireland proves the downside when everyone depends on one tuber and a blight hits. Still, potatoes deserve the hype, not the hate.

[–] insaneinthemembrane@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

In Ireland there was other food available but withheld.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 27 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

Explanation: In addition to being a remarkably efficient foodstuff, the potato's introduction to Europe was also a boon on a non-nutritional level - namely, that it avoided many of the traditional problems with grains. Rampaging army going through your lands? They can't burn your field, and they don't have time to dig up all your potatoes! Shitty soil? Potatoes are brutally hardy plants, they'll make it through. Called off for corvee by your government before the harvest? No worries, the potatoes will remain until the frost!

The Prussian (German) king Frederick the Great, despite being associated with military glory in the modern day, was intensely interested in, and involved with, 'rational' reform of civilian society, including more productive forms of agriculture. He put great effort into spreading the cultivation of the potato throughout Prussia - an effort which paid great dividends in improving Prussian agriculture.

Amusingly enough, his success there intersected with his success in warfare - a French military doctor, one Monsieur Parmentier, was captured during one of Frederick's wars with France, and fed a steady diet of potatoes in captivity. As the potato was considered by many to be unfit for human consumption at this time, Dr. Parmentier was astounded to find, once the war and his captivity had ended, that a steady diet of potatoes had actually been quite healthy for him and his fellow PoWs! Armed with this discovery, Dr. Parmentier spread the use of potato back in his native France, and advocated for its use across all of Europe!

Thanks, doc!

[–] drolex@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 hour ago

Potatoboos hyping on potatoes, as usual

Objective rye admirers know the true superiority of rye, provider of food, beer, whisky and LSD (and death by poisoning)

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

Frederick the Great, despite being associated with military glory in the modern day

Throughout Germany, he's still known for his efforts for introducing the potato, which earned him the affectionate nickname of "KartoffelkΓΆnig" - "potato king". (To this day, people still lay down potatoes at his grave)

Initially, people in Prussia, just as the French, wanted nothing to do with potatoes, thought of them as potentially poisonous and at best suitable as pig fodder. In order to overcome those misconceptions and superstitions, Frederick famously had soldiers guard potato fields, instructed them to only half arsedly pursue potato thieves so they could get away, and to allow people to bribe them to look the other way.

He also was a bit of a reformer and introduced ideas of enlightenment into his government. He for example introduced compulsory education for everyone (that was not out of pure altruism, though, because he wanted his soldiers to be able to read and write), and instituted religious freedom. (He asked all religions to have their sacred weekday on the same day, though, because he liked the thought of all religions in his realm worshiping their god on the same day)

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

(He asked all religions to have their sacred weekday on the same day, though, because he liked the thought of all religions in his realm worshiping their god on the same day)

I've never heard this before, and I really want to believe this since I've never heard anything more stereotypically German in my life ( Alles in ordnung! ) but do you have a source? I can't find anything, perhaps because I'm not using the right keywords.

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I don't remember where I read this, but I'll look around. It was just a half sentence in a larger article on his religious reforms. I only remembered it, because I found the idea funny.

[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

History of Potato: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjVJqw1AUag