History through the eyes of the potato - Leo Bear-McGuinness 

Not to mention Matt Damon wouldn't have stood a chance on Mars.

"You're welcome" -All Peruvians

Don't forget the accidental invention of potato chips.

Ye olde potato shoppe Beautiful.

In Finland the word for potato is "peruna" in reference to its peruvian ancestry

The potato was a major player in Finland's population growth in the 1800's! The potato is suited well for the cold climate and short summer of Finland. The fact that it can survive cold temeratures as long as the ground doesn't freeze made it a good food item.

potato is love ,potato is life.

As a Peruvian, this makes me proud :)

So basically the entire world was just waiting for potatoes so that it could develop into the modern world that we now take for granted

I went to Peru for 2 weeks & they sure are proud of their potatoes. I was told probably 10 times they came from there. love that country

I have never thought my ancestors created so much history, proud to be a potato!

The potatoe is a big part of my culture (peruvian culture), now we have more than 3000 varieties and we are proud of it. I hope some day TED-Ed make more videos about Incas soon.

Interesting video but I can't watch a video mentioning the Irish potato famine without mentioning the conditions the natives lived in at the time. Land was taken off the native Irish and plantations were given to Scottish and English protestants. The native Irish then had to work the land and pay high rent to the landlords. This created a situation where much of the crops grown by the native Irish were sold and exported to Britain and the rest of Europe and the natives were dependant on a small patch of land to grow potatoes to feed themselves and their large families. When the potato crop failed all other crops were still being exported out of Ireland while the Irish starved to death. There tended to be a very laissez faire attitude to dealing with the crisis in Ireland with the British crown giving a pitiful amount of money at the time (Some will argue it was intentionally laissez faire). For this reason many Irish people call it a genocide rather than a famine. Whether intentional or not, millions of Irish died or immigrated due to the decisions of the crown and landlords that ruled the Irish at the time. Ireland's population went from 8 millions to about 4 million. Much worse than this video reported. Now I don't bitterly hold on to the past or have any bad feeling towards the British today. However there is a lack of acknowledgement from British and Irish about what really happened during "an gorta mór" (meaning the great hunger). I'm sure its a combination of just not being aware of what really happened plus a fear of reopening old wounds and hurting British and Irish relations. So it wasn't as simple as the potato crop failed. There was food being grown in Ireland but it was being sent to Britain and the rest of Europe. It was policy, rather than lack of food that killed the Irish.

The potato deserves a holiday.

Actually England took all of Ireland’s food and aided the the blite disease. They stopped all food coming into Ireland but Turkey managed to bring 2 boat loads in secretly into Drogheda’s harbor. (Because of this Drogheda has adopted the star & crescent as it’s towns emblem to thank them) It wasn’t a famine that happened in Ireland it was Genocide

Potato in Spanish is PAPA that comes from Quechua Language who is one of the Languages of Ancient Perú. ♥️

love the narrator

Did you know? Peru got over 5000 varieties of potatoes.

All over Peru, you can find the surprising number of 10 different varieties of potatoes in any market (white, yellow, cocktail, blue, huayro...) but in fact there are actually 3000 scientifically known varieties. We know so little.

When I had to go for an interview for an engineering course, the first question the interviewer asked was "what is the role of the potato in world history?" I pulled something together about the Irish potato famine and increased emigration to America and he said it was one of the best responses he heard but I would have loved to have seen this video before and appear to be omniscient being.

THANK YOU PERÚ! MY LIFE WITHOUT FRIED POTATOES WOULD BE BORED

Potatoe for President. They can stop Isis

Here in Peru, we have a lot of species of potatoes in many forms, size, taste, and colors (approximately: 3000).In my mother's birthplace, a little town in the Andes there was unique species.Regrettably, they disappeared due to the pollution in the environment. Now our government it's working in save and take care all of those species. I'm very happy for that. :)

Just another reason for why i consider the potato the best food in existence

I'm flattered that you made a video about me 😊

Very Imformative, I give this 110 Potatoes out of 100 Potatoes

OMG. My respect for potatoes grew by multiple folds. Next time I see a potato in market I will thank him for his contribution to this modern world.

Thanks from Peru. Not only the potato not only was taken from here, another vegatables like quinoa, chirimoya, tomato, etc.. The ancient peruvians domesticated it thousands of years before the Incas. When it was cultivated in Europe was such a strong vegetable that could grow in any country. The film The Martian shows it coud live in that planet too.

Never thought of the potato like that!

History through eyes of a potato: Water me, water mee, WATER MEEEE × Great, noe I'm dead, and I ain't tellin' sh*t.

my father is from peru and all of that is true. when I visit there they had so many kinds of potatoes.

The undisputed king of vegetables.

Why is Ireland partitioned at 2:08? That didn't happen untill 1921.

The world must thank Peru for saving millions of lifes and changing history.

I had no idea potatos were relatively new to society. I mean, when they talk about how the pre historic man invented agriculture I always thought of them growing potatos and carrots (in all the settlements, not just Peru)

They also saved Mark Watney #The Martian

Ancient peoples from Andes spent millennia patiently transforming the plant, which was poisoning in its original version. They didn't just cultivated it. They domesticated the plants.

Already knew this but liked because of the spud ceremony at the ending. So cute!

Peruvian is also blessed with Healing Plants, Love here as Pinoy

I am so surprised I am so happy that my parents lived in Peru and that is my culture ❤️👍🏼🙂🍟

감자가 역사에 관련이있다는것이 재미있었습니다. 우리가 일상생활에 많이 접하게 되는 음식도 깊은 역사와 옛사람들에게 큰도움이 된다는것을 배우는 좋은 시간이 되었습니다. 감사합니다.

Glad the Incas where at least mentioned but should have mentioned what it took them to cultivate the potato and how they did it was not over night it was a struggle and help build one of the most amazing and advanced civilizations

Some small remarks, at 0:35 Machu Picchu ruins are show, these are at too low altitude and too warm for any ancient or modern Peruvian to attempt to grow potatoes on it, at places like Machu Picchu its agricultural terraces were used to grow chili peppers and maize (btw for the Incas both of these crops were much more prestigious than potatoes because there were less available land and too cold to grow them in the original heartland of the Inca). Also, at 0:54, a burial mask/idol of the Sican culture is incorrectly passed as Inca. It's understandable though because the Sican were some of the most wealthy and advanced civilizations in Pre-Columbian Peru, for this Sican art is commonly used in modern representations of the Inca Empire because arguably it even surpasses Inca art which is often much more sterile. Inca art, unlike Sican's, rarely portraits humans or gods, literally no Inca-era depictions any major Inca god has been discovered so far (we only have pre-Inca depictions), albeit conquistadors do tell of Inca gods being sculptured/depicted in some major Inca sites, probably these lost depictions were very rarely made because of religious reason and being so few in number and placed in so important distinguished sites made them very easy to be destroyed. Also, the Sican being a coastal culture didn't rely on potatoes, some of the major crops of the Sican were beans, squash, sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes aren't actually related to potatoes at all), pumpkin, etc.

Another reason to be proud of being Peruvian!

As an Irish person I feel very personally attached to the spud

As a Belgian I can safely say that the potato is one of few things that’s keeps us together

Finally, somebody who shares my love for potatoes

감자가 이렇게 인류의 발전에 기여를 많이 한 줄은 몰랐습니다. 우리 몸에 필요한 거의 모든 영앙분을 가지고 있으면서, 재배하기도 쉬워서 많은 노동자 계급을 먹인 식물이라니, 정말 대단하네요. 유익한 영상 감사합니다.

1 like = 1 potato Wow! I wasn't expecting so many likes!

I'd want this guy to narrate my life.

The animation of this vid is just mwah *chefs kiss*

Bruh, watching this while eating a potato is the best thing in life rn.

History through the eyes of my pc? woah

This is among the best Ted Ed videos I have ever seen!

"without the potato, modern civilization might not exist at all" W video

His voice is so soothing

Without the potato, we'd have no McDonalds French Fries...

Person: what's your favorite history? 'random' girl: potato

potatoes are one of my favourite foods. Especially mashed

Did not know that consoles made such a impact on history!

Found this incredibly helpful! Thank you!!!! xxx

+TED-ED You have only shown it's importance in Europe, you should have shown more about the rest of the world as you claim that the whole world's history has been shaped by Potato. Just a suggestion.

The first 26 seconds of the video made me chuckle.

OMG thank you so much spud! Who knew the potato could do such things

HERE IN PERÚ WE HAVE MORE THAN 1000 VARIATIONS OF POTATOES. ..I CAN'T IMAGINE MY LIFE WITHOUT POTATOES

this makes me think "what if there is more vital crops out there but we never discovered it"

Please do a video of Irish political history with the 1916 rising and what happened as a result of that cause these videos are so easy to remember and understand

That’s my people😭🇵🇪✊🏽

I watched this while eating potato chips

History of potato video everywhere: 4 minutes History of potato video in Ireland: 4 seconds

You guys are the best! Seriously you actually are

I’ve never thought of potato that significant . Thank you potato! Thank you Peru!

Think again,Almost every historical event can be partially attributed to some kind of food. Like the an ancient harappan civilization collapsed due to a long period drought.

I’m a potato and I’m glad I’ve been art of history

The Potato has officially earned My respect

Latin America: Gave us Chocolate, Vanilla, Corn, and the Potato.

Really good video and very informative, but I always find that when talking about the potato famine, these videos always gloss over why we Irish were left to eat only potatoes. Its always portrayed that we just loved the potato and didn't know how to grow anything else, so continued eating them until we all died..... Never that our food source was taken away from us by our invaders.

I always knew Perú developed them, and Chile just keeps saying they did, but this video proved it :,) !

The beginning phrases sounded awesome

Thank you for finally making a history about my ancestors😂

That situation at 0:13 doesn't rub me quite right.

I just want to take a moment and thank all the potatoes.... Thank you potatoes! You guys are great and taste amazing

Was the title a pun? If so... I LOVE IT!!!!!!

My great grandfather told me of when he first went to the war, they gave him a bucket and told him to pick up potatoes. Instead he sat on the bucket and demanded to fly a plane 😂😂

@ 2:07, You forgot to mention that the reason the Irish were so dependent on potatoes is they were only allowed 1 acre of land per family and potatoes provided the most calories and that's why they chose potatoes. @ 3:13, were not the Germans dependent on potatoes also? The better question would be if WWI, and WWII would have even happened if the Germans didn't have potatoes?

AMAZING! proud peruvian ¡ LOVE FROM PERU .

This is what kids should be learning in history!

Potatoes are probably one of my favorite foods, because of its versatility.

Eu quero tanto ver este vídeo legendado!

I cant help myself laughing while watching this

the most simple invention is usually the most important one

"What's taters, precious?" "PO-TA-TOES! Boil them, mash them, stick 'em in a stew..."

Peru, home of the best food in the world

when there's a potato famine disease thing nobody thinks of just switching to grains and just harvesting wheat or oats?

So basically the fate of humanity depended on *_”Potatoes”_*

My entire house is powered by the humble mighty potato.

I never knew potatoes came from South America! That's insane! You normally associate potatoes with European-descended recipes, right? Interesting stuff.

Only if the Irish decided to eat lobster... They could have mostly survived the potato famine. Quite ironic... Something expensive that we eat (or don't like me because I'm too cheap) was practically worthless and considered inedible by people at time. I wouldn't have expected that lobster would have greatly increased in value by so much.

0:21 They have potatos for faces, and napoleon's hat is too big and Lincoln's hat wiggled. It's so silly but so funny!

Awesome, thank you!