[Rahman undefined - The Art of Breaking People Down: The British Colonial Model in Ireland and Canada](zotero://select/items/1_UDINDTXH) English elites had established the template of enclosure and "improvement" at home. In 1585, they tried to reproduce this system in Ireland. They took the land of Irish peasants and resettled it with farmers trained in agricultural intensification. Vast numbers of people were forced to retreat to small plots of land. Many had to go to England and Scotland to work as wage labourers. By the early 1800s, Irish peasants were reduced to eating only potatoes, because it was the only crop with sufficient calories that they could plant with their limited land. A potato blight hit Ireland in 1845. Over the next seven years, 10 percent of the Irish population died - about 1 million.