The potato, originally a South American plant, had been a staple part of European agriculture for centuries by the time of the Irish potato famine in 1845. Estimates put two-fifths of the Irish population as solely dependent on the potato for sustenance, with the other proportion being largely dependent as well. After a blight decimated the Irish potato crop, people starved in large numbers, with the problem exacerbated by slow help from the British government. One million people died during the famine, while another million fled Ireland for other countries, lowering the island's population by about 25%.

The potato is said to have first been brought back to Europe by Sir Walter Raleigh, though this fact may be apocryphal. The potato grows easily in a wide variety of climates and terrains and was quickly adopted and grown across a diverse area of Europe. In countries like Ireland, it led to a dramatic growth in population in a relatively short time. Potatoes are susceptible to disease, and when a potato blight affected Ireland, much of the population died or was forced to emigrate.

Of course the steam engine would eventually be employed to match all of these purposes, but it was first envisioned, developed, and used to try and pump water from coal mines more effectively. In those days, coal miners were often delayed by water for long periods of time or else forced to work in even more dangerous and deplorable conditions. The invention of the steam engine helped in this regard immensely, particularly as it was improved over the course of the eighteenth century.

Cornelius Vermuyden was a Dutch engineer who in the seventeenth century introduced Dutch land reclamation projects to Yorkshire and Lancashire in Northern England. This project turned land in Yorkshire and Lancashire into some of the most fecund and productive land area in England and was an important part of the massive increase in food production in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Enclosure Movement took place gradually in England beginning around the thirteenth century, but really accelerated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during the British Agricultural Revolution. The process involved consolidating all the small agricultural landholdings that existed under the “open field” system into a smaller number of much larger farms. This would have many consequences, but the most notable were the dramatic increase in food production and the forced migration of peasants from the countryside to urban areas in search of work.

The flying shuttle was developed by John Kay in the 1730s and quickly revolutionized the textile industry in Britain. Along with the spinning jenny and the water frame, the flying shuttle encouraged the budding industrial revolution and gave extra life to cottage industry, as textiles became immensely cheaper and quicker to produce.

During the Agricultural Revolution, the population of England more than doubled. The Agricultural Revolution meant that fewer workers could produce a greater surplus of food. A much higher population could be supported by a smaller number of workers than ever before. Many of the displaced rural population moved to cities providing the raw human manpower to spur the Industrial Revolution.

The spinning jenny was invented by James Hargreaves in the middle of the eighteenth century. It was an extremely important invention of the early period of industrialization. It mechanized the spinning wheel and made textile production far cheaper and more efficient.

Richard Arkwright developed the water frame in the second half of the eighteenth century. Along with the flying shuttle and the spinning jenny, it quickly revolutionized the textile and agricultural industries.

The term “Gentleman farmers” describes a class of people who own so much land that they no longer have to work it for either sustenance or profit.