Video: French fries. Baked potatoes. Mashed potatoes. Potato chips. Potatoes are everywhere because they’re easy to grow, nutritious, and totally delicious. But they’re also crucially important to the creation of the world as we know it. The modern world was built on potatoes! Ted-Ed explores the history of potatoes and shows how Western countries rose to power off the backs of potato eaters.
You see, Spanish sailors brought back potatoes from the Incan empire (who started growing it 8000 years ago) which resulted in huge population increases in Western societies. That population was able to give power to Western empires, provide labour for the Industrial revolution, and more.