Country War
As Country War ( English for "war for the country," Irish Cogadh na talun ) the fight is Irish National Land League for land reform and for the rights of tenants in Ireland in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s respectively. Although the name suggests this and there were occasional violent clashes, it was not actually a war .
Context and history
Ireland was at that time under British rule, the soil in Ireland belonged to the English landlords (landlords) . The Irish farmers tilled the land as tenants, often had to pay high rents and lived in abject poverty, which reached its peak in the famine of 1845–1849 and drove many Irish people to emigrate (especially to the USA ).
In 1879, especially in the west of Ireland, the potato harvest was again poor (→ Famine in Ireland 1879 ). Many of the farmers affected had seen the great famine in their childhood and feared that the same fate would happen to them and their children. This fear contributed to increasing the willingness to possibly also militant resistance against poverty and oppression.
After various local land leagues had already emerged, Michael Davitt founded the Irish National Land League in collaboration with Charles Stewart Parnell to help the tenants' concerns break through. These concerns were summarized in the Three Fs (“Drei Fs”): fair rent (no excessive lease payments), fixity of tenure (long-term leases, no evictions) and freedom of sale ( freedom of sale ).
course
The demands of the tenants and the Land League naturally met with resistance from the landlords. The Land League tried to force the Landlords to give in by setting a "fair" rent and then encouraging its members to claim it from the Landlords. If they refuse, the lease should be paid directly to the Land League, which kept the money under lock and key until the Landlord would relent. The first target was the Catholic canon Ulick Burke, who had to reduce the rent for his tenants by 25%.
Famous for the tenants' refusal to harvest in the Lough Mask area in County Mayo in 1880 , which exposed the local land manager Charles Cunningham Boycott in public and eventually had to give in. His name was imprinted as the epitome of collective denial; the term “ boycott ” is a legacy of the Land War.
Many landlords also resisted violently; the Royal Irish Constabulary , though mostly Irish, sided with the landlords, and the British army was installed. For their part, the supporters of the Land League sometimes fought militantly against the expulsions that were widespread at the time, and at times there were attacks on landlords and their properties. There were deaths on both sides.
consequences
Within three decades, the Land League achieved its goal. There were laws in favor of the tenant adopted (Land Act) and under which a Irish Land Commission established, and with the Wyndham country Purchase Act of 1903 of Irish soil eventually came into the possession of the Irish farmers.