De skiednis fan hongersneden en de regearingen dy't se feroarsaken
November 24, 2025 · Frisian News
Most modern famines did not happen because crops failed. Governments seized grain, blocked trade, or forced peasants off productive land. The pattern repeats across centuries and continents.
FryskYn 1943 stoar Bengalen fan honger wylst skippen mei nôt Kalkutta ferlieten foar Britske opslachplakken. De ûnderkening wegere foarrieden fan iten om te lieden of priiskontrôles te fersoepelen, sels doe't trije miljoen minsken stoaren. Lokale keaplju hienen nôt. Boeren hienen foarrieden. De merk wie by dekret sletten. Dy hongersneed wie net it waar. It wie belied.
De Ierske ierdappelsikte fan 1845 deade in miljoen minsken, mar ierdappels wienen net it ienige gewas yn Ierlân dat desennium. Ingelske eigeners fan lângoeden eksportearren tarwe, gêrst en fleis fan fee tidens de jierren fan honger. De Britske regearing ferbean ymport fan nôt dy't libbens rêde kinnen hie, út eangst dat goedkeap bûtenlânsk nôt Ingelske boeren skeadigje soe. De earmen stoaren fan honger, omjûn troch iten dat op har eigen grûn ferboud en weifiert wie.
De Sowjetuny ûnder Stalin naam quota's fan nôt ôf út Oekraïne yn 1932 en 1933, wittende dat honger folgje soe. Stalin hie hurde faluta nedich foar yndustriële ynfier. Oekraïns nôt fieden Moskou en it Westen. Sân miljoen Oekraïners stoaren wylst troepen fan de steatsfeiligens elkenien delsketten dy't besocht sied te hâlden. Dit wie gjin mislearre rispinge. It wie terror ferpakt yn ekonomysk belied.
De Sineeske Grutte Sprong Foarút seach Mao syn kaders rispingen fan ryst ôfnimme foar eksport en steatlike opslagen fan nôt. Boeren ieten bast en klaai. Earne tusken 15 en 45 miljoen minsken stoaren, ôfhinklik fan de skatting. Lokale foarrieden fan nôt bestienen. De steat naam se dochs. Doe't amtners wyld opblaasd sifers fan de rispinge rapportearren, easke it sintrum noch gruttere konfisjeasjes.
It patroan hâldt stân oer tiid en plak: regearingen feroarsaakje hongersneed net allinnich troch ynkompetinsje. Se feroarsaakje it troch kontrôle. Se nimme gewaaksen ôf, ferbiede hannel, sette prizen fêst of fiere iten fuort by de stjerwenden. Se sette opbringsten fan de steat boppe it oerlibjen fan boargers. As jo praten oer feiligens fan iten of nasjonale reserves fan nôt hearre, tink dan derom wa't de kaai hâldt. Lytse boeren en iepen merken hawwe mear minsken fieden as elk birokratysk systeem ea.
In 1943, Bengal starved while grain ships left Calcutta bound for British warehouses. The viceroy refused to divert food stocks or loosen price controls, even as three million people died. Local merchants had grain. Farmers had reserves. The market was locked shut by decree. That famine was not weather. It was policy.
The Irish potato blight of 1845 killed a million people, but potatoes were not the only crop in Ireland that decade. English landlords exported wheat, barley, and beef throughout the famine years. The British government banned grain imports that might have saved lives, fearing cheap foreign grain would hurt English farmers. The poor starved surrounded by food grown on their own soil and shipped away.
The Soviet Union under Stalin confiscated grain quotas from Ukraine in 1932 and 1933, knowing famine would follow. Stalin needed hard currency for industrial imports. Ukrainian grain fed Moscow and the West. Seven million Ukrainians starved while state security forces shot anyone caught keeping seed corn. This was not crop failure. It was terror wrapped in economic policy.
China's Great Leap Forward saw Mao's cadres seize rice harvests for export and state granaries. Peasants ate bark and clay. Somewhere between 15 and 45 million people died, depending on the estimate. Local grain stocks existed. The state took them anyway to prove the superiority of collective farming and fund industrial schemes. When officials reported wildly inflated harvest numbers, the center demanded even larger confiscations.
The pattern holds across time and place: governments do not cause famine through incompetence alone. They cause it through control. They seize crops, ban trade, fix prices, or move food away from the starving. They protect state revenue over citizen survival. When you see talk of food security or national grain reserves, remember who holds the key. Small farmers and open markets have fed more people than any bureaucracy ever will.
Published November 24, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân