Emergency Relief during Europe’s Famine of 1817 Anticipated Responses to Today’s Humanitarian Disasters

Humanitarian professionals continue to seek best practice guidelines for famine relief. Many emergency interventions in developing countries draw on recent lessons from the 20 century, but attention has also been paid to historical experiences such as the 19 century evolution of India’s Famine Codes and responses to Ireland’s famine of the 1840s. This article goes further back in time to examine public responses to the pan-European famine of 1816/17. It finds that many of the experimental actions set in place at that time contributed to a growing public acceptance of the role of government action in times of crisis, while establishing a variety of viable approaches that continue to be used today.