Ireland, 1801–1922

Autocracy · Empire · External rule · Western Europe · Industrial Age era

This period was governed by an outside power. Its factor profile describes the political order imposed on the territory, not one chosen by it, and its sovereignty score reflects that.

Governed from Westminster after the Act of Union through a Dublin Castle administration, with Catholic disqualification until 1829, a famine in the 1840s that cut the population by a quarter through death and emigration, and recurring land and home-rule agitation.

The Act of Union abolished the Dublin parliament and administered the island from Westminster through a lord lieutenant and Dublin Castle. Catholics, the large majority, could not sit in parliament until 1829 and rented land under insecure tenure from a mainly Protestant proprietor class. The potato blight of 1845–52 produced about a million deaths and a comparable emigration, and the population continued to fall for decades. Land legislation from 1870 transferred ownership to tenants, while home-rule bills failed until the 1916 rising and the subsequent war of independence produced partition in 1921.

Open Ireland 1801–1922 in the interactive 3D atlas →

Dominant patterns

  • Economic Crisis
  • Revolutionary Risk

Political-science factor profile

Each factor 0–100; higher = stronger authoritarian / crisis pole (except institutional stability, where higher = stronger institutions).

Centralization of Power58
Media Control45
Repression55
Nationalism70
Militarization45
Economic Stress70
External Conflict30
Cult of Personality20
Elite Fragmentation50
Institutions52
Social Polarization78
Corruption & Patrimonialism40
Ideological Mobilization45
External Sovereignty10

Economy & society

GDP per capita$3353 (intl-$)
GDP growth+1.1%/yr
Life expectancy51.6 years

Closest historical twins

The country-eras whose structural profile most resembles Ireland 1801–1922, by similarity score (0–100).

  1. French Algeria, 1870–1954 – similarity 83/100 · shared: Economic Crisis, Revolutionary Risk
  2. Egypt, 1882–1922 – similarity 82/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  3. French Indochina, 1887–1945 – similarity 70/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  4. British India, 1858–1947 – similarity 69/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  5. Dutch East Indies, 1830–1942 – similarity 68/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  6. Philippines, 1898–1946 – similarity 67/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  7. Belgian Congo, 1908–1960 – similarity 66/100 · shared: Economic Crisis
  8. Portuguese Angola, 1885–1961 – similarity 65/100 · shared: Economic Crisis

What followed

  • The 1916 rising and the war of independence.
  • Partition in 1921 and the civil war that followed.