Potatoes are one of the most universal crops, appearing in cuisines on virtually every corner of the planet.

So how did the potato become a staple around the globe?

The history is way more complicated than you think.

Unlike other root vegetables, the potato is a starchy tuber.

Think of it as a storage unit that reserves the plant's energy underground, allowing the plant to grow back each year and reproduce itself.

They were first cultivated in the Andes around 8,000 BCE.

Pre-Hispanic civilizations relied on potatoes as a nutrient-dense food source, and over millennia they found they could be prepared in a multitude of ways.

In addition to boiling, mashing, baking, and stewing potatoes, the people of the Andes would make chuño, a naturally freeze-dried potato that would carry communities through years when crops were not as successful.

In addition to being preserved for long periods of time, chuño was lightweight, making it a portable source of sustenance for Incan armies.

Potatoes made their debut in Europe in the 16th century after Spanish colonists returned from South America.

But it took a while before Europeans learned just how amazing potatoes really are.

When they first arrived, Europeans were skeptical because they closely resembled plants from the poisonous nightshade family.

It wasn't until the mid-18th century when the potato's popularity skyrocketed for a variety of reasons.

First of all, potatoes are loaded with nutrients.

We're talking potassium, iron, magnesium, calcium, protein, and a surprising amount of vitamin C.

Great for curing scurvy, which is an illness caused by a vitamin C deficiency that killed an estimated 2 million sailors between the 16th and 18th centuries.

That's why potatoes were an essential part of a sailor's diet.

They're also relatively easy to grow.

They can grow on a wide range of soils, they flourish in cooler climates as well as in temperate zones, they're pretty low-maintenance, and they pump out prolific harvests.

Just one tuber can produce four to five plants, and each of those plants has the potential to grow three to four pounds of potatoes.

Potatoes were an instant hit in Ireland, where they thrived in the country's rocky terrain and cool weather.

By the mid-19th century, potato harvests were so abundant, about half of Ireland's population subsisted mostly on potatoes.

But in 1845, crops were nearly annihilated by a blight, turning them black and rendering them inedible.

It became known as the potato famine, a period of food insecurity not only caused by the blight, but also by the English government whose legislation and agricultural export deals only exacerbated the problem.

In other countries, citizens needed a bit more convincing to include potatoes in their diets.

In Prussia, some clever rebranding by King Frederick II made potatoes all the rage.

During the Austrian Wars of Succession from 1740 to 1748, Prussia was grappling with a famine.

In order to help his people survive, Old Fritz tried to convince his subjects of the nutritional and economic value of potatoes, but his subjects rejected the new crop.

So King Frederick II came up with a more creative marketing ploy.

As the story goes, the king stationed guards around his potato fields to give the illusion that the crop was highly valued.

At night, he sent the guards home, leaving them unprotected and allowing people to steal the king's potatoes.

This story is still up for debate, but regardless, King Frederick II's campaign to popularize the potato worked so well, he is now referred to as Der Kartoffelkönig, or the Potato King.

On the other side of the planet, the potato's migration opens up a perspective that challenges

Western assumptions about history.

Radiocarbon dating on pottery suggests that the sweet potato was a staple crop in Polynesia as early as 1000 A.C.E.

That's almost half a century earlier than when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

Linguistics gives us another clue that the Polynesians likely had contact with South

America.

The word for sweet potato in Quechua, the language of the indigenous people in the Andes, is kumara, which is the same word across multiple islands throughout Polynesia.

We'd be very naive to think that Europeans were the only ones with the technology and the knowledge to navigate the world's oceans.

The Polynesians were some of the world's most skilled sailors.

They used bird migrations, ocean swells, coral reefs, the stars in the night sky, and clouds to navigate the world's largest ocean.

And using their double-hulled canoes that held up to 80 people for months at a time, they populated islands that stretch over an area of about 118,000 square miles of the

Pacific Ocean.

This all could mean that around the same time that Leif Erikson made his way to North America,

Polynesians went to South America, grabbed sweet potatoes, brought them back to their islands across the Pacific, cultivated them, and incorporated them into their culinary traditions.

It's clear that the potato's pervasive practicality has made it one of the most powerful and popular vegetables on the planet.

So next time you're eating Indian sag aloo, Korean gamjajeon, Peruvian salchipapas, or

Polish pierogies, take a moment to really appreciate the power of the potato.

What's your favorite way to enjoy potatoes?

Tell us in the comments!