At some point in your life, you've probably eaten a potato.

在你的一生中，總有可能吃過馬鈴薯

Delicious, for sure, but the fact is potatoes have played a much more significant role in our history than just that of the dietary staple we have come to know and love today.

馬鈴薯固然可口美味，但其實在歷史上馬鈴薯扮演著更重要的角色，而不僅是我們今天熟悉且熱愛的日常主食而已

Without the potato, our modern civilization might not exist at all.

沒有了馬鈴薯的話，現代文明可能就不存在了

8,000 years ago in South America, high atop the Andes, ancient Peruvians were the first to cultivate the potato.

在 8000 年以前，南美洲安地斯山脈的山頂上，古代祕魯人是最早開始種植馬鈴薯的人類

Containing high levels of proteins and carbohydrates, as well as essential fats, vitamins and minerals, potatoes were the perfect food source to fuel a large Incan working class as they built and farmed their terraced fields, mined the Rocky Mountains, and created the sophisticated civilization of the great Incan Empire.

富含蛋白質和碳水化合物，以及人體必需脂肪、維他命和礦物質的馬鈴薯是提供大批印加帝國勞工階層充沛精力的來源，讓他們有力氣建造並耕作梯田、 開挖洛磯山脈的礦產，並藉此發展出繁華的印加帝國文明

But considering how vital they were to the Incan people, when Spanish sailors returning from the Andes first brought potatoes to Europe, the spuds were duds.

雖然馬鈴薯作物對印加人民來說非常重要，但是當西班牙水手們從安地斯山脈返鄉，第一次將馬鈴薯輸入歐洲時，一切卻只是徒勞

Europeans simply didn't want to eat what they considered dull and tasteless oddities from a strange new land, too closely related to the deadly nightshade plant belladonna for comfort.

歐洲人根本不想吃這種他們覺得既沒口感又沒味道，還來自異國的怪東西，更何況馬鈴薯和於鎮定藥物的致命茄科植物：顛茄實在太相似了，讓他們渾身不自在

So instead of consuming them, they used potatoes as decorative garden plants.

所以他們選擇不將馬鈴薯吃下肚，而是作為一種庭園裝飾植物來運用

More than 200 years would pass before the potato caught on as a major food source throughout Europe, though even then, it was predominantly eaten by the lower classes.

馬鈴薯在 200 年後才成為歐洲的主要食物來源，但即使成為了主食，吃馬鈴薯的人大多來自下層階級

However, beginning around 1750, and thanks at least in part to the wide availability of inexpensive and nutritious potatoes, European peasants with greater food security no longer found themselves at the mercy of the regularly occurring grain famines of the time and so their populations steadily grew.

然而，從1750年左右開始，部分歸功於馬鈴薯能低價取得又富含營養，讓歐洲農民的食物供給變得十分穩定，不再受罪於當時經常發生的糧食飢荒，使得馬鈴薯漸漸地越來越受歡迎

As a result, the British, Dutch and German Empires rose on the backs of the growing groups of farmers, laborers, and soldiers, thus lifting the West to its place of world dominion.

結果，英國、荷蘭和德意志帝國以農民、勞工和軍隊的成長做為後盾崛起，將西方的霸權擴及到了全世界

However, not all European countries sprouted empires.

然而，並不是所有的歐洲國家都發展成了帝國

After the Irish adopted the potato, their population dramatically increased, as did their dependence on the tuber as a major food staple.

在愛爾蘭人開始種植馬鈴薯之後，人口便飛快地成長，而對做為主食的根莖類食物的依賴也快速上升

But then disaster struck.

但災難就此突然降臨

From 1845 to 1852, potato blight disease ravaged the majority of Ireland's potato crop, leading to the Irish Potato Famine, one of the deadliest famines in world history.

從 1845 到 1852 年間的晚疫病 (馬鈴薯及番茄重要病害) 摧殘了大部分愛爾蘭的馬鈴薯作物，導致了世界史上死亡人數最多的飢荒之一的愛爾蘭「馬鈴薯飢荒」

Over a million Irish citizens starved to death, and 2 million more left their homes behind.

超過一百萬愛爾蘭人民死於飢荒，而有兩百多萬人只好就此離鄉背井

But of course, this wasn't the end for the potato.

但這當然不會是馬鈴薯最終的結局

The crop eventually recovered, and Europe's population, especially the working classes, continued to increase.

馬鈴薯作物最終還是從疫病中恢復了，而歐洲的人口，尤其是勞工階層，仍持續成長

Aided by the influx of Irish migrants, Europe now had a large, sustainable, and well-fed population who were capable of manning the emerging factories that would bring about our modern world via the Industrial Revolution.

再加上愛爾蘭移民的湧入，讓大批人口提供豐沛人力給大量湧現的工廠，並藉由工業革命的力量實現出我們的現代化社會

So it's almost impossible to imagine a world without the potato.

因此，我們幾乎無法想像沒有馬鈴薯的世界會發生什麼事

Would the Industrial Revolution ever have happened?

工業革命還會發生嗎？

Would World War II have been lost by the Allies without this easy-to-grow crop that fed the Allied troops?

沒有這些容易生長的馬鈴薯作物來餵飽同盟軍的話，同盟國是否已經在第二次世界大戰時戰敗了？

Would it even have started?

這場戰爭還會發生嗎？

When you think about it like this, many major milestones in world history can all be at least partially attributed to the simple spud from the Peruvian hilltops.

從這個角度去思考，便能發現世界歷史中許多的里程碑，至少一部分得歸功於來自秘魯山頂上不起眼的馬鈴薯