A small minority of historians regard the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1852) as an example of genocide. During the famine approximately 1 million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland,[139] causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%.[140] The proximate cause of famine was a potato disease commonly known as potato blight.[141] Although blight ravaged potato crops throughout Europe during the 1840s, the impact and human cost in Ireland – where one-third of the population was entirely dependent on the potato for food – was exacerbated by a host of political, social, and economic factors that remain the subject of historical debate.[142][143]