Potatoes are so popular and important that you might think they've been part of the world's diet for a long time. But that's not true. No one in Europe had actually seen a potato until a few hundred years ago.
When Spanish explorers arrived in South America in the sixteenth century, they realized that the Incas were growing and eating a tuber.
Explorers sent some of these tubers to Europe, where they were planted. The Spaniards thought the tuber looked a lot like the batata (sweet potato), so they called the new food patata. This word became potato in England.
It wasn't until the eighteenth century that people in England, France and the American colonies started eating potatoes often. In Germany, the king ordered all farmers to plant potatoes to help solve the country's food shortage. For farmers who refused, the king decreed that their noses and ears be cut off!
The average American eats about 55 kilos of potatoes a year. But Uganda is the country where this tuber is consumed the most, with 475 kilos per capita per year!
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