![]() His “Modest Proposal” was a frustrated parody of these serious proposals to chastise the ineffectual Irish government, apathetic Irish people, and exploitative English rule. Swift made multiple appeals and proposals to Irish Parliament to tax landlords, fund Irish industry, and adopt modern agricultural techniques, but he was consistently ignored. “A Modest Proposal” was written in response to worsening economic conditions in Ireland and Swift’s perception of the passivity of the Irish people. ![]() Daniel Defoe’s An Essay Upon Projects (1697), a series of proposals for the social and economic improvement of England, is a clear target of Swift’s satire. In the 1720s, Swift became politically involved in Irish causes, specifically England’s exploitation of Ireland and religious suppression. A Modest Proposal was most obviously written in reaction to the flood of political essays written and circulated in early 18th-century England. Swift was a member of the Anglo-Irish ruling class and therefore had allegiances to both England and Ireland. Ireland was a desperately poor and dangerously overpopulated country, kept poor and weak by English rule. ![]() ![]() ![]() Extant poverty was exacerbated by trade restrictions imposed by England. In the early 1600s, the English crown tasked a small Protestant aristocracy with governing a largely Catholic population. By the time “A Modest Proposal” was published in 1729, Ireland had been under English rule for over 500 years. ![]()
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