Which civilisation was the first to cultivate potatoes?

The potato, from the perennial Solanum tuberosum, is the world’s fourth largest food crop, following rice, wheat, and maize. The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C.

The Incas had many uses for potatoes: for healing, by placing raw slices of potato on broken bones to time calculations: how long it took for potatoes to cook. To modern times, in which we’re used to deal with potatoes furthermore matching well with bacon, oil, butter olives, onions and thyme.

In 1536 Spanish Conquistadors conquered Peru, discovered the flavors of the potato, and carried them to Europe.  Before the end of the sixteenth century, families of Basque sailors began to cultivate potatoes along the Biscay coast of northern Spain.  Sir Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes to Ireland in 1589 on the 40,000 acres of land near Cork. It took nearly four decades for the potato to spread to the rest of Europe.