Plantation of Ulster

The Plantation of Ulster refers to an incident in Ulster (in present-day Northern Ireland) during the 17th century, in which English and Scottish Protestants settled on land that had been confiscated from the Catholic Irish. Even four hundred years later, this remains a controversial topic, as it relates directly the religious tension that presently exists in Northern Ireland. After the Flight of the Earls, a power vacuum existed in Ulster, which the English authorities sought to exploit to consolidate English rule over Ireland.