The Plantations also had a major cultural influence. Gaelic Irish culture was decimated by the introduction of harsh measures for its use and English forcibly replaced Irish as the official language of power and business. Although by 1700 Irish was still the majority language in Ireland, English was the dominant language for use in Parliament, the courts, and trade. In the next two centuries, the use of English advanced westwards across the country. After the horrors of the Great Famine in the 1840s, when plantations and settler owned estates produced vast amounts of food that was shipped out of the country under armed guard while people starved, the deaths and emigration of nearly two million people caused the use of Irish to collapse in much of the country.