Thesis:
Sugar had a major influence of the rise of the West; social, cultural, and political factors all contribute to the Rise of the West, and was essential to make this happen.
Introduction:
The rise of Western Europe after 1500 is due to growth in countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean. The New World, Africa, and Asia from the Atlantic are countries that traded and had relations with Europe, and made the rise of the west possible. The three most important things to the rise of the west were politics, economies, and culture. Politics were important to the sugar trade and the rise of the west, because without colonies and countries being taken over because of their resources, sugar wouldn’t have profited like it did. The economy of
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Without the Jewish people, who mostly grew the sugarcane, the trade would’ve collapsed. “making and selling sugar from sugarcane was one of the most common occupations of Jews in the Middle Ages”(Sugar Industry and Trade) The Jewish people’s jobs in the middle ages mostly consisted of growing, producing, and selling sugarcane. Sugar was sold mostly to Europe, they became addicted and sugar became a part of their diet. “During the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries there were many Jews among the merchants of Antwerp, the Portuguese colony, which was central to the sugar trade in the port and played a vital part in the development of Antwerp as the central European sugar market,...”(Pohl, 1) The Jewish people around the 16th and 17th century were mostly merchants of a Portuguese colony, called Antwerp, which was the center of the sugar trade. The port located in Antwerp also played a vital part in the development of the colony that it , and was the reason that it became the central European sugar market. Many sugar plantations were also nearby, which helped them get goods easier.
Political:Govt, Legislation, (Who was running the countries at this time)
The political aspect of the sugar trade was very important. The places where sugar was grown, and is still grown today are were called colonized regions. These places were mostly ruled by other more powerful countries, and were taken over because of their access to sugar. Portugal was one of these countries that was taking control over other countries because of their access to sugar, and their climate, a special type of climate was needed to grow sugarcane.
Making sugar as it was discovered in the 17th century was a hard process. That is why it was believed to be an investment during this time. The sugar had to be boiled 3-4 times before the process was over, and the water was removed. What drove the sugar trade was the demand as it became such a huge stimulant. Everyone wanted it, and that's why people spent all their time growing it across the sea.
In conclusion, The sugar trade was most successful due to the high consumer demand and the slave trade. This is shown by the evidence of sugar’s addictive properties and its easy use as a sweetener with certain goods. However sugar does have its health and slavery issues, not allowing Africans and other slaves to live they life they
Today we take sugar for granted. But do we really know how it became the enormous product that it is now, do we really know what drove it to become this monster of trade? When Christopher Columbus came to the new world, he brought cane sugar. He quickly discovered how wonderful the land and climate were for growing sugar. In England, many rich merchants realized how successful it could become with the number of slaves available. Before the trade took root in central America, sugar had been considered a delicacy. Now, as it became more affordable, the consumer demand increased. All three of these factors drove the sugar trade to become the most successful and rapidly growing trade in history. The sugar trade was driven by consumer demand, cheap labor and fertile land.
The rise of sugar as a commodity in England situated England as the world’s leading consumer. The increasing popularity of coffeehouses among middle-class English people, as well the introduction of tea from China, fueled the counties. England’s growing interest in coffee and tea greatly increased the demand for sugar leading to a significant effect on Africa and its people. The high English demand for sugar required land to expand sugar plantations, and an efficient source of labor to produce, creating a connection between all three. For example, if there was not enough demand, there would have been no point in planting sugar and if cheap labor could not be obtained, it would not be worth doing so on such a large scale because it would have been expensive and unprofitable. Since they had all these contributing factors in their favor the British were able to gain profit from sugar plantations, which worked as a significant contributor towards their economy. To meet the land requirements the British picked their Caribbean colonies because of their control of that region and its climate. After finding the land for plantations, England had to find the source of labor to work these plantations. The English turned into Africa for cheap slave labor. The British had tried the local Caribbeans to work on the plantations but these people were already affected by the diseases that were brought to the area by Europeans. As a result, there were not many Caribbean people to work the
The long-term effects of the Columbian exchange included the swap of food, crops, and animals between the New World and Old World, and the start of the transoceanic trade. In order to produce a profit, Portuguese explorers were the first to established sugar cane plantations in Brazil. They then sold this crop to the Old World where it was a popular commodity because it provided Europeans with a sweetener for foods. In addition, European produce was brought to the New World, including “…wheat, vines, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens… Where they sharply increased supplies of food and animal energy.” This fusion of crops between the Old and New World became fundamental in enhancing the diets and food of both populations.
Sugar is one of the most important items that was discovered in the new world back in the 1300’s. The reason for this is that in the 1300’s hardly anyone knew what sugar was until Christopher Columbus went to the Bahamas and came back to Spain with sugar in the 1400’s. So what drove the sugar trade?, well there are many factors that drove it some of them were Land meaning the natural resources used to make sugar, Labor, meaning human resources that are needed to make sugar, and Investment Capital which is money used to buy tools and land. Sugar could have become such a desired good due to the fact that people in Europe found out that there is such a thing with the qualities of sugar or maybe it could be because of the low cost of slaves
This decade portrays the exploration of the Europeans to the American colonies which allowed England, France, Holland, Spain, and British to colonize with other lands and obtain power by expanding their territory. Nevertheless, England rose as the country with the dominant colonial power. Throughout this decade, the demand for silver and other valued items influenced trade globally by commercializing and strengthening European trade. In addition, the desire for power and control enriched the economy of the Europeans. The rise of European colonization also shaped cultural globalization since traders established various ethnic societies in foreign regions. European explorers were to stop at nothing in order to achieve success in expanding their
The Sugar Act of 1764 was intended to eliminate the illegal sugar trade that took place between the British colonies and the French and Spanish colonies. Nevertheless, it also had the effect of lowering duties on molasses, which reduced the economic value of sugar grown within the colonies. The act also included
DBQ Essay – What Drove the Sugar Trade? Beginning in the late 1600s and continuing through the 1700s the demand for sugar became incredibly high due to its addictive qualities. To supply the consumers with sugar they were craving, wealthy Europeans established sugar plantations throughout the Caribbean and built a thriving slave industry, so their need for cheap labor could be satisfied. Sugar consumption increased from 4.6lbs to 16.2lbs per capita annually from 1700 to 1770 due to the increasing addiction of the consumers.
One of the leading factors in the growth of the sugar trade was the ideal land in the Caribbean for the growth of
In both Chapter 7 and Chapter 10 the novel, sugar is emphasized as being a necessity to revolutionizing global trade as well as a tactic to utilize the labor-intensive manpower of slaves. Even with its discovery in the late 1400s by Christopher Columbus when he arrived in the Caribbean, sugar, the crop that Columbus “took westward, was a curse” because of all effort needed to produce the crop (113). Sugar rationalized slavery in the Old world because of the product’s trade value and the triangles that were developed involving products being shipped from the Americas, finished products from Europe being shipped to Africa in order to buy slaves. The cycle continued for years to establish the event that is now known historically as the slave trade, another major event in history that was based around food. Centuries of experiences were need to advise people and help them realize that there is no justification for slavery, so British citizens began to boycott and fight slavery during the 1790s.
As a demand for coffee, cocoa, and indigo plantation but mainly sugar due its profitability. In the 1740s, Saint Domingo became the main supplier of sugar. Sugar production depended on extensive manual labor provided by enslaved Africans. The slave population outnumbered and the threat of physical violence became the main way of control.
In 1493, one year after his voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus introduced cane sugar to the islands of the Caribbean. At the time, sugar was practically unknown to most people in Europe. This would soon change. But what drove this booming market of refined sugar and endless amounts of wealth.
By then, sugar and consumer items like it had become too important to permit an archaic protectionism to jeopardize future metropolitan supplies. Sugar surrendered its place as luxury and rarity and became the first mass-produced exotic necessity of a proletarian working class.
The production and discovery of sugar grasped civilizations by its amazing taste and capabilities. Sugars effect on farming changed how the Americas farm to this day, and has also created huge trade exchanges between continents and countries . One of the main reasons for slavery to exist for so long in the Americas was because of sugars high demand. So plantation owners had to search for more sustainable workers which led them to Africa. The constant bringing of workers expanded trade in the 1500s. Sugar also led to major milestones in history and changed food in many societies. It changed how we eat and how we use our world 's resources. It led the way for modern innovations in sugar cultivation and has given us more than sweetness. Sugar has helped scientists formulate new types of fuels which could be created through sugar cane.