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The West Influence

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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.

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