Timeline Of Sugar Timeline

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.

Everyone has their own understanding of what slavery is, but there are misconceptions about the history of “slavery”. Not many people understand how the slave trade initially began. Originally Africa had “slaves” but they were servants or serfs, sometimes these people could be part of the master’s family. They could own land, rise to positions of power, and even purchase their freedom. This changed when white captains came to Africa and offered weapons, rum, and manufactured goods for people. African kings and merchants gave away the criminals, debtors, and prisoner from rival tribes. The demand for cheap labor was increasing, this resulted in the forced migration of over ten million slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade occurred from 1500 to 1880 CE. This large-scale event changed the economy and histories of many places. The Atlantic Slave Trade held a great amount of significance in the development of America. Africans shaped America by building a solid foundation for the country.

Sugar was irresistible and that is why it was one of the biggest global trade items. There were pro’s and con’s to the sugar trade. Europeans got wealthy and powerful while slaves were worked to death.

818189 The “Engine” of the Sugar Trade Over one generation in Britain, the consumption of sugar quadrupled, sending a shockwave to the economy. This was during the eighteenth century, when sugar was being produced at a fast rate as sugar cane was being harvested and processed in the Caribbean by slaves from Africa, then being shipped to Britain to meet the high demand of the British. The “engine” behind the trade of this sugar was the combined force of Britain’s demand for the sugar, the ever growing slave trade, and the money invested by British people.

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

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

Sugar Changed the World In my book Sugar Changed the World many people of every race were affected by sugar. I like this book, because it tells you about the past and how they handled things. The biggest thing is sugar, and how something that seems so small changed our world. In Sugar Changed the World it dates back to the early B.C. period, telling you how and where sugar started to make an impact.

Slaves were a big part of history, and later causing the Civil War. The Portuguese began the enslavements of Africans in the fifteenth century, were they brought them to Europe to work as laborers or servants. Tobacco farming began in Virginia, Carolina, and Maryland, but was labor-intensive so they enslaved african americans, who later died from being badly treated, overworked,

Slavery became an established activity in America by 1600’s. The slaves were mostly to provide free and cheap labor. Apart from America, slavery was practiced in other parts of the world throughout history, and in fact it can be traced back to the time of the ancient civilization. With industrial revolution especially with the rise of sugar plantations, the slaves were used to grow sugar in the periods from 1100. This intensified between 1400 and 1500 when Portugal and Spain ventured into sugar growing in the eastern Atlantic regions. The growth of the plantations required labor, hence African slaves were bought from Africa, to provide labor.

The introduction of Africans to America in 1619 set off an irreversible chain of events that effected the economy of the southern colonies. With a switch from the expensive system of indentured servitude, slavery emerged and grew rapidly for various reasons, consisting of economic, geographic, and social factors. The expansion of slavery in the southern colonies, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 to just before America gained its independence in 1775, had a lasting impact on the development of our nation’s economy, due to the fact that slaves were easy to obtain, provided a life-long workforce, and were a different race than the colonists, making it easier to justify the immoral act.

Sugar has been a staple in the diets of Europeans for centuries. From desserts to tea, sugar has been added to everything. While it is unhealthy in large doses, the demand for the saccharide does not falter. Before sugar could be mass produced by machines, much of the labor was done by slaves. While this benefitted white Europeans, they were the only ones to have profited from this new sugar craze. The African population suffered immensely from the sugar industry as the working conditions of sugar plantations were brutal and they had no civil rights as slaves.

The international sugar trade (1500-present) had many effects on the global economy and society. It allowed and facilitated the mistreat of slaves based of the demand for sugar, as sugar was of such high demand that slaves would be murdered for not working hard enough, or killed by the machines they worked with. In contrast to this negative effect, sugar helped post trade and bolster some countries’ economies, such as Great Britain’s mercantile system and economy receiving a major boost because of sugar. Another positive effect of the sugar trade was the improved development of mechanics and technology, with machines being built to automate production of sugar, which helped towards the creation of automated factories and production lines.

	Chapter three, the most lengthy chapter entitled "Consumption", finishes the discussion, first introduced in chapter two, of how sugar became less of a symbol of power and more of a necessity for the common person. In chapter two, however, Mintz described this change by relating it to the economy. In the third chapter, Mintz describes the change in a manner relating it to societal values. Sugar's various purposes are described in great length, among which included preservation, decoration, medicinal use, as well as a spice. Sugar as a sweetener was given much of the credit for the shift of its use amongst various groups of people. Mintz writes on page 108:

	Chapter two, as the name implies, discusses the steps taken in the production of sugar, and how those steps evolved and spread throughout the world. Mintz begins on page 19 by giving the reader the basic definition of sucrose, "an organic chemical of the carbohydrate family." He continues by describing the history of sugar cane and the history of production. He then goes on to describe the economics of sugar production and how it directly affected world economics. A very important fact discussed in this chapter relates sugar to the evolution of capitalism. Mintz contends that as sugar becomes less of a symbol of power and more of a common item for the common person, that mercantilism begins to die out. As this happens, capitalism begins to play more heavily on the

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