Preview

what drove the sugar

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
879 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
what drove the sugar
10/4/13
What Drove The Sugar Trade? Sugar is a very tempting and delightful sweetener to foods used every day, all over the world to satisfy our appetites. One year after Christopher Columbus’s first voyage in 1493, Columbus introduced cane sugar to the islands of the Caribbean. During this time sugar was not known to most people in Europe. That changed soon enough and caused the production of sugar to become a large industry. The sugar trade was driven by land and climate, consumer demand, and the economy. Land and climate was a major factor in driving the sugar trade. Included in Document 1 is a Colonial Map of the Caribbean. The map presents that most Caribbean land are colonized by the British, French, and Spanish. Referring the map to Document 2, explains that an ideal climate average for the growth of cane sugar is sixty-eight degrees Fahrenheit to ninety degrees Fahrenheit which slaves are forcefully working and growing sugar out in the heat. It is an evident fact the British, French, and Spanish bought this land using slaves in an undesirable climate to grow lots of sugar on their land which pushed the sugar trade. Displayed in Document 6, are requirements of what a sugar plantation of five hundred acres should require. A few of the requirements are a boiling house, distilling house, rum house, and salt provisions. All of these houses on this one large piece of land help advance the sugar trade by the production of sugar all being done in one place. Land and climate drove the sugar trade by having great geography, weather, location, and temperature. Consumer demand was another main component of advancing the sugar trade. In Document 4, the author Sidney W. Mintz stated, “…all contain stimulants and can be properly classified as drugs (together with tobacco and rum, though clearly different both in effects and addictiveness).” In this quote, the author is referring to tea, coffee, and chocolate, and the use of sugar in them. It is evident that

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Sugarcane Case Study

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As depicted from the case study, sugarcane was a major commodity, which facilitated slave trade during the colonial time. Sugarcane was used to manufacture a drink called the Kill-devil, which was better compared to the expensive bear and wine. This drink evolved during the colonial time and kept on changing names from Kill devil to Rumbullion based on the ingredients added to the canned sugar. The name Rumbullion was later shortened to Rum. During this colonial time, sugarcane planting was an important activity since sugar had several important uses. Sugarcane planting was a major factor that facilitated slave trade since the increase in demand of the rum meant that there was the need to plant more sugar. Therefore, this called for more slaves…

    • 894 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    in 1493, Colon introduced Sugar cane plants to the Carribeans. Cristobal Colon knew that sugar and slave were inseperable and that would bring tremendous profit (wealth) from sugar.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    sweetness n power

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages

    -Examination of the use of sugar in 5 ways: medicine, spice, decorative material, sweetner, and preservative, which show these “functions” are differentiated by its form and consumption (showing social and economic difference: age, sex, and class) –“the difference uses of sugar did not evolve in any neat sequence or progression, but overlapped and intersected; that sugar commonly serves more than one such purpose at a time is considered one of its extraordinary virtues”…

    • 303 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The history and origin of table sugar or sucrose is entwined with religion, colonialism, trade, industry, capitalism, and technology. The first to domesticate sugar cane sometime in 8,000 BC were the people from New Guinea. Solid sugar was only mentioned in history during 500 AD in India. After domestication, cultivation of sugar cane rapidly spread throughout southern China and India. Later, the Muslim traders and conquerors exported the cane and the refining techniques to the Middle Eastern and European countries. Spanish and Portuguese explorers and conquerors also brought sugar to Iberia, Sicily and Madeira. Christopher Columbus was the one who carried sugar cane seedlings to the New World.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After reading Sidney Mintz’s book Sweetness and Power: The place of Sugar in Modern History sucrose will never be a simple commodity. The reader will most likely never enjoy coffee with sugar or a single desert without a deep reflection of the political nature of their choice. The Sweetness examines the power of consumption and its underlying social implications. The idea that the growth of sugar consumption in Britain reflected and resulted from the capitalistic development and creation of a world economy with centers and peripheries is one of the most notable overarching theories in the book. While the meaning of sugar was both “intensive” and “extensively” developed as Mintz termed it, sugar was also a sign of the growing authority of choice…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mosques of Marzipan

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sugar spread slowly from island to island, finally reaching the Asian mainland around 1000 B.C. By A.D. 500 it was being processed into a powder in India and used as a medicine for headaches, stomach flutters, impotence. For years sugar refinement remained a secret science, passed master to apprentice. By 600 the art had spread to Persia, where rulers entertained guests with a plethora of sweets. When Arab armies conquered the region, they carried away the knowledge and love of sugar. It was like throwing paint at a fan: first here, then there, sugar turning up wherever Allah was worshipped. “Wherever they went, the Arabs brought with them sugar, the product and the technology of its production,” writes Sidney Mintz in Sweetness and Power. “Sugar, we are told, followed the Koran.”…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Supply Demand of Sugar

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Theme 2: Understand the concept of market equilibrium and learn to use supply and demand analysis to establish a price in the market…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When the British took over the island of Trinidad, sugar became a very important part of the economy. The Spanish and French planters who lived on the island beautified from the British being here. The British began importing slaves from the continent of Africa to work on the plantations. Within a very short period of time, they were eventually able to acquire steam mills and other heavy-duty equipment required to increase the production of sugar. Unfortunately for the planters, the slave trade was abolished in England in 1806 and this had serious implications and effects on the production of sugar. Many British ships came to Trinidad to transport sugar to Europe. It became very popular in Europe as it was used in cakes, tea etc.…

    • 1810 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rise of King Sugar

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages

    2. Demand for Sugar In Europe: During the seventeenth century, tea and coffee became popular in Europe. Due to this there was a demand for sugar to sweeten these beverages, as honey which was used became expensive. They also needed sugar to preserve fruits and make jams.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Baking: Mise in Place

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    * Sugarcane was the source of the refined sugar that mostly Europeans at this considered this as a rare and expensive luxury item.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    caribbean history

    • 801 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The sugar industry was already in a poor state because of (1) shortage of labour and (2) sugar beet competition. To avoid total decline, planters tried to introduce immigration in the form of bringing in laborers from Europe, other Caribbean islands, Asia and other areas. They also tried to introduce technology in order to reduce the cost of sugar production. However, all of these efforts could not stop the changes from sugar monoculture (planting of one crop which was sugar cane) to agricultural diversification (planting of many crops). As a result of this, many crops were produced after emancipation e.g. banana, cocoa and arrowroot.…

    • 801 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Modernization of Sugar

    • 1250 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The modernization of the sugar production process in the Caribbean increased the quantity of sugar available, which drastically changed the way sugar was viewed and used on an everyday basis. Before the Caribbean was an established settlement, “sugar was really the monopoly of a privileged minority” and was primarily used for medicine or decorative purposes (Mintz 45). Previously, “the habit of using sugar as decoration” was commonplace due to its unique characteristics, namely its pure white color and preservable nature (Mintz 87). These two aspects of sugar contributed to the “relative ease with which other edibles can combine with it, whether in solid or liquid form”, making it a decorative food (Mintz 87). Because sugar has become controversial in modern discussions of health, diet and nutrition, “it may be difficult to imagine its…

    • 1250 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Caribbean History

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages

    d.) (i)Economic: Sugar could have only been profitable if it was grown on a large scale. Hence the following changes took effect as a result of the Sugar Revolution:…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    sugar revolution

    • 1730 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Sugar became population in the West Indies. The English, French colonies who settled Caribbean island such as St.kitts in the early 16th grew tobacco in order to make money. For a little while they were able to make the profit. However by 1640’s the faced different competition from tobacco grower in virgina had certain advantages which are virgiana had large lots of fertile land. Virginia tobacco was cheaper and the quality was better. The English and French colonists found themselves in quandary as virgana tobacco was out selling their tobacco which meant they earned less money. Tobacco prices fell. the abundance of tobacco governs caused a glut on the markets tobacco production suppressed the customer base. The English and French settles realized that they needed as new cash crop and sugar was chosen due in European, honey was hard to access and it was expensive. Sugar was becoming popular as sweenter in Europe. And also the dutch were willing to assist them in delevoping a sugar industry by providing capital, credit, slaves and expertise. The adoption of sugar cane as the new cash crop caused far reaching changes in the british and French colonies. These changes were so dramatic that they were termed the ‘Sugar Revolution’ which mean the changover of cash crop from tobacco to sugar which caused widerspread changes in the colonies socially, economically, demographically and plotically.The sugar revolutions were both cause and consequence of the demographic revolution. Sugar production required a greater labor supply than was available through the importation of European servants and irregularly supplied African slaves. At first the Dutch supplied the slaves, as well as the credit, capital, technological expertise, and marketing arrangements. After the restoration of the English monarch following the Commonwealth (1642-60), the King and other members of the royal family…

    • 1730 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sugar Trade

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages

    IT IS no exaggeration to say that the foundations of the modern globalised world were made of sugar. In the 15th century Europeans first encountered its sweet delights. Within a couple of hundred years the coming of sea power, and with it the means to create empires across the oceans, resulted in large tracts of land in South America and the Caribbean being seized. Much of it was used in the production of sugar, which was steadily evolving from being a scarce luxury to a daily necessity.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays

Related Topics