History Of Sugar Essay

History of sugar Sugar is considered one of the commodities of higher trade around the world. The high demand for sugar has been growing steady over the years, and thanks to the advance in technology and better techniques of production, the supply of sugar has been maintained far above the demand. Therefore, price of sugar has been held down in the market, making it accessible to everyone. However, it was not always like that. Centuries ago, sugar was categorized as a luxury spice, accessible only to the wealthy. People knew about the sugar, but most of them never had the chance to taste it. The transition suffered by the sugar through years it is of great relevance to analyze, mainly, because it promoted the enslavement and death of millions of Africans just after the colonization of the New World.
Sugar, as we know it …show more content…
Soon other nations joined Spain in the exploration of the New World. Portugal, England, France, and Holland arrived to the Caribbean islands founding their own sugar colonies. Those islands were exploited completely for the production of sugar, when resources were depleted in one island they just jump to the next one. The natives were force to work in the sugar cane plantation and the Ingenios (place where the sugar is extracted and refined from the sugar cane). But soon, natives fell victim of diseases brought by Europeans, thus falling short in labor force. Once again, just like Arabs did couple of centuries ago, the use of African slaves took place. This was the beginning of the bigger slave trade in human history that lasted until 1861, when slavery was abolished. Millions of Africans were brought to New World to work in mines and sugar plantations. Portugal created one of the bigger sugar industries in Brazil, exporting tons of sugar to Europe. In this way, Portugal became the greater importer of slaves in the world. This massive movement of slaves was known as the “triangular