Posted on 06/03/2008 4:03:17 PM PDT by blam
How Sugar Changed the World
By Heather Whipps, LiveScience's History Columnist
posted: 02 June 2008 09:26 am ET
What's not to like about candy, ice cream and all those other sweet treats made with everybody's favorite indulgence, sugar?
Plenty, as it turns out, beyond the way it expands waistlines and causes cavities. It's unlikely that many candy-lovers in the United States think about history while quaffing an estimated 100 pounds of sugar per year, but sweet stuff once played a major role in one of the sourest eras in modern times.
White Gold, as British colonists called it, was the engine of the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the Americas beginning in the early 16th-century. The history of every nation in the Caribbean, much of South America and parts of the Southern United States was forever shaped by sugar cane plantations started as cash crops by European superpowers.
Profit from the sugar trade was so significant that it may have even helped America achieve independence from Great Britain.
The Trade Triangle
Today more sugar is produced in Brazil than anywhere else in the world even though, ironically, the crop never grew wild in the Americas. Sugar cane — native to Southeast Asia — first made its way to the New World with Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage to the Dominican Republic, where it grew well in the tropical environment.
Noting sugar cane's potential as income for the new settlements in the Americas — Europeans were already hooked on sugar coming from the Eastern colonies — Spanish colonizers snipped seeds from Columbus' fields in the Dominican Republic and planted them throughout their burgeoning Caribbean colonies. By the mid 16th-century the Portuguese had brought some to Brazil and, soon after, the sweet cane made its way to British,
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
No mention of the Germans and the effect of their discovery of extracting sugar from beets. (That, BTW, grew well in Germany)
Ew, I grew up near a sugar beet plant. Peeeeee-you. They always kept a little herd of cattle near the front of the plant, pretending that the cows were creating the smell.
It’s all gone now.
Sweet read!
When a woman named Heather Whipps asks you that question it's hard to think of a reason. ;^)
the smell?
Screen name?
I don’t know if it’s a nom de plume but it’s the author’s name.
That's for writers. A screen name would be a nom d'écran, just as a Freepname would be a nom de clavier.
The author is a writer isn’t she? Although I agree it would be a great screen name.
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Thanks Blam. |
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......made its way to the New World with Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage to the Dominican .....
What is the evidence for this statement? I doubt that an exploratory expedition to the East Indies would carry seeds or slips of plants that were already naturally occuring in the area.
I could believe that crops including sugar, were brought on the three or four subsequent voyages.
There are more Blacks in Brazil today than any other country outside Africa.
Hey Gabz!
Worthy of a ping to the gardening list?
U.S. protectionism and price supports keep most foreign sugar out.
Sorry blam! Fingers were in gear before brain was engaged!
Good post, anyway!
I’ll try again!
Worthy of a gardening ping?
Sent the last enquiry to blam—he has no clue what I’m talking about. ROTFLMAO
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