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Impacts of sugar trade
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Sugar, also known as “white gold” was discovered in the Americas in the 1400s. As it became more popular, sugar set people in motion throughout the world for the purpose of building wealth; However, as a result of this, consequences of building global connections are still felt to this day. Sugar trade changed the global economy because it was a profitable resource in high demand-especially within the workforce. Consequently, it affected the worldwide working class, and also encouraged maritime trade. As a high calorie alimentation characterized by “perfect sweetness,” sugar was in high demand worldwide. The fourth document outlines the value of sugar in the workforce during the industrial revolution of the 1800s, helping workers with the transition from easy working hours on farms, to the taxing habits of …show more content…
In the first document, many of Columbus’ accomplishments are illustrated including his trade of sugar, which exploded because of the high value of the “white gold.” Because of its high value, demand for sugar created a complex trading web including many countries. The idea of “Triangular Sugar Trade” was misleading, because of the many people and goods involved in the interchange of goods, especially sugar. As a historian, the author would have more of an informational view of this subject. It is evident he used many sources to gather his information; However other documents would prove extremely useful in analyzing this topic. One source in particular would be an account from the perspective of a merchant traveller who traded sugar, it would be interesting to view the revenue of sugar trade as well as the countries involved in trade. Another document that would be useful would be from the point of view of a slave owner. Again, it would be interesting to see the profits of trade in addition to possibly the conditions the slaves worked
Around the beginning of the sixteenth centruy, many countires had started to explore farther away and finding new territories. New products like sugar and taobacco began to emerge around the world in many places. Many countries in Europe were gaining power due to the control of colonies in the Americas. Asian countries did not explore as much, but still managed to remain large and powerful for a while. The global flow of silver had economic effects on inflating prices of goods and stimulating econimic policy of mercantilism, and social effects on negative effects on the lower class around the world during the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century.
Kit-kats, Hershey bars, Skittles, and Jolly Ranchers. The reason these sweets, and many other products, are so popular is because of their sugar content. It’s hard to imagine that something used in nearly every food today was practically nonexistent at one point. But this is true- sugar wasn’t introduced globally until the 1500’s. Following this introduction, the trade that sprung up would come to be one of the most successful and profitable in the world. The Sugar Trade’s success was driven by many factors. Out of those several factors, the ones that promised success were high consumer demand, willing investors with a lot of capital, and the usage of slave labor.
One question posed by the authors is “How did Columbus’s relationship with the Spanish crown change over time, and why?” In simple terms, Columbus’s relationship with the
In document 7a, it tells when sugar got attention worldwide rich people started moving to the West Indies to grow because everyone wanted sugar and sugar makes you a lot of money. The more you consume sugar, the more you will start to
As we all know from the memorable song, in 1492 Columbus sailed to find the New World, commonly known as the Americas. Many idolize Columbus for his accomplishment in colonizing the Americas and starting the Columbian Exchange. The Columbian Exchange is the sharing of plants, animals, diseases, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres as a direct result of Columbus’ arrival to the Americas. However, we often oversee the downfalls of the Columbian Exchange. Some consequences of the exchange are the spread of disease to the Native people and settlers, the destruction of the Native population, and the disappearance of the Natives custom’s, beliefs, and way of life.
Following the success of Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas in the early16th century, the Spaniards, French and Europeans alike made it their number one priority to sail the open seas of the Atlantic with hopes of catching a glimpse of the new territory. Once there, they immediately fell in love the land, the Americas would be the one place in the world where a poor man would be able to come and create a wealthy living for himself despite his upbringing. Its rich grounds were perfect for farming popular crops such as tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton. However, there was only one problem; it would require an abundant amount of manpower to work these vast lands but the funding for these farming projects was very scarce in fact it was just about nonexistent. In order to combat this issue commoners back in Europe developed a system of trade, the Triangle Trade, a trade route that began in Europe and ended in the Americas. Ships leaving Europe first stopped in West Africa where they traded weapons, metal, liquor, and cloth in exchange for captives that were imprisoned as a result of war. The ships then traveled to America, where the slaves themselves were exchanged for goods such as, sugar, rum and salt. The ships returned home loaded with products popular with the European people, and ready to begin their journey again.
Nunn, Nathan, and Nancy Qian. "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas." Journal of Economic Perspectives. Yale University, 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2013. .
Christopher Columbus is profoundly known to be the key asset to advance European culture across seas. The Columbian Exchange, colonization, and the growth of slave usage throughout the usage of the Triangular Trade, all conveyed foreign practices to the American Continent while also interrupting, but at the same time joining with the lifestyles of the inhabitants of these lands. A mixture of processes and voyagers transformed America into a “new world”, catching the world by surprise. America would not have developed to the period in existence today, if it was not for this growing period of the “old” and “new” worlds. A global world is in continuation through today as nations continue to share cultural
With such an obsession with sweet foods, there is an obvious desire for an explanation of how such a once unknown substance took center stage on everybody's snack, dessert, and candy list. That's where Sidney W. Mintz comes into play. He decided to write this book Sweetness and Power, and from the looks of all the sources he used to substantiate his ideas and data, it seems that he is not the first person to find the role that sugar plays in modern society important. By analyzing who Mintz's audience is meant to be, what goals he has in writing this book, what structure his book incorporates, what type, or types, of history he represents within the book, what kind of sources he uses, and what important information and conclusions he presents, we can come to better understand Mintz's views and research of the role of sugar in history, and how much it really affects our lives as we know them.
Sugar in its many forms is as old as the Earth itself. It is a sweet tasting thing for which humans have a natural desire. However there is more to sugar than its sweet taste, rather cane sugar has been shown historically to have generated a complex process of cultural change altering the lives of all those it has touched, both the people who grew the commodity and those for whom it was grown. Suprisingly, for something so desireable knowledge of sugar cane spread vey slow. First found in Guinea and first farmed in India (sources vary on this), knowledge of it would only arrive in Europe thousands of years later. However, there is more to the history of sugar cane than a simple story of how something was adopted piecemeal into various cultures. Rather the history of sugar, with regards to this question, really only takes off with its introduction to Europe. First exposed to the delights of sugar cane during the crusades, Europeans quickly acquired a taste for this sweet substance. This essay is really a legacy of that introduction, as it is this event which foreshadowed the sugar related explosion of trade in slaves. Indeed Henry Hobhouse in `Seeds of Change' goes so far as to say that "Sugar was the first dependance upon which led Europeans to establish tropical mono cultures to satisfy their own addiction." I wish, then, to show the repurcussions of sugar's introduction into Europe and consequently into the New World, and outline especially that parallel between the suga...
What might be the biggest contribution to what drove sugar trade is consumer demand. Many popular drinks weren’t sweet and sugar was used as a sweetener. According to Sydney Mintz’s sweetness and power, “sugar as sweetener came to the force in connection with three other exotic imports tea,coffee, and chocolate(4)” because tea, coffee and chocolate
The immediate cause of the European voyages of discovery was the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks in 1453. While Egypt and Italian city-state of Venice was left with a monopoly on ottoman trade for spices and eastern goods it allowed Portugal and Spain to break the grip by finding an Atlantic route. Portugal took the lead in the Atlantic exploration because of the reconquest from the Muslims, good finances, and their long standing seafaring traditions. In dealing with agriculture, The Portuguese discovered Brazil on accident, but they concentrated on the Far East and used Brazil as a ground for criminals. Pernambuco, the first area to be settled, became the world’s largest sugar producer by 1550. Pernambuco was a land of plantations and Indian slaves. While the market for sugar grew so did the need for slaves. Therefore the African Slave start became greatly into effect. Around 1511 Africans began working as slaves in the Americas. In 1492, Columbus embarked on his voyage from Spain to the Americas. The Euro...
The world has always been connected. Through trade routes, the world was accessible to anyone who had goods and resources to offer and sell. However, not all countries and territories were part of this connection. Such as Europe, who lay withering away in their dark ages without connections to trade routes, as the rest of the developed world flourished. However, a change in the 1500 century led to the demise of the established wealth and to the rise to colonizing powers. These colonizing powers were dependent on the exploitation of another country’s resources and population. What led to this shift in power and the belief of colonialism? The search for wealth. Many primary sources describe this shift in power and belief; however, Christopher’s Columbus’ letter to the Luis de Santangel outlines this phenomena with such clarity that it sets and foreshadows the economic and religious foundation for the emerging belief of colonialism; and in turn resulting in some of the first colonization of the Americas.
Mintz begins by explaining the process of obtaining granular sugar from the liquid extracted from the sugar cane. There was very significant sense of discipline on sugar plantations. Each stage of the process required a certain amount of “expertise”, just as each worker in a factory has a specific “skill”. This is where Mintz’s theory that plantations were a “synthesis of field and factory” is best explained; “The specialization by skill and jobs, and the division of labor by age, gender, and condition into crews, shifts and ‘gangs,’ together with the stress upon punctuality and discipline, are features associated more with industry than agriculture – at least in the sixteenth century” (Mintz 47). Plantations required a “combination farmer-manufacturer”. Workers on plantations worked assiduously with a definite sense of time. They worked continuous shifts, res...
When the European empires started exploring, they discovered the New World, or North, Central, and South America. They settled colonies and started planting crops like tobacco and cotton. As demand quickly grew in Europe for these pr...