Did you know that on a yearly basis, each person consumes 77 pounds of sugar on average? Since the discovery of sugarcane, that number has been constantly increasing, as we have developed countless sugary foods, drinks, and candies. But, when and how did we get all of this sugar? There is much more history behind these varieties of sugary foods than you may think.
Sugar has been changing and evolving for thousands of years, from ancient sugarcane plants to the candies, sports drinks, and chocolate that satisfy our sweet tooth today. The sugar we know today is sucrose, a molecule composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and is two simpler sugars, fructose, and glucose, stuck together. 13.7 billion years ago, when the Big Bang occurred,
…show more content…
From there, sugar began to reach places such as Egypt, China, and the Caribbean. Sugar reached Europe by the year 1100 A.D, and made it’s way into French, Dutch and British Colonies. It also spread to the Asian mainland during that time of sugar distribution. Famous people in our history helped to spread this sugar around the world. It is thought that “When Columbus set off on his second voyage to the New World, he too carried cane,” says author of National Geographic, Rich Cohen. Along with Christopher Columbus, a Portuguese Prince, referred to as Henry the Navigator, sent sugarcane to Portugal with a group of early …show more content…
Sugar brought in such a great profit that it was nicknamed “White gold” by British colonists. After sugar crops were milled and harvested, they were carried by ships to other countries. Sugar was no doubt a very important overseas trading item, and helped the European and British economies a great deal. When sugar was still considered extremely valuable and expensive, it was even traded for exceedingly valuable building materials. Products such as gold, italian marble and onyx were exchanged for their weight in sugar. Trade for these materials made sugar profits even more substantial. “Profit from the sugar trade was so significant that it may have even helped America achieve independence from Great Britain.”
From basic sweeteners, sugar started to be experimented with, and was eventually changed into the first candies. Candy originated in ancient Egypt, where nuts were coated with honey, and in Greece, they ate honey covered flowers and dried fruits. However, much before this, the cavemen even tried to create candy, by drying out honey, or even just eating honey or honeycomb by itself. “Candy can be traced back as far as 1500 B.C,” where figs, nuts, dates, and spices were also used as ingredients to make candy in the
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.
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
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.
Discuss the Relationship between sugar and slavery in the Early Modern Period. "No commodity on the face of the Earth has been wrested from the soil or the seas, from the skies or the bowels of the earth with such misery and human blood as sugar" ... (Anon) 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.
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
The rapid growth of sugar as a food has a long and intertwining history that originated in New Guinea. Following the production, consumption, and power that corresponds with sugar, one is able to see numerous causes and effects of the changes underway in the world between 1450 and 1750. The production of sugar in the Americas eventually led to not only the creation of the Atlantic Slave Trade, but also enhanced commerce. Consumption of sugar through rapid trade helped to develop modern capitalism. The power that sugar generated dramatically changed the economic, social, and political fate of the nation as a whole.
Sugar was first grown in New Guinea around 9000 years ago, which New guinea traders trade cane stalks to different parts of the world. In the New world christopher columbus introduced cane sugar to caribbean islands. At first sugar was unknown in Europe but was changed when sugar trade first began. Sugar trade was driven by the factors of production land which provided all natural resources labor what provided human resources for work and capital which includes all the factories and the money that’s used to buy land. Consumer demand was why sugar trade continued to increase.
By 700 A.D., it was seen that sugar was diffused to the Mediterranean region by Islamic expansion and trade as sucrose was viewed as an exotic spice and medicine (Nunn, Nathan). In 1452, Portuguese sugar production began on Madeira, an uninhabited island off the northwest coast of Africa. Indigenous peoples were the first workers brought to island of Madeira to work on the sugar mills, but the need for labor was too much. To get help with more labor, the enslaved African Americans were brought in and they became the main labor force for the sugar industry. By 1500, Madeira became the largest exporter of sugar in the world (Dunn, R.). With the success of the cash crop and the labor provided by the African Americans, sugar production was seen to have spread to other Atlantic islands; first it was the Canaries, then Santiago in the Cape Verde islands but these islands lacked the required rainfall for good cane culture. This is where the Portuguese, and then later the Spanish, Dutch, and English came to set their sights on other areas to continue this white gold sugar industry hoping to expand the production and gain
The sugar trade was a big change. The sugar trade helped and made the kingdom more advanced. For the sugar to be made it was because of the slaves, the slaves were treated with cruelty and was in horrible conditions. Also, remember the more sugar you get, the more you trade, the more you get money, the more you benefit the economic system and political system. So, was the sugar trade beneficial?
Sugar impacts the world by changing the world by bringing sugar to make things sweet and add a great taste and flavor. Sugar has changed our lives and the taste/sweetness of the food we eat has made our food sweeter. Next, we should not see enslaved Africans as victims, but rather as actors. In the book Sugar Changed the World, “Sugar was the production of slaves and addiction of factory workers working until midnight and not getting paid at all.” (70)
Probably some of the most pleasurable and enjoyable memories of a person has to do with sweets. When thinking back to birthdays, there is always the memory of the wonderful cake that mother beautifully made and decorated with frosting and glazes. A typical night out with dad can be transformed into a magical evening with a trip to the ice cream parlor. The end of a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner turns heavenly when a hot apple pie is brought to the table and topped with delicious, melting vanilla ice cream. A good wedding is never complete without the cutting of the splendid multi-level wedding cake, when the happy new couple gets to playfully shove and smear cake and white frosting into each other’s smiling faces. Everyone knows that as a child, the only good part about going to the dentist is getting the candy bar at the end of the visit. Why do some people get sick after eating too much suger? Some people do not even know that the abuse of sugar can lead to negative effects on your body. There is something strangely enjoyable and resplendent about the consumption of sugar. Why is it that sugar is so deliciously enjoyable and at the same time a food product that has many negative affects on people’s health?
We are all familiar with sugar. It is sweet, delicious, and addictive; yet only a few of us know that it is deadly. When it comes to sugar, it seems like most people are in the mind frame knowing that it could be bad for our health, but only a few are really taking the moderate amounts. In fact, as a whole population, each and everyone of us are still eating about 500 extra calories per day from sugar. Yes, that seems like an exaggerated number judging from the tiny sweet crystals we sprinkle on our coffee, but it is not. Sugar is not only present in the form of sweets and flavourings, it is hidden in all the processed foods we eat. We have heard about the dangers of eating too much fat or salt, but we know very little about the harmful effects of consuming too much sugar. There still isn’t any warnings about sugar on our food labels, nor has there been any broadcasts on the serious damages it could do to our health. It has come to my concern during my research that few
Poe starts out with a man, by the name of Montresor, wanting revenge on another man, named Fortunato. Most of the story takes place deep in the Montresor family catacombs. As Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs, he chains Fortunato up to a small hole in a wall, bricks it over, and leaves Fortunato to die. Even through the traits of anger, hatred, and revenge, as the story progresses on, Montresor, the main character in “The Cask of Amontillado”, starts to show signs of feeling guilty for wanting to murder Fortunato.
Sugar, like many other tradeable goods, was circulated through a variety of regions for over a thousand years. As trade and transportation created opportunities for more interactions between locations, sugar was introduced to places that it had been previously unknown. In the sixteenth century, Europe, specifically England, took a large interest in sugar, first serving as a luxury for the elite class but eventually evolving into a good available to all social classes. The high demand for sugar led to the expansion of sugar production, an increase in African slavery, and implemented a significant system of trade.
This increase in production caused a change at the consumption end. When sugar was first being produced it was seen as a luxury product only accessible to the rich, but then as its production increased and there was a surge amount in the market place its uses changed. It went from being a specialized product used for medicinal, ritual, or for display purposes to a common everyday food substitute. Now the working class people began more than ever to consume large quantities of sugar as a substitute to their calorie lacking diet. The production of sugar in the British West Indies was not able to keep pace with the demands from the mother country. When the supply from the British West Indies increased so did England’s demand for the crop. It seemed like from the middle of the eighteen century onward the islands were never able to produce more sugar than what was consumed by the people in the mother country. “English sugar consumption increased about four-fold in the last four decades of the eighteenth century, 1700-40, and more than doubled again from 1741-45 to 1771-75 (Mintz 1985) . As the English began to incorporate more amounts of sugar into their daily diets they began to find multiple uses of the commodity. Sugar soon developed into a stable product in the lives of people. With the increased use of sugar in multiple forms of consumption it changed from its previous classification as a spice to its own separate category. The use of this newly popular commodity did not lose any popularity as the years passed. Britain became a leading exporter of sugar crops into the world market, with majority of the supply going to feed their own peoples ravenous appetite. In 1800 British consumption of sugar had increased some 2,500 percent in...