People have been aware of the sweet taste of sugar cane for thousands of years. Wild sugar cane was harvested by people of New Guinea who would suck on the sweet chopped cane for energy. Sugar cane was also traded among the islands of the Southeast Pacific as well as eastern Africa and Asia. This trade led to the eventual spread of the cultivation of sugar cane. The people of India were the first to begin to refine sugar cane. Gur, what the Indians called sugar, was made by crushing sugar cane and then boiling the juice. The result was a dark brown sugar. The people of India were making this sugar as early as 300 B.C. and the method of refining sugar soon spread to China and Persia. Arab traders later introduced sugar throughout their trade routes in the Mediterranean. In the 7th century A.D. many of the coutries in these regions used their technology for crushing grapes and olives to now refine sugar cane. During the Crusades Christians brought sugar back to England and Northern Europe. Sugar was first used as medicine and later as a food and drink sweetener. At this time sugar was very expensive and only for the very rich or royalty. As the sugar trade grew, slaves from Africa were used to cultivate the sugar cane. By the late 1400's sugar refineries were now being built in Venice and other European cities. It was around this same time that Christopher Columbus introduced sugar cane to the West Indies. The Spanish and Portuguese also brought sugar cane with them to their colonies in The Caribbean islands and South America. The sugar trade was very profitable and quickly spread thoughout the Caribbean and by the mid 1600's Barbados became of of the largest producers of sugar in the region. Sugar cane required large amounts of land, water and labor. Many of the native peoples of the new colonies became slaves forced to grow and harvest the sugar cane. Over work and disease killed off large numbers of the native populations. African slaves were used by the Portuguese in Brazil around 1510. The deman for slaves continued to grow and what was known as the Triangular trade began. The Triangular trade refers to the 18th century trade between the West Indies, the west coast of Africa, and North America or England. The principal commodities were sugar, slaves and rum. Rum was now another product made from the juice of sugar cane that had become a highly valuable commodity. By the late 1700s sugar was no longer a rare treat for the rich but an invaluable commodity and ingredient in many foods and drinks inlcuding tea, coffee and chocolate. ........Hey, I'm still working on it. Check back soon. More history to come. |