Columbian Exchange - Sugarcane

4 Pages 922 Words

Sugarcane was an important element of the Columbian Exchange and unfortunately resulted in stimulating the American slave trade. “Sugar cane is native to Polynesia, where…small pieces were often found washed up on foreign shores where they were said to flourish. This was the ‘explanation’ of its movement to China, India, and elsewhere” (Hobhouse 44). Refined sugar originated (1432) near modern Funchal, Portugal. Vineyards eventually would replace the sugar crops because the Europeans had destroyed most of the island’s woodlands necessary to grow sugar cane. Sugar was introduced into the Caribbean soon after the arrival of Columbus in 1492 (51).
“By 1530, there may have been more than a dozen sugar plantations in the West Indies, using imported animal, imported machinery, imported workers in an agricultural development in a new continent an ocean away from the market” (52). The reason for this new agricultural growth was because the tropical climate was perfect for growing sugar cane and this would justify the high cost of settlement. The Caribbean settlers planted every kind of tropical plant. “Sugar crops are salable while other crops were riskier. Sugar is extremely addictive so the demand for it grew over a period of time (52).
“Before Columbus carried a few pieces of sugar cane to the Caribbean, sugar was a luxury. Most European got it from their apothecaries to help make medicine taste better. But by the middle of the 16th century, tropical American forests were giving way to vast colonies of cane-growing plantations. Europe was hooked on sugar” (Columbian 27).
In 1514, Bartolome Las Casas was given a piece of land in the Spanish colony of Cuba. The natives that were conquered would rather die than be a slave. Las Casas suggested using African slaves instead of the natives since they were known to work willingly, and this was the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade (Hobhouse 57). ...