AP World History 2012-2013
  • Unit 1
    • 1.1.3: Tools and Adaptation>
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.3.9 & 1.3.2: New Religions & Geographies of Early Civs.>
      • Early Religions>
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
        • Works Cited
      • The Early Civilizations>
        • Case Study
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
        • Works Cited
    • 1.1.2: Humans and Fire>
      • 1.1.4: Economic Structures>
        • Case Study
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.3.6: Arts & Record Keeping>
      • Arts and Artisanship
      • Systems of Recordkeeping
      • Case Study: The Phoenician Alphabet
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.3.1-1.3.3: Early Culture & Systems of Rule>
      • Culture's Effects
      • Systems of Rule
      • Case Study: Hammurabi's Code
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.1-1.4 Early Human Innovation>
      • 1.1.1: Human Patterns of Migration>
        • Case Study
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.2.1-1.2.3: The Climate & The Neolithic Era>
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 1.2.5-1.2.6: Reliable Food Sources & Innovation>
      • Case Study - The Plow
      • Works Cited
    • 1.3.1-1.3.2: Pastoralists & Early Architecture>
      • Introduction
      • Monumental Architecture And Urban Planning
      • Pastoralist Weapon Dissemination And Transportation
      • Pastoralist Tools
      • Basic
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • Works Cited
  • Unit 2
    • 2.2.5-2.2.7 Social Hierarchy and Gender Roles>
      • Gender Roles>
        • Case Study
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • Social Hierarchies >
        • AGMSPRITE
    • 2.2.4 Cities>
      • Trade>
        • Trade AGMSPRITE
        • Trade Case Study
      • Religious Rituals>
        • Religious Rituals AGMSPRITE
        • Religious Rituals Case Study
      • Public Administration>
        • Public Administration AGMSPRITE
        • Public Administration Case Study
    • 2.2.2 Orchestration of the Persian and S. Asian Empires>
      • Persia>
        • Imperial Administration and Legal Systems
        • Military Power
        • Trade and Economic Integration and Regulation
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • South Asia>
        • Imperial Administration and Legal Systems
        • Military Power
        • Trade and Economic Integration and Regulation
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 2.2.2 Orchestration of Rome and China>
      • China>
        • Imperial Administration
        • Military Power
        • Trade and Economics
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • Rome>
        • Imperial Administration
        • Military Power
        • Trade and Economics
        • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 2.2.1: Growth of Empires & States>
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 2.1.6 Cultures Of Second Wave Civilizations>
      • Sculptures
      • Architecture
      • Literature
      • A.G.M.S.P.R.I.T.E
      • Sources
    • 2.1.1: Religions as a Bonding Force>
      • The Basic Gist
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
      • Case Study
    • 2.1.4 Buddhism and Hinduism Impact on Gender Roles>
      • Buddhism
    • 2.1.2 The Emergence of Religions>
      • Christianity
      • Confucianism
      • Greco-Roman Philosophy
      • Daoism
      • AGMSPRITE
  • Unit 3
    • 3.1.1 Third Wave Global Trade Routes>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 3.1.2 The Impact of trade on emerging trading cities>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 3.1.3. Spread of Islam Through Afro-Eurasia>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 3.1.4 Inter-Regional Travelers >
      • The Basic Gist
      • Compare and Contrast
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 3.1.5. Cultural Interactions and Art>
      • The Basic Gist
      • Cultural Traditions AGMSPRITE
      • Art AGMSPRITE
      • Literature AGMSPRITE
      • Case Study
    • 3.1.6: The Impact of Newly Spread Technologies and Scientific Knowledge>
      • Basic Gist
      • Movement of Gunpowder from East to West
      • Movement of Printing from East to West
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 3.1.7 Inter-Regional Conflicts>
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
  • Unit 4
    • 4.1.1. - Influence of Tools Upon Transoceanic Trade>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 4.1.2: Maritime Reconnaissance>
      • Basic Gist
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 4.1.3 World Economies>
      • Basic Gist
      • AGMSPRITE analysis
      • Case Study
    • 4.1.4 The Colossal Impact of the Colombian Exchange>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study on Sugar
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis of the East
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis of the West
    • 4.1.5 Government and the Arts>
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 4.2.3 Forced Migration of Africans Cause and Effect>
      • Basic Gist
      • Causes of the forced migration of Africans
      • Effects/Developments of the forced migration of Africans
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 4.3.2 Impact of Technology on state consolidation and imperial expansion>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
  • Unit 5
    • 5.3.1 US and Latin American Revolutions >
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 5.3.2b Hatian Revolution>
      • Basic Gist
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 5.3.2a: Causes and Effects of French Revolution>
      • Causes of the French Revolution
      • Effects of the French Revolution
      • AGMSPRITE
    • 5.3.2c Causes and Effects of the Mexican Revolution>
      • Basic Gist
      • Causes of the Mexican Revolution
      • Effects of the Mexican Revolution
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 5.3.3: The Winds of Change>
      • Case Study
      • The Conception of Nation-States
      • Nationalism on the Rise
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 5.3.4 Nationalism and Democracy >
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
      • 5.3.5 Enlightenment and European Despots>
        • Basic Gist
  • Unit 6
    • War and Peace in a Global Context>
      • Big Gist>
        • WWI vs WWII
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • Changing Economics>
      • Basic Gist
      • AGMSPRITE
      • Case Study
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • Demographic and Environmental Changes>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE Analysis
    • 20th Century Globalization>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • Effects of Revolutions on Women>
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
    • New Patterns of Nationalism >
      • Basic Gist
      • Independence of Vietnam Case Study
      • Effects of Communism Case Study
      • Chinese and Russian Revolutions
      • AGMSPRITE
    • Globalization of Science, technology and culture. >
      • Basic Gist
      • Case Study
      • AGMSPRITE
Home
Basic Gist
AGMSPRITE Analysis of the East
AGMSPRITE Analysis of the West
Picture
This picture shows the massive amounts of labor that went into Sugar.

The Industry of Sugar

Preface: Sugar was first used by humans as a natural and necessary constituent in our plant and meat foods. As farming evolved, humans identified and used various plants to produce sugar; such as sugar maple, sugar beet, sugar palm, sweet sorghum, and sweet corn. Sugarcane, however, is the most important source of sucrose in world history and, as will be alluded to further, in the Columbian Exchange. Sugarcane was originally developed and domesticated in New Guinea about 10,000 years ago. By A.D. 700 sugarcane had diffused to the Mediterranean region by Islamic expansion and trade. Sugarcane was viewed as an exotic spice and medicine, but by A.D. 1000, with the crusades and what not, it wriggled it's way into being an intrinsic part of a multitude of European dishes. By the 1500s, Spain and Portugal began sugarcane production in the milder Atlantic Islands. However, a much larger scale production of sugarcane shifts across the Atlantic to America with the introduction of sugarcane to Santo Domingo on Columbus' second voyage in 1493. Eventually, America surpassed Mediterranean sugarcane industry as huge plantations spread to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. In conjunction with industrialization in Europe the habit of sugar consumption with coffee, tea, and rum will become a drug-like addiction involving sugar, alcohol, and tobacco. Europeans, and eventually the world as it industrialized, would without perceiving the dangers of abuse, feed one of the largest cash crops and food businesses in the world. 

The Cultivation of Sugarcane

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Sugarcane
Sugar cane grows from a stem, into a tall upright plant that looks similar to reeds that grow on the banks of a river. Unlike most stems that are planted upright, a sugar cane stem has to be furrowed and placed on its side in order for it to grow. Sugar cane is a highly versatile plant that serves many functions. Europe could not cultivate sugarcane on their own lands because the conditions of the environment were not adequate. Therefore, they needed a location to cultivate the product to keep up with the demand caused by the everyday use of sugarcane. Since the Caribbean was a perfect environment for sugarcane cultivation, the Europeans saw a chance at turning a huge profit. At first the English would attempt to use native labor, but as the natives died off from disease or ran away to escape the encomienda, more labor was needed. Therefore, they turned to slave labor to be able to produce enough sugar for trade in the exchange. Slaves were brought over from West Africa and forced to work on the cultivation of sugar. Plantations were built all over the islands and the slaves would work the plantations under extreme conditions to keep up with the growing need for sugar. As sugar became more of a hot commodity around the world, more slave labor was needed to keep up with the demands. The cultivation of sugar cane was gruesome labor that would cost many African slaves their lives. However the Europeans needed cheap or free labor to continue on with the vast profit they were making, so more and more slaves were brought in to work. To the Europeans, it was cheaper to bring over more African slaves than it was to better the conditions and lessen the labor of their already existing slaves. 

Sugarcane and Slavery

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Slaves had a massive impact on the sugar industry
Initially, the labor for sugarcane plantations in America fell on the shoulders of Native Americans, but by 1600 95% of the American Indian populations in the Caribbean and Atlantic Coast populations were dead, mainly due to disease and labor. Since neither Indians nor Europeans adequately answered the labor needs of the plantations of the Americas, Africans became the glimmering solution. African slaves were brought across the Atlantic within a decade of Columbus’s voyages. First in small numbers, later in astounding ones, regular supplies of slaves were provided by traders who had bought them in Africa, where most originated as war captives from conflicts between Africans. Even under appalling conditions, though, African slaves fared far better than American Indian slaves had. The African slave populations had come from often tropical environments, similar in many ways to the Caribbean; they were accustomed to heat and humidity. If they survived infancy and childhood, they'd already, unlike Indians, developed resistance to the most deadly of Afro-European epidemics, including  smallpox, and malaria, among many tropical diseases. In the end, costs favored the use of African slaves. The lower death rate of the Africans, plus their agricultural and technological skills weighed against the hostility of European free and indentured laborers who knew the master’s language, culture, and weaknesses, made African labor preferable. The reliance on slavery was so absolute that by the eighteenth century, Africans significantly outnumbered those of European descent in the entire Caribbean region by ratios as high as 13:1. Their darker skin colors also made them more easily identifiable as slaves, not free men; as “black” came to be synonymous with “slave,” racism was born. Out of the European justification of the enslavement and trade of Africans emerged an ideology of superiority based on skin color. This ideology came to assert the superiority of white Europeans and their cultural values over the rest of the world’s peoples.

Uses of Sugarcane

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Sugarcane can be made into many useful things such as Molasses
With it's paramount industrialization throughout all corners of the world, sugar was used in a plethora of different ways. Here are just a few:
-Rum: When Barbados was settled in 1627, the British began to use the sugarcane they were growing there to start making rum. Up until that point, beer and brandy were considered the British drinks of choice, but when they began to distill rum from molasses, a byproduct of sugar production, it quickly swept the floor.
-Sugarcane Juice/Syrup: There were a large number of sugar refineries that were built in the new world expressly for the purpose of extracting sugarcane juice, which was mixed into a myriad of beverages. Since cane juice is easily digested, it provides the body with instant energy and hydration, which was extremely beneficial in the harsh summer climate of the region in which it was produced. This is probably the foremost reason as to why it was so popular with those who settled there.
-Molasses: Human cargo was sold for barrels of molasses, which was carried to refineries, and then made into rum. And some of that was then carried back to Africa. Molasses itself worked its way into the daily diet of all colonists. Northerners added molasses to baked beans, bean soups or corn chowder. Molasses was mixed with bourbon (or applesauce) and used as a marinade or glaze for poultry or pork, or mixed with tomato sauce, lemon juice and vinegar. Molasses also went into the baking of all manner of cookies, puddings, fruitcakes, and breads. Needless to say, it was a staple not only in the diet of these colonies, but in the entire industry that they fostered. 

Works Cited:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/27456162/The-Spread-and-Cultivation-of-Sugar-in-the-Columbian-Era

http://www.wikihow.com/Plant-Sugar-Cane

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugarcane

http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/site19/plants.htm

http://www2.palomar.edu/users/scrouthamel/sugar.htm

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