Aug 4 2022
Take a moment and think about how easy is to get sweet foods or drinks. Now imagine a world without sugar. For most of human history, access to sugar hasn’t always been as easy as it is today. In fact, every time we eat a simple candy, there is a permanent hidden sacrifice behind it tracing back centuries. Sugar cane is the main source of sweetness around the world, with this crop being grown in countries with tropical and subtropical climates. Let’s take a brief look at the history of sugar!
Sugar cane was first cultivated in China. Alexander the Great knew it in India in 327 BC, and this crop travelled from Persia to Egypt through the Arab invasions. Sugar cane arrived in Europe via trade in the Mediterranean Sea in 13th century (Stubbs, 1897). Sugar cane was then brought to the Americas in 1493 on the second voyage of Columbus (Humbert, 1968).
Saccharum officinarum, the scientific name of sugar cane, is a member of the grass family (Poaceae). Its stalk is cylindrical, divided into nodes and internodes, appearing like bamboo (which is also a grass), and its flowers are held in a plume-like panicle inflorescence (Stubbs, 1897). As a tropical grass, sugar cane seeds need very warm temperatures to germinate and grow (26–33° C) (Humbert, 1968).
There are many factors that affect the growth of sugar cane. First the soil: sugar cane easily and quickly depletes the soil of available nutrients, so growers require a deep knowledge of soil ecology to best protect their crop. In fact, sugar cane plantations occupy a kind of soil only suitable for grass and forest. This crop also requires a balanced relation between temperature, light and moisture (Humbert, 1968). The factors leading to the best harvest are so exacting that by the 1980’s, Central Romana, the most successful sugar company in Dominican Republic, spent more than 1 million dollars a year examining those factors (Seminario Nacional, 1981)!
It is hard to overestimate the outsized influence sugar cane has had on the history of the world. For example, under the control of the Spanish Empire and its European opponents, the tropical islands of the Atlantic Ocean, from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, were known as Sugar Islands due to the predominance of sugar cane plantations (Schwartz, 2004). “Without sugar there is no country,” became a common saying in Cuba. Planting and harvesting sugar cane requires intensive labor, and the labor needs of sugar cane cultivation was one of the primary reasons why Europeans brought enslaved people from Africa to the American tropics in the 16th century (Schwartz, 2004).
Although the trans-Atlantic slave trade evolved independently of the global sugar economy, there is a close relation between slavery and the expansion of sugar cane cultivation, as revealed by the number of enslaved people brought to Barbados, Jamaica, and Leeward Islands by the British: 20,700 from 1640–1650, and 263,700 from 1676–1700, with an estimated annual sugar export of 8,176 tons in 1663, and 26,651 tons in 1698 (Dunn, 2008). After the abolition of slavery by colonial powers in the Caribbean, “the rise of a racially heterogeneous voluntary labor force after 1880 provided the labor basis for expansion and preservation of Cuba’s concentration in sugar” (Dye, 1998).
It is no exaggeration to say that sugar cane has molded the history of the Caribbean. For example, people migrated from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic to work in the sugar trade before the New Deal in the 1940’s, bringing massive change to the economy of the island. On Cuba, the sugar industry contributed to the wealth of the island, making Havana a center of Caribbean arts and culture. After the Revolution of 1959, many artists living in Cuba fled to New York City, eventually giving rise to record companies such as Fania Records, which helped grow salsa music within the City.
It’s amazing to think about how different the world would be without sugar. So every time you enjoy candy or a sweetened cup of coffee, take a moment and reflect on the long and complicated history of sugar, from ancient China to the Caribbean, and be thankful for the people, past and present, who planted, grew, harvested, and processed sugar.