Essay On The Americas And The Columbian Exchange

809 Words2 Pages

Over the centuries, the Eastern and Western hemispheres had evolved into separate worlds biologically. When Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Americas and the Columbian Exchange began, these two worlds collided in a way that irrevocably changed both (Crosby para. 1-3). Organisms and products traveled between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas like they had not before. One of the plants that was traded during this time was sugar. The introduction of sugar into the New World led to the creation of the plantation system, the introduction of the African slave trade in the Americas, and the availability of sugar to the masses, changing the diets of millions.
Sugarcane was first domesticated in New Guinea around 10,000 years ago. The …show more content…

Needless to say, when he reported this prospect back to Spain, they were excited (McNeil para.6). Though Spain and Portugal had islands off the coast of Africa where they had established plantations to grow sugar, they were looking to expand (Boyer para. 4). On his second voyage, he brought sugarcane with him to Hispaniola. At first, Spanish sugar production in the New World did not go well. Native Americans were being used as the source of labor, but the poor conditions and epidemics of disease caused them to die out quickly (Crouthamel para 2-3). The Spanish were more focused on finding gold than managing sugar plantations, and they lacked the efficient mills needed to profitably produce sugar. In 1515, Gonzalo de Vellosa, a sugar planter, was encouraged by sugar growers from the Canary Islands to import a better sugar mill to the New World. Powered by animals, this mill had two rollers that crushed the sugar cane. This allowed Spain to produce sugar more efficiently. Because they could now produce sugar, the Spanish needed to find a solution to their labor problem. Since the native people had died in such large numbers, the Spanish turned to African slaves (Boyer para.5). Sugar plantations were some of the largest ever with hundreds of slaves. In fact, the African slave trade grew so large that by 1888, 9.5 million Africans were slaves in the Americas (Crouthamel para.3). These plantations were single crop plantations, meaning they only produced sugar, and since they had very few labor costs, they were very profitable. This plantation system set the standard for the tobacco and cotton plantations that came later (Boyer para.1). This plantation system allowed for the production of sugar to become a very inexpensive process, which allowed sugar to become widely available and affordable to millions. Sugar became a European

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