USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Producing the crop Between 1766 and 1791, the British West Indies produced over a million tons of sugar. Growing sugar was hard, labour-intensive work. Sugar was produced in the following way: The ground had to be dug, hoed, weeded, planted and then fertilised with manure, all under the hot West Indian sun.

Detailed explanation-2: -Cuba, for example, became the world’s leading sugar producer in 1829 and doubled its production every decade until around 1870. Around the same time, the consumption of sugar increased in both Europe and the United States, with the latter the chief market for Cuban sugar and Brazilian coffee.

Detailed explanation-3: -Sugar first came to England in the 11th century, brought back by soldiers returning from the Crusades in what is now the Middle East. Over the next 500 years it remained a rarefied luxury, until Portuguese colonists began producing it at a more industrial level in Brazil during the 1500s.

Detailed explanation-4: -Dominque. By the 18th century, the center of sugar production had moved to St. Dominque, the French half of Hispaniola. Thousands of sugar plantations now dotted its landscape and it had become the richest sugar island.