jul 21, 1493 - Sugar cane is introduced to the new World

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In 1493, Christopher Columbus introduced sugar cane to the New World. The plant took to its new environment very well. This Old-World food became very popular very quickly after King Charles V built sugar mills and recruited experts and technicians. Portugal became the top producer of sugar in the sixteenth century; Brazil took over in the seventeenth century. Sugar was being produced in tens of thousands of tons every year, resulting in the major spreading of the sugar cane plant. British colonists referred to sugar as White Gold, if that give an idea of its value. Unfortunately, it was also marked the beginning of the slave trade in the Americas. Contrary to what one may think, America’s birth may have spawned from the sugarcane plant “Profit from the sugar trade was so significant that it may have even helped America achieve independence from Great Britain.”. Sugar is used in nearly everything we eat, so what better way to learn about this commonality than to include it in a historical timeline?

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