History sugar, slavery and empire summer exams

Where did sugar originally grow?

It was native to India, and grew in hot countries

What happened in AD350?

People began crushing sugar cane, boiling ad then drying it to make sugar crystals. These were added to food to sweeten it

What happened in AD632?

The prophet Muhammad died and the religion of Islam grew rapidly

What happened in AD750?

The Islamic religion had reached Spain (west) and India (east)

How did sugar can farming spread?

Contact between the Islamic world and India meant sugar cane farming spread west quickly, and by the 11th century Africa and Spain were growing sugar cane

What new methods did farmers introduce?

Irrigation and built watermills to grind sugar

What was sugar used for 1100-1400?

Sugar was an expensive luxury in Europe and it wasn’t used for cooking but made into sculptures (sotiltee) to show of wealth

What happened at the end of the 15th century?

Portuguese and Spanish sailors explored islands off the coast of Africa. They started sugar plantations on Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde and Sao Tome. The work was done by European settlers but in Sao Tome Portuguese took people from nearby African kingdoms and made them work as slaves. Europeans also began to build bigger and better ships

What happened in 1492?

Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ the Caribbean islands and named them the ‘West Indies’

What happened in 1493?

Columbus took sugar cane to the Caribbean Islands and planted it. Portuguese also took sugar cane across the Atlantic and began to grow it in settlements (coast of Brazil). Indigenous people were forced to work producing sugar and this led to the destruction of some tribes

Describe the inward passage

Ships returned to Britain with the products from the slave plantations including sugar, tobacco and rum

Describe the middle passage

Enslaved African people were transported in awful conditions on the 4-6 week journey

Describe the outward passage

Manufactured goods such as linen, gins, alcohol were transported from Britain to Africa

How did investors get rich from the triangular trade?

The growth in the Caribbean sugar trade created great wealth

Investment in the slave trade spread among upper and middle classes who profited from slave trade

Plantation owners made vast fortunes from increased sale of sugar and used to build great houses

How did sugar become available to the middle class?

In 1650 it was used in tea, coffee, and chocolate

Recipe books encouraged people to produce puddings, cakes and tarts sweetened with sugar

Sugar was fashionable and sugar loaves were displayed on tables to show wealth

Describe slaves being captured in Africa?

Historians have estimated that as many as 12 million people were taken from the African continent by European slave traders. Slaves were forced to walk hundreds of miles to the coast where they would be traded for manufactured goods.

Describe the conditions on the slave ships?

Sometimes as many as 600 enslaved Africans would be packed onto one ship.

The slaves were chained together and packed into dark holds below the deck. Men, women and children were separated and no one had any access to sanitation and very little food or water.

Slaves were regularly whipped and punished, but sometimes African captives fought back against their captors

1680-1688 23/100 Africans died in transit

Describe slave auctions?

On arrival to the west indies the slaves were cleaned, and scars from beating were covered with hot tar. The slaves would then be sold at an auction, the healthiest slaves would fetch the highest prices

Slaves who were weak or didn’t sell would be put in a scramble auction where the bidders would all pay a fixed price and choose whichever slave they wanted

Who benefitted from the slave trade?

British slave traders, Plantations owners, west African leaders, The ports, ordinary people, factory owners in Britain, government, upper and middle class investors

How did sugar become available for everyone?

With the industrial revolution and increased sugar production new sugar based products were available at cheaper prices

Sugar cubes 1850

Frys chocolate bar 1847

Bassetts Liquorice all sorts 1899

Boiled sweets

What happened to sugar after the industrial revolution?

Made the sugar cheaper ad affordable for working class people. Workers burned a lot of calories and sugar become the cheapest way to get the energy they needed to work

What happened in the sugar crisis 1900-now?

Food and drink producers added sugar to their products

wheat flakes 1902

coca cola 1900

Convenience food 1970

What was the new source of sugar?

Fructose was a cheaper way of producing sugar from corn. It was made from boiling corn into a syrup. However it had much higher calories so people gained weight much easier