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Sweet Nexus: Sugar and the Origins of the Modern World:
Sugar was known in ancient history but it only became globally important with the expansion of Islam after the 7th century and the growth of the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean trades. Sugar was introduced to western Asia and Europe in the late middle ages. Plantations were established around the Persian Gulf and Meditteranean Islands. Sugar really took off however with the European colonization of the new world. The Spanish and Portuguese explorers were familiar with growing of cane sugar and they found particularly in the Caribbean the perfect climate for sugar production. The Europeans developed a greater and greater taste for sugar and it spread from the nobility to the middle classes. Use to sweeten tea and coffee which had become a popular import from Latin America and Asia. There were two triangles involved in the Atlantic Trade. In the first one African slaves were sent to the new world plantations. Sugar and tobacco went from the Americas to Europe and finished products like iron and cloth went from Europe to Africa. The second triangle sent rum from New England to Africa slaves from Africa to the West Indies and molasses back to New England to make more rum. Plantations were at the heart of the sugar economy. African slaves planted and weeded and harvested the cane. It was terribly hard work. The first steps of processing the cane had to be done near the plantations. Crushed into juice and some what refined. The final step in producing white sugar was done in Europe of North America and that's where the big money was made.