Sugar Cane

Question 1

Book: What plant family does sugarcane belong to?

Answer 1

The grass family

Question 2

Book: What plant supplies close to 40% of the world’s supply of table sugar?

Answer 2

Sugar beet

Question 3

Book: Where is almost half of the world’s cacao grown?

Answer 3

West Africa - Ivory Coast

Question 4

Book: How did cotton slavery numbers change from 1790 to 1810?

Answer 4

The number of slaves doubled

Question 5

Book: How many cotton slaves were there in 1860?

Answer 5

~4 million

Question 6

What is the no. 1 crop in the world based on tonnage produced?

Answer 6

Sugar cane. (Saccharum officinale)

Question 7

Where did sugar cane originate?

Answer 7

Papua New Guinea (With pigs! and bananas!).

Question 8

How long ago was sugar cane domesticated?

Answer 8

~10 000 years (same as bananas!).

Question 9

Where and when was sugar crystallization invented?

Answer 9

In India (350 BC).

Question 10

How did sugar cane cultivation spread?

Answer 10

Slowly at first through India and Persia, but them spread around the Mediterranean by Muslims and further by Christians.

Question 11

Who brought sugar cane to the New World?

Answer 11

Columbus brought it to Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic) while the Portuguese brought it to Brazil.

Question 12

When was the first sugar cane harvest in the New World? By 1520, how many sugar mills had been built there?

Answer 12

1501. Thousands established by 1520.

Question 13

How was sugar received in Europe?

Answer 13

Replaced honey in most baking purposes, also filled a void as an addition to hot drinks (the “handmaiden of hot drinks”).

Question 14

How many sugar refineries existed in Amsterdam in 1650?

Answer 14

55.

Question 15

How many sugar refineries existed in London in 1753?

Answer 15

80.

Question 16

How many sugar refineries existed in Orleans, Bordeaux, Nantes, and Marseille combined in 1790?

Answer 16

77.

Question 17

What new products were brought about because of the mass production of sugar? What else accompanied sugar production?

Answer 17

Jams, candy, confectionary, cake, rum. With all this new stuff came slavery though (so like, not a great trade-off…).

Question 18

What replaced gin as the drink of the British navy? The cultivation of which plant made this possible?

Answer 18

Rum replaces gin. It’s one of the new products you can make with sugar from sugar cane.

Question 19

How did Spanish Hispaniola become a French colony called Saint-Domingue?

Answer 19

French pirates who had been living on Tortuga (a nearby island) decided to go legit and moved there.

Question 20

What other title was Saint-Domingue known by? What kind of economy led to this?

Answer 20

The “Pearl of the Antilles”, the richest producer of raw materials in the French Empire. The colony doesn’t profit though, only France (extraction economy).

Question 21

What is mercantilism an early form of?

Answer 21

Capitalism.

Question 22

In the 1780s, what percentage of the European sugar market came from Saint-Domingue? What about the European coffee market?

Answer 22

Sugar: 40%
Coffee: 60%

Question 23

How did the mercantile triangle work between Europe, Africa, and the New World colonies?

Answer 23

1. Colonies supply raw materials to Europe
2. Europe manufactures goods from raw materials and trades them in Africa for slaves
3. Slaves shipped to the colonies to produce more raw materials for Europe

Question 24

Because the human capital required for sugar production was so unsustainable, how many new slaves had to be brought in each year to replace the ones who’d died producing sugar?

Answer 24

~40 000 slaves/year (yikes).

Question 25

How many free whites were there in Saint-Domingue in 1789, what about free blacks? Slaves?

Answer 25

Whites: 32 000
Blacks: 28 000
Slaves: 450 000

Question 26

What did the “Declaration of the Rights of Man” (1789) stipulate? How was this adopted in Saint-Domingue?

Answer 26

All men “free and equal”, except they were really slow to enforce this. Free men of colour didn’t get citizenship until 1791 and slaves continued to be used.

Question 27

What occurred in Saint-Domingue on the 21st of August, 1791?

Answer 27

Slaves revolted, killing 4000 whites and destroying 180 sugar plantations by burning the fields.

Question 28

In 1792, how did the French respond to the 1791 Saint-Domingue slave revolt?

Answer 28

Abolished slavery in 1792, but too late because the island was already in the slaves hands.

Question 29

What did Napoleon do regarding slavery and the Saint-Domingue rebels?

Answer 29

Re-instituted slavery. Sent 30 000 soldiers (led by Rochambeau) to crush the 16 000 former slaves (led by Dessalines) at the battle of Vertieres and lost.

Question 30

What was the result of the battle of Vertieres in Saint-Domingue? Why is it notable?

Answer 30

The independent country of Haiti is founded. The only slave revolt in history to successfully establish a new nation.

Question 31

In 1767 what products what was raw sugar, refined sugar, cotton, and indigo valued at?

Answer 31

Millions - raw sugar = 72, refined sugar = 52, cotton = 2, and indigo = 1

Question 32

By the 1780s how much of the European market had sugar and coffee produced in Hispaniola?

Answer 32

40% sugar, 60% coffee

Question 33

Where did the Genoaese spread sugar to? When?

Answer 33

Spain and Portugal, 1390s

Question 34

Where did Portugal spread sugar to? Spain?

Answer 34

Portugal - Madeira and Brazil

Spain - Canary Islands