The Cultural Effects of the Sugar Industry in Latin America and the Caribbean
Slavery, Abolition and New Cultures
European greed for wealth and expansion of powers lasting over a span of several centuries in the New World was a major link between African diasporas and the sugar industry in the Caribbean. This led to a mixing of cultures among all of Latin America’s
people. The sugar industry and the importation of African slaves had such a profound impact in the Caribbean that the effects are evident in the region to this day. African slaves were not complacent to the idea of being enslaved. Extensive accounts of slave revolts and uprisings exist but they did not succeed in ending slavery single-handedly. During the eighteenth century the Caribbean sugar plantations funded the growing economy in Europe. It also fueled industrialization into the nineteenth century as well. The method of the abolition of slavery was strongly influenced by the pattern of economic change and revolution in the European Old World during this time.
The triangular trade began the massive importation of African slaves to work the sugar plantations. The triangular trade system allowed Europeans to set sail for Africa to exchange goods for slaves then sail the slaves to the Caribbean. Upon arriving in the Caribbean, one could sell the slaves to buy sugar, leather or other goods to be brought back to Europe. The English became the biggest slave traders and profited from this system greatly. Slaves had been traded from Africa before but the trade to the New World
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was not like earlier exchanges among countries. The voyage was longer and the slaves had never been taken in such vast numbers before. In Latin American food culture today it is evident that many foods and cooking techniques derive from a history of violent European conquest, the importation of slaves from Africa, and the indentured servitude of immigrants in the plantation system. During the voyage...