When did we first have sugar in England?

The presence of sugar was first acknowledged in England in the 12th century, where it was treated predominantly as a spice and a medicine. In this early period, sugar came from numerous sources in the Middle East, India, Egypt and beyond. Like many spices, Venice was the trading post by which sugar came into Europe.

When was sugar introduced to France?

This paper analyses the French sugar industry and demonstrates its impact on the French economy. The development of the sugar industry began in the 18th century thanks to imports of sugarcane from overseas colonies.

When was sugar first used in food?

The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century. Cyprus and Sicily became important centres for sugar production.

Why did sugar become so popular in Europe?

The Crusades When the soldiers return home, they bring sugar with them, sparking widespread demand across Europe. Venice had been trading with the Muslim world prior to the Crusades, which gave them a fast inroad to dominate the sugar trade in the Mediterranean for almost half a century.

Who brought sugar to the UK?

Sugar first came to England in the 11th century, brought back by soldiers returning from the Crusades in what is now the Middle East. Over the next 500 years it remained a rarefied luxury, until Portuguese colonists began producing it at a more industrial level in Brazil during the 1500s.

How did slaves harvest sugar?

Sugarcane field workers worked long hours planting, maintaining, and harvesting the sugarcane under hot and dangerous tropical conditions. The field slaves had to cut down acres of sugarcane and transport it to a wind-, water-, or animal-driven mill, where the juices were extracted from the crop.

Did medieval Europe have sugar?

Sugar cane was first grown extensively in medieval Southern Europe during the period of Arab rule in Sicily beginning around the 9th century. In addition to Sicily, Al-Andalus (in what is currently southern Spain) was an important center of sugar production, beginning by the tenth century.

What was Europe before sugar?

In the West, honey was the prime sweetener before the introduction of sugar. But even when Europeans gained access to sugar in the High Middle Ages, it was reserved to the wealthy.

Did the Romans have sugar?

There are records of knowledge of sugar among the ancient Greeks and Romans, but only as an imported medicine, and not as a food.

Did they have sugar in the Middle Ages?

Sugar, a luxurious commodity, only appeared on their tables in the high Middle Ages. Sugar, like honey, has a multi-millenary history. Its cultivation originates from South-East Asia and was gradually introduced to the Persian Sassanid Empire, where sufficient irrigation for the canes allowed production.

Why was sugar so valuable in the 18th and 19th century?

Slavery made sugar cheaper, and the cheaper it grew the more central it became to the British diet. Its use had two large boosts. When tea and coffee, both naturally bitter, became popular in the 18th century, sugar was their indispensable sweetener.

How did sugar feed slavery?

The labor of enslaved Africans was integral to the cultivation of the cane and production of sugar. Slaves toiled in the fields and the boiling houses, supplying the huge amounts of labor that sugar required.

When did sugar become popular in Europe?

1710 – 1770 CE. Sugar became an extremely popular commodity, representing 20\% of all European imports; toward the end of the century, the British and French colonies in the West Indies produced 80\% of the sugar. 17.

When was sugar first discovered?

As their expansion continued they established sugar production in other lands that they conquered including North Africa and Spain. Sugar was only discovered by western Europeans as a result of the Crusades in the 11thCentury AD. Crusaders returning home talked of this “new spice” and how pleasant it was.

When was sugarcane introduced in the Caribbean?

When Brazilian sugarcane was introduced in the Caribbean, shortly before 1647, it led to the growth of the industry which came to feed the sugar craze of Western Europe. This food – which nobody needed, but everyone craved – drove the formation of the modern of the world.

What is the history of sugar production in Brazil?

Brazilian sugar production reached its peak in the 1620s in the Pernambuco and Bahia regions, at about 15,000-20,000 tons a year. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in the early 1500s, they quickly set about subjugating the local Tupi to work in their mines and harvest their sugar cane.