’Tis too much prov’d, that with devotion’s
visage
And pious action we do sugar o’er
The devil himself. (III.i)
The Rise of the Sugar Industry The 18th-
century explosion in European sugar
consumption was made possible by colonial
rule in the West Indies and the enslavement of
millions of Africans. Columbus carried the
cane to Hispaniola (now Haiti and the
Dominican Republic) on his second voyage in
- By about 1550, the Spanish and
Portuguese had occupied many Caribbean
islands and the coasts of western Africa,
Brazil, Mexico, and were producing sugar in
significant quantities; English, French, and
Dutch colonists followed in the next century.
By 1700, some 10,000 Africans were being
traded via the Portuguese colony São Tomé to
the Americas every year. The sugar industry
was not the only force behind the great
expansion of slavery, but it probably was the