History of Sugar
The history of sugar predates civilizations. Before Egyptians built pyramids, and Harrapan elites began consolidating their empire, honey was the primary source of sweetener. Until somewhere in south-east Asia, some guys discovered sugarcanes are sweet when chewed and ended up domesticating the plant.1,2
Aronson, Budhos. Sugar Changed the World: A story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science. Clarion Books, 2010. ISBN 1451748868, 9781451748864. Pinterest
A couple of millennia later, sugar cultivation reached India. Alexander’s attempted invasion of India might have introduced sugarcane to Hellenistic kingdoms.3 Later during the Gupta era, Indians innovated ways to extract sugar granules from sugarcane juice.4
Trade routes took sugar from India to China5 and wars and invasion took it to the Arabic world6. The sweet contagious essence of sugar crystals spread with the Arabic expansion and reached the doorsteps of Europe. Sugar was so rare and expensive that the rich used it to flaunt their wealth by making sugar sculptures out of it!7
Depiction of the classical model of the triangular trade.
wiki user:SimonP. 2005. CC BY-SA 3.0
The demand for sugar in Europe skyrocketed and it didn’t take long for Europeans to build new colossal maritime trade routes dwarfing the might of the Atlantic Ocean, connecting the new American colonies to Europe and Africa completing the deadly triangular trade of sugar on the graveyard of Africans.8,9
Transatlantic Slave Trade
African captives being transferred to ships along the Slave Coast for the transatlantic slave trade, c. 1880.© Photos.com/Thinkstock
Yes, the history of sugar paved the way for slavery. African slaves were sent to die of exhaustion in sugar fields in millions. When British abolished slavery, Indians were sent to do the same as unfree laborers.10
Wars were fought over commodities (like sugar) trade routes, changing the course of history.11 Only to later end up in the mugs and cups and bread of every factory worker of the industrial revolution who was then given sugar-rich morning breakfast to give them energy boost making them last long exhausting working hours.12
Malnourishment or Starvation?
Sugar was a super rare commodity, unlike today, where it is almost used in everything, in every processed food, even in things that don’t taste sweet. The desire for calorie–dense sweet–tasting foods is something that’s coded into our archaic brains as part of an inbuilt survival mechanism against starvation.13 Does that mean Sugar helped us evade starvation?
The better question will be to ask whether malnourishment is better than starvation?
Today we use that in everything. There’s only a limit up to which our body can process sugar. The liver has an innate capacity to metabolize sugar and use it for energy, but only to an extent. The fructose that’s left over is converted into fat in the liver, raising your risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.14
Reading the adverse effect of sugars can make you anxious for they are endless-
TL;DR - Long Story Short
An epic history of sugar, from sugarcanes in South East Asia to World addiction post-Industrial Revolution. From domestication and innovation to slavery and bloodshed. Initially seen as sweetener later turns out to be the hornet’s nest of diseases and suffering.
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1) Daniels J, Daniels C. Sugarcane in prehistory. Archaeology in Oceania. Wiley; 1993;28:1–7.
2)Sara C Di Rienzi, Robert A Britton, Adaptation of the Gut Microbiota to Modern Dietary Sugars and Sweeteners, Advances in Nutrition, 10.1093/advances/nmz118, (2019).
3)Sharpe, Peter (1998) “Sugar Cane: Past and Present,” Ethnobotanical Leaflets: Vol. 1998 : Iss. 3 , Article 6.
4)Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-56639-832-9.
5)Kieschnick, John (2003). The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. Princeton: University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-09676-6.
6)Parker, Matthew (2011). The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire and War. London: Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-192583-3.
7)Marina Belozerskaya. Luxury Arts of Renaissance. Getty Trust Publications 2005. J. Paul Getty Museum. ISBN 9780892367856
8)“Triangular Trade”. National Maritime Museum. 2011
9)BBC Bitesize National 5. Britain and the Caribbean. Part of History|Atlantic Slave Trade.
11)Dutch-Portuguese Wars, Saturnino Monteiro (2011) Portuguese Sea Battles Volume VI – 1627–1668.
12)Mintz, Sidney Wilfred. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Penguin Group, 1985. Print.
13)Spector, Dina. “Why We Love Sugar.” Business Insider, 25 Apr. 2014.
14)Publishing, Harvard Health. “Abundance of fructose not good for the liver, heart”. Harvard Health. Retrieved 2020-07-04.
15)Cover Image: Bristol Radical History Group. An African dealer marches Slaves to the coast where they will be sold.
1 Comment
Angela · July 7, 2020 at 9:22 pm
This is a great framework for a more in depth look at sugar, which one doesn’t see often . My doctor once told me to cut sugar from my diet as much as possible because “it’s killing us.” Interesting point made here about how sugar and economic status correlate. It is a dangerous, addictive drug packaged as a necessary staple for any poor man’s diet. Looking forward to how this article expands.