Sugar and its Influence on the World essays

Sugar and its Influence on the World essays In the beginning of Sidney Mintzs book, Sweetness and Power, there is an engraving by William Blake that depicts three ethnically contrasting, naked women. The woman in the middle is a Caucasian European, and on both sides of her are women representing Africa and the early Americas, thus hinting to the fact that Europe was undoubtedly dependent on Africa and the Americas between 1000 and 1800 CE. Europe depended immensely on the Americas for the vast amounts of natural resources and wealth that resided in the region. American soil was a land of opportunity begging to be harvested by the hungry Europeans. Now that Europe had come across an abundant land of riches, it needed laborers to reap its economic benefits. Thus, Europe turned to Africa and slave trade was born. From 1441-1870 CE eighteen million slaves were traded and nine million of them died in the process (Lecture, The Slave Trade). Without the Americas and Africa the wealth and riches that Europe acquired would have been virtually non-existent. Europeans sent slaves from Africa to the new world to harvest the most valuable, and pertinent resource in the history of our world, sugar. The native indians of the area were also made into slaves, and they relentlessly mined and produced silver, gold, and other precious metals. Then the finished products were sent back to Europe to be traded and sold. Due to this new world system, Europes economy boomed and thrived. William Blakes illustration correlates directly to the vast importance of sugar and almost everything else in the history of our world, because everyone was interdependent on each other, and this inevitably attributes to the idea of intricate world systems. The world between 1000 and 1800 CE was entirely connected and world systems dominated. There was trade, mercantilism, agriculture, and eventually a successful money system, but none of it would have ex...