ABSTRACT
The word sugar is used in our vocabulary in many forms, each of which has as its primary meaning “sweet.” Sugar cane as a crop originated in Papua-New Guinea about 8000 to 9000 years ago. During the ensuing thousands of years, it gradually moved west. Sugar arrived in the Western Hemisphere, primarily the Caribbean, shortly after the arrival of Columbus. At approximately the same time, sugar moved from Persia to the Arabian peninsula, and the Arabs began to grow sugar on the islands of the Mediterranean. Sugar was introduced into the Canary Islands during the 15th century, and in 1492 Columbus took sugar cane from the Canaries to the Caribbean. The physical environment of the Caribbean islands was conducive to the growth of sugar. By 1865, slavery was illegal in the United States, and the major production of sugar moved from the southern United States to Cuba.
