Sugar plantations in the Caribbean were a major part of the economy of the islands in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. MostCaribbean islands were covered withsugar cane fields and mills for refining the crop. The main source of labor, untilthe abolition of chattel slavery, wasenslaved Africans. After the abolition of slavery,indentured laborers from India, China, Portugal and other places were brought to the Caribbean to work in the sugar industry. These plantations produced 80 to 90 percent of the sugar consumed inWestern Europe,^[1] later supplanted by European-grownsugar beet.

The Portuguese introduced sugar plantations in the 1550s off the coast of their Brazilian settlement colony, atEngenho dos Erasmos, located on the island of Sao Vincente.^[2] As the Portuguese and Spanish maintained a strong colonial presence in the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula amassed tremendous wealth from the cultivation of this cash crop. As other imperial states observed the economic boom catalyzed by the plantation system, they began colonizing the remaining American territories, hoping to capitalize on the lucrative cultivation and trade of natural resources.

Sugar was the most important crop throughout the Caribbean, although other crops such ascoffee,indigo, andrice were also grown. Sugar cane was best grown on relatively flat land near coastal waters, where the soil was naturally yellow and fertile; mountainous parts of the islands were less likely to be used for cane cultivation. The coastal placement of commercial ports gave imperial states a geographic advantage in shipping crops throughout the transatlantic world.

Sugar created a uniquepolitical ecology, the relationship between labor, profits, and ecological consequences, in the Caribbean.^[3] Imperial powers forcefully displaced West African peoples to cultivate sugar using slave labor. Imperial conflicts arose in the Caribbean trying for political and economic control. For example, conflicts among the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and various indigenous peoples manifested for territorial gain; regarding the region's political ecology, these European states exploited the environment's resources to such an extent that sugar production stagnated.^[4] Due to the loss of trees, needed for timber in the sugar refinement process, European imperial powers began competing and fighting over the Caribbean during the middle 17th century.^[4] This process would not have been possible without the invention of windmills to produce sugar more efficiently.^[5]

Following European settlers' entry into the Caribbean world, massive demographic changes occurred. Indigenous populations began dying at unprecedented rates due to the influx of old-world diseases brought by colonists. Estimates of these population losses vary from 8.4 million to 112.5 million.^[6] This extreme decrease in native population numbers allowed greater opportunities for plantation construction and lessened the conflicts between Europeans and indigenous peoples.

Although the sugar trade in the Americas was initially dominated by thePortuguese Empire,^[7] theDutch–Portuguese War would cause a shift which would have knock-on effects for the further growth of the sugar trade in theCaribbean and particularly the production ofrum (made fromsugar cane juice).^[8] In 1630, the Dutch seizedRecife nearPernambuco in what is todayBrazil (the Dutch called thisNew Holland after they took over) and this territory included some sugar plantations worked by African slaves who had been brought to the territory earlier. Some of the slave plantation owners wereCristão-Novo, i.e. "New Christian"Sephardic Jews who had been forced to convert to the Catholic Church.^[8] As thePortuguese Inquisition was in operation and the Dutch Calvinists were generally more tolerant of Jews, they were happy to side with them over the Catholic Portuguese and remained in the area operating their substantial sugar-orientated slave plantations, now under Dutch sovereignty.^[8] They even founded the first public synagogue in the Americas there in 1636; theKahal Zur Israel Synagogue.

Further north in the Caribbean, the ProtestantKingdom of England was beginning to challenge the interest of the Catholic powers in the region such as theSpanish Empire and theKingdom of France, taking control of a number of islands, includingJamaica andBarbados.^[8] One of these men, ColonelJames Drax who had interests in Barbados, visited Dutch Brazil in 1640 and purchased a triple-roller sugar mill and a set of copper cauldrons (used for turning sugar cane intomolasses, i.e. sugar cane juice used in rum production).^[8] This technology, although originating inSicily had spread to the New World and had been improved to aid the sugar plantations in other ways, bringing their expert knowledge of technologies in cultivating rum from the sugar cane and working as merchants, supplying them with African slaves to work the plantations,^[9] helping to make Barbados the sugar capital of the Caribbean and the rum capital of the world.^[8][10] By 1706, the laws against Jews owning sugar plantations in Barbados were dropped, by which time Jewish involvement in rum production was reduced to a nominal status.^[8]

During the colonial period, the arrival of sugar culture deeply impacted the society and economy in the Caribbean. It not only dramatically increased the ratio of slaves to free men, but it increased the average size of slave plantations. Early sugar plantations made extensive use of slaves because sugar was considered acash crop that exhibitedeconomies of scale in cultivation; it was most efficiently grown on large plantations with many workers. People fromAfrica were imported and made to work on the plantations. For example, prior to 1650 more than three-quarters of the islands' population were ofEuropean descent. In 1680, the median size of a plantation inBarbados had increased to about 60 slaves. Over the decades, the sugar plantations began expanding as the transatlantic trade continued to prosper. In 1832, the median-size plantation inJamaica had about 150 slaves, and nearly one of every four bondsmen lived on units that had at least 250 slaves.^[4] For about 100 years,Barbados remained the richest of all the European colonies in the Caribbean region. The colony's prosperity remained regionally unmatched until sugar cane production expanded in larger colonies, such asSaint-Domingue and Jamaica. As part of the mass sugar industry, sugar cane processing gave rise to relatedcommodities such asrum,molasses, andfalernum.

TheWest India Interest^[6] was formed in the 1740s, when the British merchants joined with the West Indian sugar planters. TheBritish and West Indies shared profits and needs. This organization was the first sugar-trading organization which had a large voice inParliament.

In the 1740s,Jamaica andSaint Domingue (Haiti) became the world's main sugar producers.^[11] They increased production in Saint Domingue by using anirrigation system thatFrench engineers built. The engineers also builtreservoirs,diversion dams,levees,aqueducts, andcanals. In addition, they improved their mills and used varieties of cane and grasses.

According to a 2021 study, "historical property rights institutions [in Haiti] created high transaction costs for converting land to cane production", relative to the other Caribbean countries.^[11] As a result, Haiti lost its place as the leading sugar producer in the world.^[11]

After the end of slavery in Saint Domingue at the turn of the 19th century, with theHaitian Revolution,Cuba became the most substantial sugar plantation colony in the Caribbean, outperforming the British islands.^{[citation needed]}

In the 19th century, sugar dominatedMartinique,Grenada,Jamaica,Saint Croix,Barbados, theLeeward Islands,Saint Domingue,Cuba, as well as many other islands that had been run byFrench,British, orSpanish owners. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, the sugar cane industry came to dominatePuerto Rico's economy, both under the colonial rule of Spain and under theUnited States.

After slavery, sugar plantations used a variety of forms of labour including workers imported from colonial India and Southern China working as indentured servants on European owned plantations (coolie). In the 20th century, large-scale sugar production using wage labour continued in many parts of the region.

The Europeans forced the indigenous peoples of various Caribbean islands to provide the physical labor necessary for the production of sugarcane.^[12] The indigenous populations of the Caribbean were decimated by illness after initial colonization and were left with few numbers. In order to continue production for the crop, Europeans first transportedindentured servants, mostly fromIreland and Britain, African slaves were introduced to the islands shortly after through theTrans-Atlantic slave trade. The time at which this happened varies from island to island.

Sugarcane harvesting during the time of colonization in the Caribbean was a labor-intensive process. Firstly, it was harvested by hand, and the sucrose inside needed to be harvested quickly to not be spoiled. To extract the juice, it must be chopped, ground, pressed, pounded, or soaked in liquid before it is heated. Once heated, the liquids evaporate until only the crystals remain. Each step is labor-intensive and requires technical knowledge and skill.^[13] These tasks were performed by enslaved individuals until emancipation.

In 1807,Parliament passed theSlave Trade Act, prohibiting the trade of slaves in the British Empire. This act extended to the Caribbean plantations under British control. Without the labor influx of slaves through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, the system became harder to maintain. Years later, in 1838, more than half a million people in the Caribbean were emancipated from slavery as a result of the 1833 Emancipation Bill.^[14]

Slavery on Plantations in the Caribbean involved a series of interconnected relationships and power dynamics between the enslaved and the more elite population on the island. Women were integral in the social dynamic of the plantations and in the labor itself. "There was a gendering of health, wealth and energy on sugar plantations. The majority of field slaves were women and the majority of women worked in the field.".^[15] Women were heavily involved in the labor of the plantations and were also having children and going to work in the fields at the same time. TheNewton Slave Burial Ground showed the evidence of this brutality towards enslaved women,"which may point towards greater levels of interpersonal abuse or even domestic violence for women".^[15]

The sugar cane industry had an adverse impact on the environment as this industry grew in Caribbean countries. These included the destruction of forests, water pollution, and loss of fertility and erosion of soils. These problems were seen on various different scales in theDominican Republic in the 16th century;Martinique in the 17th century;Jamaica andHaiti in the 18th century; andCuba andPuerto Rico in the 19th century.

In 1492,Christopher Columbus arrived on the northern coast ofHispaniola and Spanish colonization began to establish itself. By the late 16th century, demand and production for sugar, one of the central exports of the island, had increased. Much of the indigenous population suffered from disease and famine, and many pre-colonial smaller-scale farms were replaced by larger-scale farms. These farms required more land and moist soil close to water sources, resulting in deforestation and water pollution.^[16]

During the 17th century in the Lesser Antilles, many of the islands in the Lesser Antilles suffered ecological losses after the introduction ofmonoculture for sugar plantations. On the Caribbean islandNevis in particular, the island was nearly deforested during the mid-1600s and much of the topsoil quality deteriorated as a result of a large influx of plantations.^[17]

Although these nations have taken measures to mitigate the impacts of the sugar revolution, in some there are still traces of what the environmental historian of the Caribbean and Latin America, Reinaldo Funes Monzote, describes as a "serious deterioration" of the natural environment, with socio-economic consequences.^[18]

The impacts concerning irrigation and pollution of water runoff are seen as the most profound issues in sugar cane cultivation.^[19]

• Trapiche, a mill used for sugar cane
• Colonial molasses trade
• Casa-grande in Brazil
• Sugar production in the Danish West Indies
• Slavery in the British and French Caribbean
• Valle de los Ingenios – Valley of the Sugar Mills, Cuba
• Amazon rubber boom
• Coffee production in Brazil
• West India Interest
• London Society of West India Planters and Merchants
• Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership
• "Habitations", French colonial plantations (fr)

Wikimedia Commons has media related toSugar production in the Caribbean.

• Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
• Agriculture in the Caribbean
• Economic history of the Caribbean
• Sugar plantations
• West Indies

• CS1 Spanish-language sources (es)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2020
• Commons category link is on Wikidata