sugar

By sophiemoore
  • 1 CE

    8,000 BCE

    First probable domestication of sugar cane by the indigenous people of New Guinea, who chewed it raw
  • 1 CE

    1540 CE

    800 sugar cane mills were developed on Santa Catarina Island, along with another 2,000 mills along the north coast of Brazil.
  • 1 CE

    8,000 BCE to 600 CE

    Sugar cane cultivation practices spread throughout Southeast Asia, China and India via seaborne traders
  • 1 CE

    600 CE

    Sugar cultivation techniques were spread into the Mediterranean by Persian.
  • 1 CE

    800 to 900 CE

    Sugar cane was grown extensively in Southern Europe following the Persian conquest of the region, it was primarily grown in Sicily and Spain.
  • 1 CE

    1455 – 1480 CE

    Sugar was cultivated for large-scale refinement for the first time in Madeira, by the end of this period about 70 ships were involved in the Madeira sugar trade, and refining and distribution were based in Antwerp.
  • 1 CE

    1710 to 1770 CE

    Sugar became an extremely popular commodity, representing 20% of all European imports; toward the end of the century, the British and French colonies in the West Indies produced 80% of the sugar.
  • 1 CE

    1813 CE

    Edward Charles Howard invented a more fuel-efficient method of refining sugar, which boiled the cane juice in a closed kettle heated by steam and held under partial vacuum; it was called “Howard’s vacuum pan.
  • 1 CE

    1870 to 1890 CE

    The first successful commercial sugar beet production in the U.S. began in central California. By 1890, sugar beet factories were established in Watsonville and Alvarado.
  • 1 CE

    1938 to 1946 CE

    he mechanization of sugar cane cultivation began when 16 whole stalk harvesters were successfully used to harvest cane in Louisiana in 1938, and by 1946 (because of wartime labor shortages), 422 whole stalk machines cut 63% of the crop in Louisiana.
  • 1 CE

    TODAY

    Sugar beet and sugar cane yields continue to improve with modern varieties of the plants and advances in agricultural technology.