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The History of Sugar Cane - MuseumSugar Cane, its History, Europe's Last Refining Plant and MuseumThe history, spread and growth of sugar cane and where to see Europe's last sugar cane refinery.
Sugar cane has been used by the Polynesians for over 5000 years, they discovered that the stalks of an enormous grass produced a sweet liquid they could use in the preparation of food. It was later taken to the coastal areas of India and when the Persian Emperor, Darius invaded the Indian sub-continent in 510 BC he discovered that food was being sweetened from a substance derived from a plant. The Persians had only honey to use as a sweetener and so they named sugar cane “the reed which gives honey without bees”. Alexander the Great, 200 years later conquered parts of Asia and took home the “sacred cane” as he called it. This began an importation of sugar into Ancient Greece and later Rome, where it became in demand as a luxury product as well as for medicine. When the Arabs invaded Persia in the 7th century they raided sugar cane plants as part of their booty. This process continued with invasions and conquests spreading sugar cane around a larger area including Egypt, Cyprus, North Africa and Spain. When the Arabs took sugar cane to Portugal and Spain both countries were quick to find suitable growing locations as it was a luxury product which yielded a huge and profitable crop. Christopher Columbus, in 1493 then took sugar cane to Santa Domingo in the Caribbean Islands for trial plantings. This was a huge success, with the hot sunshine, large amount of rainfall and the fertile soil on the island the crop flourished, and Columbus told Queen Isabella of Spain, that it grew faster in the West Indies than anywhere else in the world. This report led to great excitement and many Europeans emigrated, with this news of the promising "New World". Farmers from Britain, France and Holland began to experiment and grow sugar cane for export on their plantations across South America. As the farms grew, the demand outdid the local labour supply and slaves were bought in from Africa to work on the plantations. Farming sugar cane was immensely profitable and it became known as “white gold”. When slavery was abolished in the 1800s, the people were paid for their labour and still today it is the living of many people to harvest sugar. Sugar took a little longer to reach Britain, and it’s a little unsure when it happened, but in 1264 the household of Henry III was reported to be using it. Britain became more involved in the sugar industry after taking Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655 and by 1750 they had 120 refining factories that produced 30, 000 tonnes of sugar a year. The last remaining sugar factory in Europe is on the south coast of Spain near Motril, Azucarera de Gualdalfeo, is on the west of Salobrena and its tall chimney is visible for miles. If you have a sweet tooth then you can buy sugar by the sack. There is also a sugar museum is a fairly new, small museum which shows the history and process of sugar refining through working models and interactive displays. Museo del Azucar de Motril, Ingenio de La Palma Tel: 958 822 206 To see the Museums website visit Museo del Azucar.
The copyright of the article The History of Sugar Cane - Museum in Spain Travel is owned by Rachel L. Webb. Permission to republish The History of Sugar Cane - Museum in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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