How Sugar Came To The Caribbean
How Sugar Came To The Caribean
Who knew when Christopher Columbus set sail for the New World, his journey would affect more than just future dental bills. See, sugar and claiming new lands for the monarch were super in vogue in the 14 & 1500s and intrepid seamen were the rockstars of the day. Albeit rather than hoards of screaming teens worshiping at their feet, they spent lonely years out at sea sharing cramped quarters alongside their unwashed shipmates.
At this point in history the ‘flat earthers’ were largely dismissed and Earth being round was totally in. But ol’ Chris C. thought it was much smaller than it was and figured he’d be able to sail west and take a short cut to Asia. Well, he figured wrong. And he hit Hispaniola – which is what we now know as Haiti and Dominica.
At the time of ‘discovery’, on December 5, 1492, Hispanola was actually already well ‘discovered’ by the Taíno people, who were part of the larger Arawak-speaking indigenous population. Columbus was impressed by full of resource the island was and how friendly the Arawaks were.
Unfortunately Columbus’s flagship, the Santa María, decided to get up close and personal with a reef off the coast and the ship was a total loss. Columbus, ever the improviser, salvaged what he could and built a small fort dubbed La Navidad – named because the ship sank on Christmas Eve.
Leaving behind 39 lucky men at this makeshift settlement, Columbus sailed back to Spain in January 1493 to share the good news of the new land he discovered (and to get a pat on the back from the king and queen). But when he returned to Hispaniola later that year, things had gone from bad to worse. La Navidad was in ruins, and all the men were dead. Turns out, being conquistadors didn’t make them great neighbours. Turns out they wore out the hospitality of the Tainos and their greed & mistreatment of the locals was paid back with their untimely demise.
Not one to be easily deterred, Columbus founded a new settlement, La Isabela, further along the coast. Spoiler alert: it didn’t fare much better. Disease, food shortages, and more conflicts plagued the colony, proving that the New World was no easy conquest.
The whole colonising Hispanola may have been a bit of a wash but what was a resounding success was sugar. On his second voyage the Queen of Spain sent along sugar cane cuttings to see if they would grow. As sugar was taking Europe by storm at this time but was really hard to grow.
Rumour had it Queen Isabella of Spain was sweet on ol’ Christopher (although that is all rumour) and gave him a wee gift of the sprouts. And voila – that is how Christopher Columbus planted the beginings of sugar and eventually rum in the Caribbean. Those little sprouts thrived in the tropical weather and lo and behold, so did the whole sugar economy.
But that’s a story for another time.
So next time you sip on a rum cocktail, raise a glass to Columbus and his green thumb. After all, without those sugar cane sprouts, who knows what we’d be drinking today? Share your rum story with us in the comments below!
The Rumosphere 