Dbq Sugar Trade

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Have you ever eaten something with sugar in it? If you were living in the 1700’s, that sugar was made by slaves in the Caribbean. The sugar trade comprised a century long trade involving Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean islands. Rich Europeans traded with Africans for slaves, and shipped them to the Caribbean islands. The slaves made sugar in the Caribbean and sent it to the mother country in Europe. From the beginning of the sugar trade in 1655 to the end of slavery in Europe in 1803, there were 3 main things that drove the sugar trade: the abundance of fertile soil in the Caribbean, the perfect strategy of Mercantilism in Britain, and the great wealth and power of businessmen in Europe.
One way land contributed to the sugar trade was that the Caribbean had perfect conditions for
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Mercantilism focuses on having more exports than imports. Britain used this strategy by having colonies that produced sugar and who gave the sugar only to Britain. Britain then exported the sugar to other countries, making Britain more money (saving money on importing sugar and making money exporting it). In document 12, Phillip Roden explains that, “Beginning about 1660, the Parliament in England passed a whole series of laws dealing with colonial shipping, trade, manufacturing and money”. The purpose of these laws was to force Britain’s colonies to give sugar to only Britain, making it so they would be the only people benefiting from the sugar trade. After Britain got the sugar, it traded goods to African kings in return for slaves, as seen in document 11. The slaves were sent to the Caribbean islands to cultivate sugar; the Caribbean colonies sent the sugar to Britain; Britain sold the sugar to other countries; and Britain then used the money to get more slaves. This process repeated, blossoming an endless cycle of wealth for Europeans, and proving that the foolproof strategy of Mercantilism was