Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Portuguese introduced sugar plantations in the 1550s off the coast of their Brazilian settlement colony, 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.
José Ramon Fernández, 1st Marquis of La Esperanza (1808–1883), was the wealthiest sugar baron in Puerto Rico in the 19th century. He was also one of the most powerful men of the entire Spanish Caribbean. [1] He owned an immense plantation of nearly 2300 acres on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, and a sugar mill with an advanced steam engine.
The success of Spanish Caribbean sugar plantations was a model for other European powers. The Portuguese colony of Brazil also developed large-scale sugar plantations. The high demand in Europe for sugar attracted other European powers to stake claims on Caribbean islands claimed by the Spanish but not effectively held.
The area where Hacienda Santa Elena is located has been used for agriculture since the early days of the Spanish colonization of Puerto Rico.The fertile flooding plains of the so-called Toa Valley (Valle del Toa) in particular were first developed for agriculture in the mid-1500s during the period of transition between gold mining and the fortification of San Juan in the military development ...
The Spanish colonies were late to exploit slave labor in the production of sugarcane, particularly on Cuba. The Spanish colonies in the Caribbean were among the last to abolish slavery. While the British abolished slavery by 1833, Spain abolished slavery in Puerto Rico in 1873. On the mainland of colonies, Spain ended African slavery in the ...
Historically, coastal areas of Spanish Florida and the Caribbean South America (cf. the Spanish Main) were closely tied to the Spanish Caribbean. During the period of Spanish settlement and colonization of the New World, the Spanish West Indies referred to those settlements in islands of the Caribbean Sea under political administration of Spain ...
The island became the world's foremost producer of sugar during the late 18th and 19th centuries, when sugar production was the main industry. The climate and soil were perfect for the cultivation of sugar cane , and good ports and interior connections facilitated transport and exportation of the refined sugar.
The Spanish established sugar and tobacco as Cuba's primary products, and the island soon supplanted Hispaniola as the prime Spanish base in the Caribbean. [30] African slaves were imported to work the plantations as field labor.