Story of Sugar

Story of Sugar

Sugar!!!!! It gives sweetness to our recipes and taste to our food. Indians can't imagine their kicthen without sugar.

FACT: SUGARCANE  WAS PRIMARILY A "FODDER" CROP USED TO FATTEN PIGS,THOUGH HUMANS MAY HAVE CHEWED ON THE STALKS FROM TIME TO TIME 

Cane Sugar was first cultivated in Oceania islands and some islands in pacific ocean by indigenous people in 8000 B.C. and then it was came to India.

Indians processed the sugar chemically in more than 2,500 years ago and then it traveled to China and spread out all southern east parts of Asia and early Islamic countries in middle east.

Europeans were aware of sugar by the Arabs when they first invaded Cyprus and other parts of eastern European countries in 7th and 8th century A.D.

Sugar & Europeans :

Europeans were known about sugar in 10th century at the time Sugar is very costly. 1 kilo =100 US$ when compared to to present day . Mostly, Europeans were dependent on eastern countries in order to trade with them at that time.Sugar was very rare and luxurious in middle ages, Columbus brought Sugarcane to Caribbean in 1493, In 15th century Sugar was mostly cultivated in Caribbean islands. Between 16 and 18th centuries Sugar was a very precious commodity it gives more profits to the owners of sugar cane fields.

FACT:COLUMBUS BROUGHT SUGAR CANE TO CARIBBEAN IN 1493 IN HIS 2ND TRIP.

FACT:IN 1750'S ISLANDS OF WEST INDIES PRODUCED SUGAR  MORE THAN 43 TIMES PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN  CANADA 

By 1750 there were 120 sugar refineries operating in Britain revenue from this sugar in 1781 totaled £300,000 and it had grown by 1815 to £3,000,000. Between this stage sugar is referred as "WHITE GOLD".

Sugar Beet :

Sugar Beet first identified as a source of Sugar in 1747.During the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of 19th century when Great Britain stopped the sugar supplies to Europe . By 1880 Sugar Beet had replaced Sugar Cane in continental Europe.But Sugar Beet was introduced in Britain at time of World war when the shortage of sugar.



FACT: CANE SUGAR AND SUGAR BEET ARE TWO DIFFERENT SPECIES BUT HAVING SAME IDENTICAL PROPERTIES (SWEETNESS)

Slavery and sugar remained tied for a very long time, most notably so in the New World. 11 million African slaves were exported from their homelands. Six million of them went to work making sugar- the most of any profession. When the Haitian Revolution occurred near 1800, ending slavery there, it cut off 43 percent of Europe’s sugar supply.

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Year Zero

                            YEAR ZERO





 This is my 1st post in this blog and this blog is all about chronicles of our ancient world.This is my first post so i would like to start with 1st century A.D.
   Before that I want to discuss about  ZERO YEAR which is not in the Anno Domini (simply A D)
which was introduced by a monk  Dionysius Exiguus (in C. 525 ).

 Dionysius Exiguus

In AD he didn't use any Zero Year 1 AD is followed by 1 BC by skipping Zero Year. Dionysius used it for to computing Easter Table but he didn't used to take any historical events in AD . It had came into the picture after 100 years by st. Bede an English cleric.

ST. Bede

Bede didn't use year zero because at that time the zero was not existed in Roman Numerical.The zero was invented in India 6th century and developed by arabs in 8th century.

 

Arabic and Roman Numbers

Historians were also not used the zero year they skipped year zero after 1 BC then continued with 1 AD.


------------------------I----------------I--------------------------I--------------I----------------------------------
                          2 BC                1 BC                       1 AD          2 AD

if you want to find the how many years in between 2 BC to 2 AD is 3 years.

Even negative numbers are also not introduced at that time.

But in some Hindu and Buddhist calendars the year was begin with zero.

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