*Sugar plantation in the British colony of [Antigua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua "Antigua"), 1823* Sugar is an ancient product of Asia that was largely discovered by Europeans during the First Crusade. After some attempts by states like Venice to introduce commercial production, when [Madeira](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeira) and the [Canary Islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands "Canary Islands") were settled by Portuguese, sugar production was introduced there using [[Slavery|enslaved]] African labor. By 1492, Madeira was producing over 3 million pounds annually. Columbus brought sugar cane cuttings to [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Hispaniola]] and the first crop was harvested for sale in 1501. By the 1520s sugar mills had been constructed on Cuba and Jamaica as well. The Portuguese and Dutch also produced sugar in Brazil. Sugar production on the islands was first a Spanish project, but the French and English quickly became involved. The French on Guadalupe, Martinique, and the part of Hispaniola they controlled; the English on Barbados and then on Jamaica, whey took from Spain in 1655. Everywhere, sugar was associated with African slavery, and a larger percentage of the 12.5 million Africans sent across the Atlantic went to sugar plantations. Partly this was because the business plan of sugar planters was to maximize profits by working enslaved people to death in one to five years and then replacing them. The brutality of this approach influenced North America when large numbers of Caribbean sugar planters emigrated to the mainland colonies, especially [[Dan's History Web/US 1/Topic Index/Carolina]]. Although they did not grow sugar there, they applied similar techniques on plantations growing rice, indigo, tobacco, and ultimately cotton.