|
The history of sugar has five main phases: # The extraction of sugar cane juice from the sugar cane plant; and, the subsequent domestication of the plant in tropical Southeast Asia many thousands of years ago (a firm date is unknown). # The invention of manufacture of cane sugar granules from the sugar cane juice in India a little over two thousand years ago, followed by improvements in refining the crystal granules in India in the early centuries A.D. # The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the medieval Islamic world together with some improvements of production methods. # The spread of cultivation and manufacture of cane sugar to the West Indies and tropical parts of the Americas beginning in the 16th century, followed by more intensive improvements in production in the 17th through 19th centuries in that part of the world. # The development of beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners in the 19th and 20th centuries. Worldwide through the end of the medieval period, sugar was very expensive〔 and was considered a "fine spice", but from about the year 1500, technological improvements and New World sources began turning it into a much cheaper bulk commodity. ==The spread of sugar cane cultivation== The people of New Guinea were probably the first to domesticate sugarcane, sometime around 8,000 BC. However, the extraction and purifying technology techniques were developed by people who were living in India. After domestication, its cultivation spread rapidly to Southeast Asia and southern China. India, where the process of refining cane juice into granulated crystals was developed, was often visited by imperial convoys (such as those from China) to learn about cultivation and sugar refining. By the sixth century AD, sugar cultivation and processing had reached Persia; and, from there that knowledge was brought into the Mediterranean by the Arab expansion. "Wherever they went, the () Arabs brought with them sugar, the product and the technology of its production." Spanish and Portuguese exploration and conquest in the fifteenth century carried sugar south-west of Iberia. Henry the Navigator introduced cane to Madeira in 1425, while the Spanish, having eventually subdued the Canary Islands, introduced sugar cane to them. In 1493, on his second voyage, Christopher Columbus carried sugarcane seedlings to the New World, in particular Hispaniola. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of sugar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|