Sugarcane Cultivation on Atlantic Islands

Timeline

1. c. 1425–1470Madeira Island · Madeira IslandsThe Portuguese introduced sugarcane to Madeira and cleared hillside plantations, using irrigation and slash-and-burn techniques to expand cultivated area; sugar gradually became the island's main export, providing a cheap sugar source for European markets.
2. c. 1480–1550Canary Islands and Cape Verde · Canary IslandsSugarcane cultivation techniques spread from Madeira to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, with island sugar production, shipping, and the importation of slave labor mutually reinforcing each other, forming an inter-island division-of-labor network of sugar production.
3. c. 1490–1600São Tomé Island · São Tomé and PríncipeSão Tomé developed large sugarcane estates and sugar mills based on African slave labor; their labor organization, capital investment, and transoceanic trade model became the direct blueprint for the later tropical plantation system in the Americas.
4. c. 1580Atlantic islands · Atlantic islandsWith the rise of Brazilian and Caribbean sugar industries, the Atlantic islands' share of sugar in global trade declined, but island cane cultivation, sugar-making techniques, and plantation system experience had already profoundly influenced the structure of the Atlantic world economy.