Expansion of the Brazilian Sugar Plantation System

Name: Expansion of the Brazilian Sugar Plantation System
Start: 1640
End: 1650

Type Event Region South America Time 1640–1650

In the 1640s, despite the ongoing Portuguese-Dutch War, Brazil's sugar plantation system continued to expand rapidly in the northeast and south, with…

Timeline

1641–1645Pernambuco · PernambucoAfter reoccupying Pernambuco, the Dutch West India Company invested in irrigation and sugar mills and introduced more efficient cane-crushing technology, making the region one of the largest sugar-exporting bases in the Americas at the time.
1643–1650Bahia and the São Paulo coast · BahiaPortuguese colonists opened new plantations along the line from Bahia to São Vicente, importing large numbers of African laborers through the Atlantic slave trade, with sugar output steadily rising to supply European markets and finance the war effort.

Sources

Sugar and Slavery in Brazil — Stuart B. Schwartz (1985)
Brazilian sugar in the early Atlantic economy https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/Economy