Sugarcane Plantation Sugar Mill

Timeline

1. c. 1450–1540Madeira and the Canary Islands · MadeiraIn the 15th century Madeira and the Canaries developed the standard configuration of three-roller animal-powered mills, copper boiling pans, and crystallization tanks, producing raw sugar and molasses with mixed African and European labor; this technology was carried by Portuguese navigators and settlers to Brazil and the African coast, becoming the technical template for the plantation-mill.
2. c. 1541–1550São Vicente and Pernambuco, Brazil · BrazilIn the 1540s the number of engenhos (sugar mills) along the Brazilian coast surged, integrating cane fields, water-powered mills, boiling houses, and African slave labor; raw sugar was re-exported via Lisbon into all-European markets, forming the plantation-milling-slave trade triangle at the core of the Atlantic economy.
3. c. 1550–1650Caribbean islands · CaribbeanIn the mid-to-late 16th century the plantation-mill model was replicated across Caribbean islands; with denser slave imports and European capital, sugar became the first truly global commodity; refining techniques continued to improve but the basic process still followed the Madeira-Brazil tradition.