Sugar after Slavery in Modern Latin America

This paper examines the comparative history of sugar in Latin America during the late nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century.  While the linked stories of sugar and slavery in plantation societies such as Brazil and Cuba have been central to the historiography of colonial Latin America, the history of sugar after political independence and the abolition of slavery has received less scholarly attention.  Yet sugar cane was one of the principal products that fuelled the age of export expansion in Latin America, where regional sugar output followed a steady upward trend from 1820 to 1960.  The nature and conditions of sugar production – with its need for a significant outlay in capital investment, vast expanses of land for cane cultivation, and large-scale mobilization of labor – remained relatively consistent during this time.  The sugar industries of modern Latin America were not uniform across (or even within) countries, however, and significant differences existed along the lines of land, labor, capital, markets, and politics.  Using quantitative data, other primary sources such as sugar industry journals, and a review of the existing secondary literature, this paper examines the sugar economies of Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, and Puerto Rico.  Comparative analysis of a single agricultural product such as sugar enables us to explore key questions in the historiography of modern Latin America, including landholding patterns, labor relations, and political structures and ideologies, as well as the dimensions of unity and diversity that have characterized the region.