The Identity and History of the Caribbean Essay -- Caribbean History C

The Identity and History of the CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a vastly diverse bowl representing the effects of colonialism, slavery, and the combination of many cultures.Since the arrival of Europeans the Caribbean islands have been going by constant change. The loss of native peoples and the introduction of the plantation system had quick and permanent reprocussions on the islands. The Plantation system set up a society which consisted of a large, captive lower class and a powerful, moneyed upper class. As the plantation systems became successful labor was needed in order to progress. Slavery became the answer to the problem. Slavery played an eventful case in the how the prudence changed the islands because there was a shift on the principal(prenominal) economic ingredient, Sugar. Section 2 of Caribbean Slave Society and Economy shows how the economy shifted during this expansion. Before bread became the main export in 1643, tobacco, scraping, indigo and spice up were the main exports in the English and French Antilles. Tobacco and cotton became important in pre-sugar era because it was easy to cultivate and did not need as much labor as the sugar plantations. Robert Carlylebatie in the essay why sugar? Economic Cycles and the Changing of Staples on the English and French Antilles, 1624-54 writes, the command of the art of making sugar required time, skill and money. It is no wonder, then, that colonists waited until tobacco values reached very near their long-run levels before seriously committing themselves to eruditeness how to produce muscovado, the common brown sugar later exported from the islands (44). As sugar became difficult to cultivate with little labor more labor were needed. The sugar production lead to the core o... ...ings that Slavery created a transformation in the Caribbeans identity and history. New societies, culture, identities, divisions between race and more were created. A social and political hierarchy was created which g ave power to the whites while the blacks received no respect. Due to the emergence of the marroonage, revolts shows the slaves argon becoming stronger as one and are revolting against their masters. New cultures are emerging and struggles for identity and rights are begin to form. BibliographyBeckles, Dr. Hillary, Verene Shepherd. Caribbean Slave Society and Economy. The New contend, New York. New York, N.Y. 1991.Benitez-Rojo, Antonio The Repeating Island Duke University PressCliff, Michelle Abeng Plume BooksKnight, Franklin W. The Caribbean, The Genesis Of a Fragmented Nationalism. Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y. 1990