Origins

• Sugarcane originated in the tropics of Asia and may have been cultivated there since prehistoric times. Sometimes referred to as "reed honey" because people mistook it for honey made from grass, sugar was a rare commodity in the ancient world and was predominately used for medicinal purposes. Medieval apothecaries mixed a little sugar with herbal medicines in order to make them more palpable and physicians used it to dress wounds to promote healing.
  
  

Old World

• By the 15th century, sugar was becoming a popular food additive. In 1432, Portugal's Prince Henry the Navigator planted the first commercial sugar plantation in Madeira. This proved successful and was followed by several others in Portugal's holdings along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The early plantations were worked by indentured servants from Europe, but by the 1440s the Portuguese were trading for slaves from Africa.
  
  

New World

• Sugarcane was one of the first cash crops grown in the New World. Early Portuguese and Spanish plantations originally used Native Americans as slaves. The slaves often escaped and revolted and they were gradually replaced with Africans. However, Spanish and Portuguese colonists continued to impose serfdom and other forms of quasi-slavery on the Native Americans in the mountainous regions of Latin America long after the arrival of the first African slaves.