Open Veins of Latin America

Section 1 Summary: “Plantations, Latifundia, and Fate”

After the mining of gold and silver, Latin America also yielded a new source of wealth for Europe in the form of sugar. Sugar became the new “white gold” (77). As demand for sugar grew abroad, canefields increased in number across the Americas, especially in the Caribbean Islands and along the Peruvian coast. The demand for sugar also created the plantation system, which eventually evolved into the modern-day latifundia system. The early plantation system employed black and Indian slave labor to cultivate sugar. While slave labor is now abolished, the latifundia system continues to exploit marginalized people for their cheap labor, which bears resemblance to the conditions of enslavement. Much like gold and silver, the integration of sugar in the world market produced several detrimental effects. The widespread cultivation of sugar led to soil degradation, disabling other crops from growing as easily. There was also widespread poverty based on the exploitative nature of plantation work.

Section 2 Summary: “How the Soil Was Ravaged in Northeast Brazil”

As the mining of precious metals was the primary activity for Spain in its colonies, sugar became secondary. However, sugar became a major Portuguese activity. The Dutch largely funded Portuguese business dealings in sugar in Latin America.