Chocolate in Colonial Times Production
Picture source: https://www.oodaalolly.com/blog/2019/10/23/what-makes-philippine-cacao-special-or-unique
After chocolate was brought to Europe through Spain, its popularity spread to the other European countries. Therefore, the demand for cacao by elites increased. In order to meet this demand, more cacao had to be produced but the problem with cacao is that it could only be produced in a certain climate. This climate is known as the “Cacao Belt”, which is twenty degrees north and south of the equator. At the time of this increased demand, cacao was only being produced in Mesoamerica and that area couldn’t meet the increased demand. In response, European powers created colonies outside of Mesoamerica to increase production. This increase in demand not only increased production but lead to natives being used in the plantation and eventually slaves being traded to replace native workers. When cacao production spread outside of Mesoamerican, it was countries like Spain, Portugal, and English that created colonies to have cacao plantations established.
The Spanish relied heavily on enslaved natives for the hard labor in caring for cacao plants. However, it was established that the natives couldn’t be used as slave labor on the plantation due to them being vassals of the king. Vassals could be used for labor as long as it wasn’t forced. This led to the establishment of encomienda, which gave a Spaniard the right to tribute and labor from natives for life, but not land. The Encomendero, the owner of the encomienda, had to protect the natives, defend new land for the king, and teach the natives of Christan faith. In these encomiendas, the natives got to have their own land, villages, and could work under native leadership. These encomiendas were successful for a while but as time passed, the native population declined and the Spanish wanted more control in the encomienda to increase cacao production at a higher rate. Eventually encomienda fell out of use and the Spanish turned to the use of hacienda. Hacienda differed from encomienda in that they weren’t just about land to grow cacao but using the land in different ways such as raising cattle, growing other crops, and essentially building small towns that could thrive even when cacao wasn’t being produced.
While Portugal also used natives for labor on cacao plantations, a decline in the native population made them turn to slaves for labor. These slaves came from the Gold coast, Angola, and Congo. This demand for slaves by European poweres encouraged warefare in West Africa. Prisoners of these wars were taken and then sold in slavery. The need for more cacao allowed for these Africans to become part of the Columbian Exchange in which they took the middle passage to the Americas. Portugal also turned to areas like Brazil for their production of cacao. It was these areas that they brought slaves to work under horrible conditions. It is estimated that ten percent of the slaves traded ended up working on cacao plantation in Brazil.
The Caribbean also became an area Europe powers such as the Dutch, French, and English fought over to grow cacao. Its islands were in the perfect spot to grow cacao but the problems due to natural weather events caused the cacao plants to get destroyed. Despite thes cycle of weather events, they continued to successfully grow cacao there for years and create specialized versions of cacao only from that area. Slaves were used to cultivate cacao in the Caribbean but this changed when slavery was abolished. They then turned to indentured workers for the production of cacao with many of the indentured servants coming from India. These European powers saw an opportunity to make money. They knew that producing more cacao would make those who had access to it happy, thus making them richer. They didn’t really care about the damage they would do to the land and those that would grow the cacao.
Cacao went from being an item in Mesoamerica that was used for food, currency, and tribute to the gods to a cash crop. The Spanish especially realized it could make them a lot of money. They changed cacao from being an item Mesoamericans cared about so dearly to a raw material that was fueling a new industry in Europe. Once Europeans got a taste of chocolate there was no stopping cacao from going in a dark direction for its production. It was this need for chocolate that affected the lives of so many, but it also gives us a look into what political powers are thinking about when it comes to colonizing other countries. As time went new inventions were created that would change the landscape of cacao and chocolate production.
Ferry, Robert J. “Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth-Century Caracas.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 61, no. 4 (1981): 609–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/2514606.
Pinero, Eugenio. “The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas and the Spanish Cacao Market.” The Hispanic American Historical Review 68, no. 1 (1988): 75–100. https://doi.org/10.2307/2516221.
Walker, Timothy. “Establishing Cacao Plantation Culture in the Atlantic World: Portuguese Cacao Cultivation in Brazil and West Africa, Circa 1580-1912.” In Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage, edited by Howard-Yana Shapiro and Louis E. Grivetti, 543-558. John Wiley & Sons, 2009.
