LAS TÉCNICAS DE PROCESAMIENTO DE LA CAÑA DE AZÚCAR EN VENEZUELA. SIGLOS XVIII Y XIX

Abstract

Sugarcane was one of the first crops introduced by the Spaniards in Venezuela in the second half of the 16th century. Along with the plant came to Tierra Firme the techniques for its processing, which had been developed in Madeira, the Canarian archipelago, the Iberian Peninsula and La Española. These techniques, which prevailed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, were joined by innovations from the french and english-speaking caribbean area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, applied to the different steps of the production sequence. In this article, based on primary documentary sources and secondary sources, are presented the different procedures used to obtain derivatives of sugarcane in Venezuela during the colonial epoch and nineteenth century.