History of Coffee in America
Coffee history could be traced down the avenue of time and it is certainly worldwide. If you want to know the historical account of your all-time favorite caffeinated beverage, its origins are basically somewhere in north-east Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Only in the succeeding years did coffee spread out to other neighboring or foreign countries in Europe. Finally, it has reached the Americas where coffee has definitely become a mainstay since then.
The history of coffee especially in the United States and other neighboring regions basically include the name Gabriel de Clieu. He is the one who brought seedlings of coffee tree to Martinique, a place in the Caribbean way back in 1720. Since its plantation, coffee trees sprouted in the Americas and flourished into 18,680 trees in the region 50 years later.
Haiti Was An Important Birth Place For Coffee In The West
In Haiti, coffee tree cultivation was introduced and given birth as early as 1734 and it has made a blasting improvement in 1788 when it became the second top supplier of coffee all around the world. In fact, coffee has a very significant role in the history of Haiti when it became the root cause of the Haitian Revolution. This is due to the dreadful conditions of African slave laborers in the French colonial coffee plantations. Thus, following this revolution, the coffee industry has been badly hurt and failed to fully recover in Haiti.
Aside from the Caribbean islands in the United States, coffee has also salient historical impact on the island of Reunion located in the Isle of Bourbon in the Indian Ocean. The coffee beans produced in this particular place are different variety of Arabica coffee which is also termed as Bourbon. The coffee beans produced from Brazil and the coffee from Mexico named Oaxaca coffee are actually good descendants of the Bourbon tree.
Coffee Became A Big Industry In Brazil
The commencement of the coffee industry in Brazil was perpetrated by Francisco de Mello Palheta who was sent by the King of Portugal to French Guinea. His mission was to obtain coffee seeds and make these commodities part of the coffee market. The wife of the French Governor was the one who sent Francisco coffee shoots and seeds.
Brazilian coffee was also introduced in Tanzania and Kenya on 1893 and these places are quite near Ethiopia where it was believed that coffee has first originated. In 1727, coffee cultivation was introduced in Brazil however it was only until 1822 when it achieved full blast independence. In fact, lots of rainforests in Rio and Sao Paulo were cleared in order to provide for coffee plantations.
By the latter half of the nineteenth century, coffee cultivation was observed in different countries with many of these venturing into large scale production as well as exploitation of indigenous people. This has triggered unrest over several states and countries over the 19th and the succeeding centuries.
Nowadays, coffee passion in the United States has made drastic twists and more positive trends. There are now innumerable shops, coffee houses and varieties of coffee beverages not only in the flourishing coffee industry in the US but all throughout the world.
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