Sugar output of the British West Indies and Cuba 1815-1894

In 1815 and 1828, the combined sugar output of the British Caribbean was several times greater than that of Cuba. British Caribbean colonies, especially Jamaica, had emerged as the largest sugar exporters in the world in the wake of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804). Following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834, however, many European merchants then invested in the areas of the Americas where slavery remained legal, particularly Cuba and Brazil. In Cuba, which became the global leader in the 1830s, slave labor fueled the expansion of the industry, and thousands of indentured workers were drafted from Asia to meet labor demands. Cuba and Brazil were the last countries in the Americas to abolish slavery, doing so in 1886 and 1888 respectively. After this time, a large share of ex-slaves continued to provide the labor on Cuba's sugar plantations, helping it maintain its position as the largest sugar exporter in the world until it was overtaken by the Soviet Union in the mid-20^th century.