| Cane sugar has been known by humankind for | | | | steam engine. According to a census of that period, |
| several millennia before Christ due to its sweetness; | | | | in 1830 there were more than one thousand sugar |
| according to descriptions of travellers to India, the | | | | refineries producing around 94 thousand tons; and |
| inhabitants of the Indo Valley chewed the cane in | | | | when in 1837 the steam locomotives arrived in Cuba, |
| order to obtain the juice of it some 500 years B.C. In | | | | the sugar production increased to unprecedented |
| Spain, the cane sugar made its entrance during the | | | | figures. Cuba was the seventh country in the world |
| Moorish period, and Christopher Columbus included | | | | to have railroads, and the first in Latin America |
| the cane among the animals and plants he brought | | | | thanks to the rising sugar industry. |
| during his third trip to the New World (August 30, | | | | The independence of Cuba on May 20, 1902 favored |
| 1498). Planted in the soft lands of Santo Domingo | | | | the introduction of new machinery and the presence |
| and due to the weather of the tropics, the sugar | | | | of American capital. With less than 200 large sugar |
| cane grew so fine as to produce the best of its | | | | mills in 1925, the rising Cuban nation produced more |
| sweetness. Already in 1506, Brother Bartholomew of | | | | than five million tons of sugar. During this period, the |
| las Casas made reference to the first rustic sugar mill | | | | vast majority of sugar mills and sugar plantations |
| on the island. | | | | were in the hands of foreign capital; however, some |
| As almost everything brought to Cuba during that | | | | social laws applied between 1935 and 1945 made |
| time, the conqueror Diego Velazquez was the one to | | | | possible that in 1950 of 161 large sugar mills working, |
| introduce the sugar cane from Santo Domingo; and | | | | 131 were in the hands of Cubans, controlling 60% of |
| from that moment on, the settlers began to produce | | | | total production. |
| guarapo (the juice extracted from the cane) | | | | With the Triumph of the Revolution, the sugar mills |
| necessary for obtaining the sugar. The surplus of this | | | | were nationalized and became socialist companies as |
| home-made sugar elaboration was the main basis to | | | | well as the majority of the plantations that were in |
| trade with other settlers; and the sugar plus salted | | | | the hands of small and leading producers. Although |
| meat and corn became the basis to trade with | | | | the millionaire productions were kept, the industry |
| pirates in order to get slaves. | | | | and agriculture based on the sugar cane have been |
| The first commercial sugar mill was installed during the | | | | declining during the last 50 years. Nowadays, sugar is |
| last decades of the 16 century in the Havana area | | | | not an important product in the trading scale of Cuba. |
| and already in 1600, 60 sugar mills were functioning. | | | | Almost 70 large sugar mills have been dismantled, and |
| During this period, Cuba was behind La Hispaniola and | | | | a huge part of the sugar cane cultivated today is |
| other colonies in the sugar production. It was during | | | | destined to the production of sugar-cane syrups and |
| the Storming of the English in 1762 that the Cuban | | | | refined spirits for the chemical industry, the |
| trade opened and an increase of the sugar | | | | pharmaceutical industry and the liquor production (the |
| production was seen. The first production was | | | | Havana Club rum being among them). The last known |
| counted in 1799 and it reached six thousand tons | | | | results of a sugarcane harvest dates from 2006-2007 |
| with the six hundred sugar mills existing at the time. | | | | with a production of 1,115,000 tons of sugar, quite |
| Sugar refineries did not appear until the first decades | | | | similar to the harvest of 1894. |
| of the 19th century with the introduction of the | | | | |