Ethnic Diversity
Since the 19th century, sugar cane crops have aided shape the distribution of ethnicities in distant lands.
|
Reasons for Ethnic Diversity
|
An influx of immigrants arrived in Brazil and other major sugar cane producers during the 19th century when the sugar cane crop became wanted among many different countries around the world. With this immigration of people demanding sugar cane, sugar cane plantations needed more slaves from Africa to plant and produce the sugar cane which added more people to the great influx. Soon millions of black slaves were coming from Nigeria, Angola, and Benin to work in the plantations. The high demand for sugar cane kept on contributing to the ethnic diversity in many lands. Not only did the immigration contribute, but the relationships between different ethnicities added to the diversity, " The Portuguese settlers rarely brought women, which led to relationships with the Indian women. Later, interracial relationships occurred between Portuguese males and African females (Wikipedia Race). Now the coast of Brazil has a predominance of Mulattos (Black/White mixture) and in the borderline a predominance of an Indian/White mixture. Also, "Salvador, Bahia is considered the largest Black city outside of Africa, with over 80% of its inhabitants being African-Brazilians" (Wikipedia Race).