In the early nineteenth century, the West Indian Sugar Industry suffered as a result of the cultivation of the sugar beet. In the following essay, I will explain the effects that the cultivation of the sugar beet had on the production of cane sugar.

According to an article Sugar Beet from the Encarta Online, Blockade of Continental ports during the Napoleonic Wars cut off the supply of sugar cane from the West Indies and favored a development of an alternative source of sugar and the sugar beet was developed in Europe in the eighteenth century.

Interest in the sugar beet continued, and by 1811, a quantity of well-crystallized beet sugar had been produced (Early Sugar Beet History Volume 15, No.1 Fall, 1995).

The cultivation of sugar cane required a large labor force, expensive equipment, and long toiling hours to produce sugar. During the Napoleonic Wars, sugar was scarce and the need...