between Muslims and Christians. Muslim power in Spain also began to gradually decline via battle and treaty. Iberia as a source of servile labor slowed, forcing Europe to turn elsewhere, and by the end of the fourteenth century the demand was largely met by captives from the Black Sea. But with the struggle for Byzantium ending in 1453, and the Reconquista in Iberia culminating in 1492, the northern Mediterranean found itself in need of workers, occasioned in part by the cultivation of sugarcane. Spreading from Southeast Asia to India in antiquity, sugarcane was introduced to Persians and Arabs early years. They transferred its production to Syria and Egypt, and later during Islam’s to North Africa, southern Spain, Sicily, Cyprus, and Crete. European crusaders first came into contact with sugar in the Holy Lands, developing their own sugar plantations in Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily by the early thirteenth century. Europe gradually acquired a taste for sugar [(although expensive until the nineteenth century and frequently used for medicinal purposes)], having known only honey as a sweetener. Given this 800-year context for the Mediterranean, it would have been a challenge for Juan Latino to understand his enslavement principally as a consequence of racial difference, nor would he have experienced in the way that we currently employ “racism” the term. And yet, the sixteenth century, the dawn of cultural siglo de oro Spain’s was also a moment of transition into something very different. Moving (“Golden Age”), forward, the world would no longer be solely occupied by the same sets of concerns that previously animated the politics of the Mediterranean, but by new circumstances and realities. Juan Latino stood at the cusp of that new world, one that would greatly expand in scope. The mechanism by which that new world came into being constitutes the second interlocking sphere of human interaction.
between Muslims and Christians. Muslim power in Spain also began to gradually decline via battle and treaty. Iberia as a source of servile labor slowed, forcing Europe to turn elsewhere, and by the end of the fourteenth century the demand was largely met by captives from the Black Sea. But with the struggle for Byzantium ending in 1453, and the Reconquista in Iberia culminating in 1492, the northern Mediterranean found itself in need of workers, occasioned in part by the cultivation of sugarcane. Spreading from Southeast Asia to India in antiquity, sugarcane was introduced to Persians and Arabs during Islam’s early years. They transferred its production to Syria and Egypt, and later to North Africa, southern Spain, Sicily, Cyprus, and Crete. European crusaders first came into contact with sugar in the Holy Lands, developing their own sugar plantations in Cyprus, Crete, and Sicily by the early thirteenth century. Europe gradually acquired a taste for sugar [(although expensive until the nineteenth century and frequently used for medicinal purposes)], having known only honey as a sweetener. Given this 800-year context for the Mediterranean, it would have been a challenge for Juan Latino to understand his enslavement principally as a consequence of racial difference, nor would he have experienced “racism” in the way that we currently employ the term. And yet, the sixteenth century, the dawn of Spain’s cultural siglo de oro (“Golden Age”), was also a moment of transition into something very different. Moving forward, the world would no longer be solely occupied by the same sets of concerns that previously animated the politics of the Mediterranean, but by new circumstances and realities. Juan Latino stood at the cusp of that new world, one that would greatly expand in scope. The mechanism by which that new world came into being constitutes the second interlocking sphere of human interaction.