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Ancient and Modern Cacao

The origin of cacao. The site of the origin of the species Theobroma cacao is thought to be near the source of the Amazon River in the region bordering Brazil and Peru in the upper Amazon basin.(1,2) Cacao is likely to have spread from there northward to what is now lower Mexico, northeastward to Guyana, and westward to Ecuador. Early movement is thought to have been by animals such as monkeys, squirrels and birds which broke through the thick cocoa pod and distributed the seeds.(3) Prehistoric man may have also moved cacao, especially to the Mesoamerican peninsula.

Ancient domestication and agriculture. The earliest known use of cacao, according to the recent archeological findings of dates back the year 1800 B.C. in the region of what is now the Caribbean side of the Ulua Valley Northern Honduras.(4). The pre-Olmec people, known as the Moyaka, used cacao as a cool, fruity beverage derived most probably from the pulp of the cocoa bean. It is not known whether the cocoa beans they used were foraged from native plants in the forest or whether the cacao was intentionally planted in groves or orchards. One of the first organized areas where cacao was probably cultivated is in the Yucatan region in what is now modern-day Mexico. Geologically this area has a limestone under layer that is subject to subsidence, forming sinkholes called cenotes. Groves of cacao trees were maintained by the Maya the depressions caused by the sinkholes. The record from the Pre-Mayans indicates that cacao was harvested there.(5) By the time Columbus and Cortez explored Central America, the Mayans and Aztecs had established farming of cacao with plantings of trees growing throughout Mesoamerica. Especially important to the Aztecs were cacao trees planted in the same areas where the Moyaka had first used cacao and also on the Pacific side of Southern Mexico where the state of Oaxaca is today. In fact the supply of cacao for the Aztec empire capital of Tenochtitlan (modern Mexico City), located where cacao trees cannot grow, came from cacao plantings in the tropical lowlands of Mexico located on the Atlantic side where the present border with Belize is and on the Pacific side near what is now Soconeusco, Oaxaca near the border of Guatemala. Dried cocoa beans were transported on the back of merchants, called pochteca, who traveled by foot some 600 km to the capital as a source of currency and drink. (4)

Movement of cacao in the Americas by the Spanish. While Cortez was the first European to recognize and appreciate cacao the beans were only transported back to Spain in about 1585 and from there the Spanish enjoyed a virtual monopoly and built a substantial trade in new world cocoa until 1606. The first transplantation of cocoa trees to other locations was driven by the Spanish in the late 1500’s in their search to grow more cocoa to supply its colony, New Spain or Nuevo España. Spanish settlers to Nuevo España came to enjoy hot cocoa drinks and drove demand for cacao beans beyond their local supply. The Spanish encouraged the planting of cocoa growing throughout Central America and the Caribbean Islands. The Spanish moved cocoa trees from sites in Central America to Hispanola in 1565 and to the Philippines between 1560 -1570.(6).They also discovered in 1630 new groves of wild cacao growing in the Guayas River basin in what is now Ecuador.(4)

Other colonial movement of cocoa. Once cocoa was discovered by other European countries they too encouraged the growing of cocoa in their colonies. The Dutch captured the island of Curacao in 1620 inheriting a supply of cacao that was traded with Mexico and the New World Spanish colonies. The French established cacao trees in their colonies of St. Lucia and Martinique in 1660. The French also established cacao trees in what is now the Dominican Republic in 1665 and in Brazil in 1677. The British obtained a supply of cocoa beans when they captured Jamaica from the Spanish in 1655.

Spread to Africa. The Portuguese moved cocoa to Principe off the coast of Africa in 1822. A Jamaican named Tetteh Quarchie established the first cocoa in Ghana, now the world’s second largest producer, in 1879. In 1912, the French transported the first cocoa to the Ivory Coast, now the world’s largest producer of cocoa.

References

  1. Young, A. M. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. pg. 92, 93, 219. University Press of Florida, Gainsville, FL. 2007.
  2. Cuatrecasas, J. Cacao and its Allies: A Taxonomic Revision of the Genus Theobroma. Bull. U.S. National Museum 35 (3): 379-614, 1964. 
  3. Ogata, N., Gomez-Pompa, A., Taube, K.A. The Domestication and Distribution of Theobroma Cacao L. in the Neotropics. pg 69-89. In Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A Cultural History of Cacao. McNeil, C. L. (ed): University Press Florida; Gainesville, FL, 2006. 
  4. Powis, T.G., Hurst, W.J., Rodriguez, M-C., Ortiz, P., Blake, M., Cheetham, D., Coe, M.D., Hodgson, J.G. Oldest Chocolate in the New World. Antiquity 81 (314): 302-5, 2007. 
  5. Coe, S.D., Coe, M. D. The True History of Chocolate. Pg. 59-60. Thames and Hudson, London, United Kingdom, 1996. 
  6. Bartley, B.G.D. The Genetic Diversity of Cacao and its Utilization. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, 2005.
  7. Young, A. M. The Chocolate Tree: A Natural History of Cacao. pg. 92, 93, 219. University Press of Florida, Gainsville, FL. 2007.