The economy of the Caribbean is dependent on the productivity of its agricultural sector. The infrastructure of a community is usually destroyed with the subsistence crops and crops for export. One example is the three simultaneous hurricanes that hit Cuba in the 1840s. These hurricanes destroyed coffee crops, which made Cuban planters abandon coffee and turn to sugar production. The Cuban economy, specifically the transatlantic economy, relied on routes and patterns of travel in the Atlantic for trading. In Cuba in the early 1800s, coffee exports competed with the emerging sugar interests. Following the Haitian Revolution, Spain was interested in utilizing another colony to center its sugar production. Cuba became that colony and the foremost producer of sugar for the modern world. The empirical rule of the Spanish over the Cubans, especially Cuban slaves, was dominant and demonstrated the increasing debasement of slaves for monetary gains. Agriculture was an important part of the Cuban economy, and it was especially vulnerable to the hurricanes that hit the Cuban island. In the 1830s, Cuba was hit by several hurricanes, including Cienfuegos in 1832, and a hurricane that devastated Havana, Matanzas, and Trinidad.