Wealthy Europeans purchased sugar from local traders, the demand for sugar was so high that sugarcane farmers needed more workers to tend the crops. This demand caused the slave trade, originating in Africa, to expand, bringing slaves to the Americas to work the sugar cane crops. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Sugar would prove to be the most important commodity on the Colombian stock exchange. During the colonial era, sugar had the same economic value and importance as oil today. Although refined sugar was available throughout much of the Old World, the European climate made growing sugarcane virtually impossible. As an imported commodity, sugar was considered a luxury good that only the wealthy could afford. The European discovery and subsequent colonization of Madeira and the Canary Islands would be precedents for the New World. The plantations and colonial governments of those islands would be models for sugar plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas. Sugar cane, native to Southeast Asia, was introduced to the Dominican Republic by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The new crop thrived in the tropical environment. Wealthy Europeans purchased imported sugar from local merchants, but demand soon exceeded growers' production capabilities. European growers could not produce more sugar cane without more workers to process the crops. African slave traders provided slaves who were sent to the Americas to tend the crops. African slave labor was essential to the cultivation of sugarcane and the production of sugar. Slaves worked both in the sugarcane fields and in the boilers and provided most of the extreme labor involved in the process. Of the nearly four million slaves brought to the Caribbean, nearly all ended up working on sugar plantations.1 Living conditions for slaves were harsh and the mortality rate was high, at all stages of a slave's life. The more sugar the Europeans demanded, the more production was required. The more plantations they built, the more sugar they produced, the more slaves they acquired. Slaves imported from Africa were the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. African slaves were chosen because they were immune to the diseases that killed many Native Americans. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Europeans grew rich from slave laborers. Sugar and slavery allowed Europe to accumulate wealth and power and would eventually pave the way for a new economic system, as well as European domination of the world. Rich Europeans with their lack of sugar unwittingly started the African slave trade in the Americas, including what is now the southern United States.