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History has shown how slaves became part of the economic life of the Europeans. The people that were conquered and their lands became the properties of the colonizer. The conquests made in the New World were accompanied with the horrors and cases of genocide in the many centuries that have passed. Slavery and genocide were caused by the conquests in the New World. Slavery also supported the growing of sugar plantations in the New World.

The slavery in the colonies of Spain began with the natives. The population of these natives decreased in size because of the diseases that came from the Europeans. The slaves that came from Africa were used by Spain in 1502. The end of slavery in the Americas was not until 1886. The effects of slavery were recorded in the accounts of Bartolome de las Casas. In 1501, it was allowed by the monarchy in Spain to import African slaves (Las Casas 1982).

On the eve of the American Revolution in 1770, the slavery of Africans was already legal and remained unchallenged in the New World. Expansion was still ongoing for the slave trade in Africa. The slaves from West Africa and as well as those slaves in the New World have played a significant role in the very first system of multi-production of various crops and other products. The African slaves have remained to be an essential part of the expansion and colonization of the Europeans in the Americas. The demand for labor was very high the areas that produced the staple crops. This brings even more wealth to the Europeans and satisfied their desire for money.

Several crops cannot be grown or sold for a profit in Europe. The goods and crops are being exported from the New World to be brought to Europe. These reduced the production costs of the Europeans. There is a great demand for labor that were needed in their plantations for growing and processing of these crops when they are harvested. Africa, particularly, the West, became the source for slaves in order to satisfy the growing demand for labor. There was always a shortage for labor because many of the immigrants from Europe were able to become landowners themselves after only a short period of time. This gave way to the increase in demand for laborers.

The plantation economies in the New World have been established and created by the slaves. Sugar is the most labor-intensive crop to be grown, harvested and processed. Majority of the slaves were used to work in sugar plantations. The most important colonies of the Europeans were the West Indies. They exert great efforts in order to protect these colonies (Winthrop 1974).