Introduction:
The islands known as the West Indies were explored by Christopher Columbus in fourteen ninety two. Later, ships loaded with silver from Lima and Mexico City sailed among these islands in the Caribbean Sea on their way back to Spain. In the early fifteen hundreds, Europeans began to establish colonies in the West Indies. The colonists learned that the region tropical climate was ideal for growing sugar producing plants. Enslaved persons were used to produce sugar for European markets.
In history, nearly all the ancient empires in every part of the world kept people as property and forced them to work without pay. In the fifteen hundreds, a new form of slavery took hold in the Americas. Millions of Africans were forced to lead harsh and difficult lives as slaves. Slavery in the Americas also had far reaching effects on trade. This new form of slavery would create suffering as well as wealth for people on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.