Created a need for labor and led to increases in the African slave trade.
Plantation systems in the Americas required much labor and people who could tolerate the heat and work. Africans were known to work in similar heat and with similar products. The Africans were also involved in trade of people as slaves and Europeans were able to buy into the trade to obtain labor. Native Americans were the first choice but disease killed them off in high numbers whereas Africans had been exposed to European diseases and therefore a better labor investment.
