Answer:
After the fifteenth century the slave trade increased due to the imperial expansion of Europe. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, approximately twelve million enslaved African people were sent to America as forced labor.
A determining situation for this increase was the development of sugarcane plantations. European colonizers enslaved many people to work in those crops. The cultivation of sugarcane required that a large number of people devote themselves to this intense, continuous and arduous activity, especially during the harvest. In this way, the growing demand for sugar production favored forced labor.
On the other hand, the diseases introduced by the Europeans in the territories they colonized, caused the native population to decrease. This fact prevented the colonizers from finding the amount of native labor they wanted. For this reason, they sought in Africa this work force.
