Answer:
Aside from having stumbled into a world that had great amounts of riches to offer, such as gold, silver and other precious items, the New World became vital for European nations for two other reasons: first, the resources, other than precious minerals, that the continents offered, and also because the possession of new land, militarily speaking, meant a country had more power, and more resources, than others. It almost became a power struggle between European nations to obtain lands in the Americas just to exert higher control, and show more muscle power, against the others.
This became even truer after the first years of settlement of Europeans in the Americas. As each of the colonizers spread out throughout the lands, and claimed them, especially Great Britain, Spain and France, the flow of resources, gold and silver, and also the opening of new market possibilities for European products, helped to empower each of these nations, and place them at the top in comparisson to their competitors.
