Arguably, everything that has happened in the Americas since europeans first landed there, is a result of the trans-Atlantic trade. The trans-Atlantic trade consists of three parts, laborers from Africa, new resources in the Americas, and a market in Europe- the other could not exists with out another. The conquistadors, Spanish explorers, first tried using the Natives for slave labor, but they were too weak to be worked to such an extreme as was demanded. The Europeans carried diseases that the natives were not immune too and were not accustomed to a life of hard labor, as many native groups were primarily nomadic hunter gathers or just not as physically durable. Eventually Europeans began using hardened Africans for their labor. Without them, resources would not have been harvested and the Atlantic trade wouldn't have existed, or atleast existed at the same speed or efficiency. As European explorers came seeking their fortune, they began to set up small settlements, which grew into colonies. On top of that, African slaves were infamously an integral part of North American economy, particularly later on, in the south. A lot of the economy was driven by the harvest and subsequent selling of Tabacco, cotton, sugar, cocoa, hemp and other agricultural products, which grew better in climates closer to the equator like Southern North America, the Bahamas and Cuba. These sorts of commodities only existed because of tireless slave labor. As demand grew for the product, naturally so did the demand for labor. All this considered, the trams-Atlantic trade and subsequently the development and colinization of the Americas depended entirely slave labor.