The expansion of the Atlantic slave trade was driven primarily by demand for which crop?

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Multiple Choice

The expansion of the Atlantic slave trade was driven primarily by demand for which crop?

Explanation:
Sugar’s high profitability and labor-intensive cultivation created the strongest demand for enslaved workers across the Atlantic. Caribbean and Brazilian plantations depended on huge numbers of enslaved people to plant, tend, harvest, and process sugar, making enslaved labor incredibly valuable and fueling a rapid expansion of the slave trade to supply those needs. While tobacco and rice were important in various regions, they didn’t generate the same scale of transatlantic demand as sugar, and cotton’s rise came later in a different context. So, sugar best explains why the Atlantic slave trade expanded.

Sugar’s high profitability and labor-intensive cultivation created the strongest demand for enslaved workers across the Atlantic. Caribbean and Brazilian plantations depended on huge numbers of enslaved people to plant, tend, harvest, and process sugar, making enslaved labor incredibly valuable and fueling a rapid expansion of the slave trade to supply those needs. While tobacco and rice were important in various regions, they didn’t generate the same scale of transatlantic demand as sugar, and cotton’s rise came later in a different context. So, sugar best explains why the Atlantic slave trade expanded.

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