, and in Germany consumed capital and human resources.A new period of global exploration and colonization was undertaken to circumvent Turkey's control of the spice trade, to provide home for religious refugees, and to provide new resources for European nations convinced that only precious metals constituted wealth. Colonial agriculture was intended not only to feed the colonists but also to produce cash crops and to supply food for the home country. This meant cultivation of such crops as sugar, cotton, tobacco, and tea, and production of animal products such as wool and hides. From the 15th to the 19th century the slave trade provided laborers needed to fill the large work force required by colonial plantations. Many early slaves replaced native people who died from diseases carried by the colonists or were killed by hard agricultural labor to which they were unaccustomed. Slaves from Africa worked, for example, on sugar plantations in what would become the southern United States. Native Americans were practically enslaved in Mexico. Indentured slaves from Europe, especially from the prisons of Great Britain, provided both skills and unskilled labor to many colonies. Both slavery and servility were substantially wiped out in the 19th century (Timelines of the Ancient World). When encountered by the Spanish conquistadors, the more advanced Native Americans in the New Worlds- the Aztec, Inca, and Maya- already had intensive agricultural economies, but no draft or riding animals and no wheeled vehicles. Squash, beans, peas and acorn had long since been domesticated. Land was owned by clans and other kinship groups or by ruling tribes that had formed sophisticated governments. The scientific revolution resulting from the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment in Europe encouraged experimentation in agriculture as well as in other fields. Trial-and-error efforts in plant breeding produced improved crops, and a few new strain...
