<P> Sugar was the most important crop throughout the Caribbean, although other crops such as coffee, indigo, and rice were also grown . Sugar cane was best grown on relatively flat land near coastal waters, where the soil was naturally yellow and fertile; mountainous parts of the islands were less likely to be used for cane cultivation . The coastal placement of commercial ports gave imperial states a geographic advantage to ship the crop throughout the transatlantic world . </P> <P> Sugar created a unique political ecology, the relationship between labor, profits, and ecological consequences, in the Caribbean . Imperial powers forcefully displaced west African peoples to cultivate sugar using slave labor . By exploiting labor and the natural world, imperial conflicts arose in the Caribbean vying for political and economic control . For example, conflicts among the English, Spanish, French, and various indigenous peoples manifested for territorial gain; regarding the region's political ecology, these European states exploited the environment's resources to such an extent that sugar production began to stagnate . Due to the loss of trees, needed for timber in the sugar refinement process, European imperial powers began competing and fighting over the Caribbean during the middle 17 century . </P> <P> Following European settlers' entry into the Caribbean world, massive demographic changes occurred . Indigenous populations began dying at unprecedented rates due to the influx of old world diseases brought by colonists . Estimates of these population losses vary from 8.4 million to 112.5 million . This extreme diminishment of native populations cleared room for the plantation construction and lessened the conflicts between Europeans and indigenous peoples . </P> <P> During the colonial period, the arrival of sugar culture deeply impacted the society and economy in the Caribbean . It not only dramatically increased the ratio of slaves to free men, but it increased the average size of slave plantations . Early sugar plantations made extensive use of slaves because sugar was considered a cash crop that exhibited economies of scale in cultivation; it was most efficiently grown on large plantations with many workers . Slaves from Africa were imported and made to work on the plantations . For example, prior to 1650 more than three - quarters of the islands' population were white . In 1680, the median size of a plantation in Barbados had increased to about 60 slaves . Over the decades, the sugar plantations became expanding as the transatlantic trade continued to prosper . In 1832, the median - size plantation in Jamaica had about 150 slaves, and nearly one of every four bondsmen lived on units that had at least 250 slaves . </P>

Carolina as a part of west indies sugar plantations