How did European markets and colonial plantations together strengthen slavery?

Correct answer: Market demand made plantations profitable and plantations demanded slave labour

European markets created strong demand for sugar, coffee, indigo, tobacco and other colonial goods. This demand made plantations profitable, because owners could sell large quantities of crops to merchants and consumers. To maintain high production, plantation owners demanded a large labour force. Instead of paying free workers fairly, they relied heavily on enslaved people whose work was compulsory and whose rights were denied. In this way, markets encouraged plantation expansion, and plantations encouraged the continuation of the slave trade and slavery.

Option A is correct because it shows the two-way economic link: market demand produced profit, and profitable plantations demanded forced labour. Option B is wrong because growing market demand did not stop the slave trade; it helped sustain it. Option C denies the central role of enslaved workers in plantation production. Option D is false because European merchants, consumers and governments were closely connected to colonial production. The answer explains a system rather than mentioning only one part of it.