I would argue that the plantations at least brought us a magnificent substance to add to our everyday lives, but sugar has no nutritional value other than gaining a person 4 calories per gram. Poor diets, including the overconsumption of sugar, cause more disease than alcohol and smoking combined. The efforts to drive the sugar trade solely benefited the Europeans economically. There was an ongoing cycle or domino effect, for lack of a better term, where a larger demand by citizens pushed plantation owners to acquire more slaves and produce more sugar which was being consumed in larger amounts as the cycle went on. The question “What drove the Sugar Trade?” cannot be one specific event or thing. The sugar trade was driven by the copious slave workers producing large amounts of this substance in ideal conditioned plantations to meet the demand of citizens and sugar