Question: what led to european exploration of the americas

title: European colonization of the Americas
text: In the French colonial regions , the focus of economy was on sugar plantations in Caribbean . In Canada the fur trade with the natives was important . About 16,000 French men and women became colonizers . The great majority became subsistence farmers along the St. Lawrence River . With a favorable disease environment and plenty of land and food , their numbers grew exponentially to 65,000 by 1760 . Their colony was taken over by Britain in 1760 , but social , religious , legal , cultural and economic changes were few in a society that clung tightly to its recently formed traditions .