When the Kings and Queens of Europe began to explore further west, the goal was to find a way to speed up trading with the east. It was all about sugar, spice, and everything nice, but what they found was more land with more resources and more people to work the fields. The colonies were set up to lay claim to what each King or Queen felt was theirs. The Kings and Queens of Europe never left the "mine" phase of child development, and well possession is 9/10 of the law.