Ah! Doug joins the fray! All regions that possessed the more or less protocaspitalist characteristics of Europe and were maritime oriented like the relevant parts of Europe -- all of them had the "urge" to make profits in any way possible, including taking slaves. But the Europeans got the big priZe: America. They then fulfilled their "urge" by putting Native americans to work in mines, using the profits to take slaves in Africa, putting the slaves to work on plantations, and...the rest is history. Anyway, thats what I think. Cheerfully Jim B
