Final answer:
The Mediterranean's fertile lands and geographical factors made it ideal for large-scale agriculture, necessitating a large labor force and encouraging slavery. The cultural and economic exploitation by Europeans further propagated the institution of slavery, heavily impacting the economic growth in European and American regions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Mediterranean environment was conducive to slavery due to a few key factors. Firstly, there was an abundance of fertile land which made large-scale agriculture, particularly of crops like sugar and cotton, very profitable. The Mediterranean's geographical landscape facilitated the capture and transportation of slaves, particularly with the development of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The need for a massive labor force to work on these plantations was a driving force behind the enslavement of Africans, who were deemed more suitable for the laborious and harsh field work compared to Europeans, who suffered high mortality rates from tropical diseases. Additionally, European settlers exploited cultural beliefs, particularly the non-Christian status of Africans, to justify their enslavement. As enslaved people came to form a significant part of the labor landscape in the Americas, the European demand for slave labor grew.
Despite the harsh conditions, enslaved people managed to maintain aspects of their human dignity and culture. European and American profiteers significantly benefitted from their labor, leading to economic growth in these regions thanks to the slave trade. The need for control over a large and permanent labor force was what led Spanish planters to turn towards Africa for laborers when the cultivation of crops like sugarcane emerged as a lucrative business.