Final answer:
The correct answer is option b) Sugar.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sugar industry in the Portuguese colony of Brazil demanded a high number of laborers, often captured Africans. This is evident throughout historical accounts describing the transatlantic slave trade and the cultivation of sugar cane plantations. The labor-intensive process of growing, harvesting, and processing sugar cane required a vast number of enslaved people, leading to the forced migration of many Africans to the Americas, particularly Brazil and the Caribbean.
Initially, the Portuguese utilized enslaved African labor for sugar production on islands off the coast of Africa and subsequently brought this system to Brazil, which became the core of their economic development within the region. These enslaved individuals were involved in every stage of sugar production, from cutting cane stalks by hand to boiling the juice into crystalline sugar.
While the plantation system enlarged various European industries, it was largely built on the exploitation of enslaved Africans, whose forced labor was central to the profits generated from sugar cultivation.