The Spanish settled in Central America and South America, mining for gold and silver, and farming tobacco, the Spanish had a surplus of labor, because they used the Natives to do the work for them, this was called Encomienda. In some places this system killed too many of the natives, so they imported slaves from Africa. The Portuguese grew much sugar and other tropical cash crops in Brazil and imported many Africans for this purpose. They were the biggest buyers in the Atlantic slave trade.