The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Under early mercantilism, European nations sought to import raw materials from the Americas and ship manufactured goods to their colonies. The pattern has not changed in today’s world, but it has modified a little bit.
Even today, powerful nations are still exploiting third world countries' natural resources and raw material much needed in industrialized countries to manufacture products, that later are exported back to these underdeveloped countries. Instead of helping these underdeveloping countries to grow through education and investments to create companies and jobs, superpower nations trade these raw materials and that's it. They are not interested in developing those nations, they are just interested in their resources.
