During the earliest contests among european powers for control of north america, why was america not considered worth the commitment of troops

During the early period of contest for the American soil for most of the European countries it seemed unworthy that they put an effort into its colonization, and this is was due to few reasons;

- The local populations were mostly aggressive and lots of battles had to take place so that they could get hold of some territory.

- There were tropical diseases in the first places discovered that were killing off lots of people.

- The failed attempts to find large amounts of gold and silver.

- The wrong picture initially created because of the insufficient knowledge of the continent and its potentials, which was mainly based on some small spaces that were not as attractive as expected.

the social contract theory