Atlantic Structure Of The Triangular Trade

African slaves were shipped to the West Indies and America as part of the Triangular Trade. Many slaves died on the voyage due to the ghastly conditions that accompanied the Middle Passage and others committed suicide. Portugal held a near monopoly on the export of African slaves for a period of about 200 years from the early 14-1600s. The peak years of the slave trade were during the 16th and 17th century, but Africans were forced across the Atlantic for an astonishing timeframe of around 400 years.

The Atlantic slave trade which was inevitably began by the Portuguese, but later in time taken over by the English, was the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans that occurred in and throughout the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West Africa and Central Africa to the New World. Although slavery and slave trading already existed it became well known and practiced in all cultures. During this time while Europeans obtained most slaves through coastal trade with African states, some slaves

Trade during colonial America was done between Europe, Africa, and the New World. They traded food, natural resources, animals, and slaves. History proves to show that trade highly increases economies and through the Triangular Trade route the economy of the colonies shot up. It was really easy for colonists to buy slaves from Africa and have them shipped across the Middle Passage just as easy as it was to be over an indentured servant. As stated above, colonists preferred slaves over indentured servants, so they chose African slaves. This allowed for a rapid growth in the number of slaves within the British North American colonies that increased trade and economic power for the colonies.

The slave ship sailed from the home country with a cargo of manufactured goods. These were exchanged at a profit on the coast of Africa for Negroes, who were traded on the plantations, at another profit, in exchange for a cargo of colonial produce to be taken back to the home country. As the volume of trade increased, the triangular trade was supplemented, but never supplanted, by a direct trade between home country and the West Indies, exchanging home manufactures directly for colonial produce.

With the European discovery of the New World, African slave trade began to grow. Slaves were traded and bought and then shipped to some other place and then sold. Europeans would trade things for slaves then bring them to places like the West Indies and sell them. They would then buy goods and bring the goods back to Europe. This was the triangular trade system. Slaves played a vital role in trade all over the world, old and new. Although African slavery had already existed, there were many reasons as to why it was needed during the Atlantic World and there were many effects of this.

During the mid-fifteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade occurred throughout the world and lasted well over four hundred years. Oversea trade between Africa and the Portuguese, along with other European kingdoms, formed, which began what is known as the transatlantic slave trade. Along with a variety of goods, copious amounts of slaves, roughly twenty-five million, were traded between the continents of Europe and Africa. Driving the trade were politics, economics, religion, business, and a desire for profit. Along with the majority of the African population being traded elsewhere in the world, the overwhelming amount of deaths and low fertility rate among the indigenous people neared the African culture to distinction. Among the documents provided, all can be grouped into two main groups: attitudes and impact. During the years 1450 to 1800, the Europeans showed a large amount of varied opinions towards the Transatlantic Trade slave and the impact of the trade towards the included civilizations.

The history of the Atlantic slave trade is long and sordid, from the working and transportation conditions to the structure of the trade itself. Historians and scholars from all backgrounds have worked to understand the impact of slavery and why it went on for so long. Two scholars, John Thornton and Mariana Candido, have extensively studied both the impact and organization of the Atlantic slave trade, but disagree on a few main conclusions. Upon thorough review of both sides, however, John Thornton’s ideas regarding the Atlantic trade are more convincing than Candido’s, and by looking deeper into each side it is clear why.

The movement of goods, people, and wealth in the late 17th and 18th centuries permanently changed societies across the continents of Europe, Africa, and North and South America, thereby increasing the reach of globalization in the modern age. Most influential to this movement was what is sometimes referred to as “The Atlantic Circuit”, a triangle of trade between Western Europe, western Africa, and the West Indies. Out of this circuit came the rapid growth of the Atlantic slave trade, which not only established multiple industries of agriculture, but significantly changed the economies of all countries involved. The

For many years African slaves were traded, mistreated, and killed innocently. Two events in which Africans were involved in slave trade were the Triangular Trade & the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage, the forced voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World. It was a route from the Triangular Trade that took goods (including knives, guns, ammunition, and cotton) from Europe to Africa, Africans to work as slaves in the Americas and West Indies, and items, mostly raw materials, produced on the plantations (sugar, rice, tobacco, and indigo back to Europe. From the mid-19th century, millions of African men, women, and children made the 21-to-90-day voyage aboard grossly overcrowded sailing ships manned by crews mostly

“The transatlantic slave trade concerns history of three continents over four centuries and it has served as a crucial element of New World protohistory since the slave trade soared in the eighteenth century in response to the increasing demand for unfree labor in both the Caribbean and the

There are a series of events that led to the Atlantic slave trade. At first slaves were indentured servants in Portugal, “but as European powers acquired new territories in the Americas, slaves were needed as a source of labor” Sugar was the biggest need for slave labor and Portugal had plantations located in the Americas. Portugal decided to import slaves from Africa rather than having Native Americans be laborers, because Africans were more efficient.

The best place to begin this examination would be with that which is most familiar to us, in this case that would be the Atlantic trade system. The Primary routes within the Atlantic system connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas, forming a triangle beginning in the 16th century.i This triangle consisted of raw goods such as sugar or timber being transported to Europe from the Americas, then finished goods were transported to Africa, where they were in turn traded for slaves who were shipped back to the Americas.ii The end goal of this system can be inferred by the time period and parties involved, the goal was to bring wealth and power to the European countries participating in the system. At this time in history the power of those European countries is a testament to the success of the

The Trans-Atlantic Trade was a complicated system of commerce between Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the eighteenth century. All three continents had different supplies and demands that were subsequently traded throughout the regions involved. The Trans-Atlantic trade was caused by the increasing demand for luxury items from Europe and Africa, eventually resulting in slavery and cultural diffusion throughout the entire world.

”European ships brought manufactured goods to Africa, trading them for people. They carried Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas where they were sold into slavery (The Atlantic Slave Trade).” Europeans fueled trade by selling African slaves in exchange for sugar, coffee, and tobacco, impacting economies in both, Europe and the Americas. Further, another triangular network between the English colonies, West Indies, and Africa, led to the trade of numerous commodities including slaves, rum, sugar and molasses. From an economic standpoint, the increased demand for African slaves became integral to trade between the three nations fueling the growth of various trade networks.

The African slave trade was a product of a huge venture that lasted for more than three centuries. Over millions of Africans crossed the three thousand mile Atlantic Ocean into North and South Americas to become slaves of labor, considerably to be the largest forced migration ever in history. Where they would be put to work under the most horrific conditions ever. By the seventeen-hundreds the trip across the Atlantic came to be known as the middle passage. In the early sixteen century Portuguese seafarers conducted the slave trade but it was on a very small scale. Only to satisfy a tiny market in Portugal and Spain, the other European nations had no need for slaves since their work labor was already too large. Portugal and Spain dominated