Effects Of The Atlantic Slave Trade On Africa

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a part of African history that had made one of it's biggest impact on Africa's relation with the world and more importantly on the inner workings of the country itself due to its large-scale involvement of many of the people in the continent. Although the slave trade was so long ago the impact can still be seen in Africa's social workings within the people, its economy in the local and global market, and within the political landscape of the countries.

When Columbus sailed to the what he thought was India, he would never know the full implications of his “accident” that changed the world. Columbus’s discovery of the Americas created a whole new avenue for competing European states to jockey for world dominance, and most importantly, for wealth. In order to gain the power that Spain, France, Britain, and Portugal so greatly desired, an intercontinental trading network called the Atlantic Slave Trade was established. The need for cheap labor and the desire for large profits brought slaves from Africa, to North/South America. Slavery began to take a new shape, with a focus on plantation agriculture through a dehumanized class of workers. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery was primarily beneficial to European’s. Not only did the Atlantic Slave Trade supply European’s with the resources (primarily crops) required to assume a position of world dominance, slavery also benefited Europeans by providing the wealth that was needed to compete with traditional Asian powers. However, slavery during the Atlantic Slave Trade was detrimental to African’s. They were ripped from their home lands, brought across the Atlantic, and sold into a life of manual labor, and often abuse. Similar to how Columbus would never know the full impact of his discoveries in 1492, Europeans during Atlantic Slave Trade would never know just how much it would catapult the European continent into a position of power, meanwhile having devastating effects on

The transatlantic slave trade began in the 15th century, after the Portuguese started exploring the coast of West Africa. This had a long term effect on Africa because even though it started out benefiting the upper class in Africa, the long term effect was devastating. When Europeans started to enter Africa, they enjoyed “the triple advantage of guns and other technology, widespread literacy, and the political organization necessary to sustain expensive programs of exploration and conquest”(Doc 4). Africa’s relations with Europe depended on common interests, which Europe did not share. Europe’s contact with Africa, involving economic exchanges and political relationships, was not mutually beneficial.

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 Atlantic Slave Trade involved the forced intercontinental migration of West Africans across the Middle Passage during the 17th to 19th centuries. Between twelve and fifteen million slaves were exchanged between Africa, Europe and the Americas, together with raw materials and manufactured goods.

The title of the document is The Manner in which the Slaves are procured, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa.

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 Atlantic Slave Trade was a process that happened between the Europeans, Africans, and the New World. The Atlantic trade lasted for about 400 years affected people physically, mentally, and socially. About five to twenty-five million slaves landed in America being sold and placed on plantations that lasted until about the end of 19th century. This slave trade was a huge benefit for the Europeans that helped their economy grow, increase trade routes, and gain as much power as they could. The Atlantic Slave Trade is one of the most detrimental marks in history due to the amount of hatred and inhumane treatment of the African people. The role of slavery did make a significant impact on this society since this type of market was bringing an abundance of money for European countries. This slave trade was beneficial for the European economy to skyrocket, expand their territory and commerce in America and Africa.

For my comparison book review, I chose to focus on the Atlantic Slave Trade Second Edition by Herbert S Klein and The Economic Consequences of the Atlantic Slave Trade” by Barbara L. Solow. My focus of the trade is labor demands, effects on Africa, European organization of trade, and economy leading up to the end of the trade and after. Together, the two books demonstrate that the Atlantic Slave Trade was more than just the trading of Africans to different continents, but was a historical point that heavily impacted the world socially, economically and politically. While acknowledging the similarities of the two books in my essay, I will also address differences and points that may challenge each other. Before the institution of slavery was confined to only Africans, there were also indentured servants and other forms of caste workers that involved other races. Until the 15th century, the Mediterranean world use slaves as domestic servants, soldiers, mining and agriculture production. But according to Solow, when colonization moved to the Atlantic, plantation slavery became black and blacks became plantation slaves. Solow says that European colonization was associated with sugar; sugar was associated with slavery; and slavery was associated with blacks. (Solow, pg.5)

The effects of the development of the Atlantic Slave Trade had impacted the participating civilizations in 1450-1750. Many slaves were treated brutally. Some countries prospered as others died, and a new source of cheap labor has been found. The demand for cheap labor in 1450 to 1750 has caused economic, social, and political effects on civilizations from Europe, America, and Africa participating in the Atlantic Slave Trade by causing the downfall of African tribes and race, hardships of surviving slave life and leading European countries to become rich.

African countries remained independent. But, in the Americas, Europeans governed colonies. Plantation economic organization was more common in the Americas, although establishments in both areas used forced labor. Because of racial mixture, American society was less uniform than African society was, and the mixture of people produced a social hierarchy mostly dependent on race. Although slavery was present in Africa, the absence of racial mixture left untouched the traditional social relationships based on nobility, land, and priesthood.

Millions of lives were forever changed by the Atlantic Slave trade. Some were affected positively, in the case of slavers and wealthy slave owners. Others, the men, women, and children captured and sold into slavery were affected in an overwhelmingly negative way. Slavery was perceived and experienced in two distinctly different ways by Africans and Europeans.

The African Slave Trade has affected a very large part of the world. This phenomenon has been described in many different ways, such as slave trade, forced migration and genocide. When people today think of slavery, many envision the form in which it existed in the United States before the American Civil War (1861-1865): one racially identifiable group owning and exploiting another. However, in other parts of the world, slavery has taken many different forms. In Africa, many societies recognized slaves merely as property, but others saw them as dependents whom, eventually might be integrated into the families of slave owners. Still other societies allowed slaves to attain positions of military or administrative power. Most often, both

The Atlantic Slave Trade led to a significant decrease in population on not only the West African coast, but also on interior populations. The slave trade had a drastic effect on multiple aspects of African populations, such as the ratio of men to women, and the number of people being kidnapped and taken from interior villages and towns. More males were shipped of to the new world as a result of the slave trade. Of the 12-15 million shipped away from Africa due to the slave trade, two-thirds were men. (http://schoolworkhelper.net/effect-of-the-slave-trade-on-africa/) This led to a skewed gender ratio on the coast, and caused men of the elite political and economic societies to take more wives. This polygyny did nothing but hurt African populations. (Lamie 2007) Polygyny in West Africa led to a decrease in fertility rates, and this drastically hurt the population of West Africa.

In today’s world it is widely know and accepted that money makes the world go round but, unfortunately that is not the question. The question is: what made the world go round in the early 1600’s? Surprisingly, just like the world today money made the world go around back then also. One major difference is that in today’s world machines do all of our dirty work, back then it was all up to the slaves. Finding the perfect slave was a challenge to the colonists. First, there was the indentured servants, second, came the Indians. However because Indians and indentured servants could escape to freedom with ease, they were not the ideal slaves. The colonists’ third attempt proved to be a gold mine. The unfortunate people who were forced in to