Exploration For A New Route

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.

Of that 12.5 million Africans, 1,061,524 were from Spain, 5,848,266 were from Portugal, 3,529,441 were from Great Britain, 554,336 were from the Netherlands, 305,326 were from the United States, 1,381,404 were from France, and 111,040 were from Denmark. Britain began to slave trade largely through private trading companies in the 1640s. The London-based Royal African Company was extremely important to the use of slavery in 1672. The amount of voyages to Africa made between 1695 and 1807 from each of the main European docks that were involved in the slave trade was Liverpool, London, and Bristol. Liverpool contained 5,300, London contained 3,100, and Bristol contained 2,200. Other European ports were held in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Cadiz, Lisbon, and Nantes containing 450. In the early 1700s, many merchants came from London and Bristol. On the other hand, Liverpool was increasing as well from the 1740s surpassing their opponents. Even though London and Bristol were taking trips back and forth to Africa, Liverpool dominated both of them and continued until abolition in 1807. Liverpool was the most involved ports in slaving during the 18th century.

The enslaved also became known as personal property to their masters and lost all their rightful customary rights being human beings. Portugal and Spain did end up dominating the slaver trade during the 16th century; as a result they shipped over two thousand Africans per year to the Americas. The trading that took place of import goods in exchange with the return of the exporting of Africans was a complete consequence of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. The profits from the slave trade were so great the Dutch, French and English become involved in 1550. With the development of tobacco as a cash crop in Virginia and Maryland during the 1620's and with the large expansion of sugar production the demand for African slaves grew. The end result and the direct consequence was that England and France compete with the Dutch to take over the Atlantic Slave trade. After a host of wars England then took over the Trans Atlantic Slave trade which overthrew the Dutch in 1764 and victories over France and Spain occurred in 1713. This allowed English traders the right to supply slaves to all of Spain's American colonies. The profits of the Atlantic Slave trade produced in the America's by slave labor were invested in England and consequently helped fund the industrial revolution during the 18th century. In return, Africa became a market for cheap English manufactured

Henry Hudson was an English explorer, who sailed along the North East coast of North American. His early life is unknown, for there is not even a record of the year he was born. His final days are a mystery, after his mutinous crew set him adrift in the bay that bears his name, June 1611. It is believed that he could have been the grandson of a London alderman who helped found the Muscovy Company, which is a trading company. Hudson took four voyages beginning in 1607 and continued to1611, making claims for the English and the Dutch. At one point, he was arrested for working with the Dutch, because in those days working for another country was considered treason. Hudson was also known as the grandfather of the English whaling

As individual European countries scrambled to gain more territory to add to their Empires, Japan feared the changes that visiting countries brought. When other countries visited Japan with imports to trade they also brought with them a new religion, Christianity. Japanese Emperors feared the chaos that a new religion would bring and decided to shut the rest of the world out. Only the Dutch were allowed to trade with the Japanese as a need remained to be informed of the rest of the world and medical advances.

Europe has had a long history of slave trade already by the time the 16th century came around. Many slaves worked on various types of plantations where they would grow sugar, tobacco, and coffee beans, creating large amounts of profit. All of

This company hired an English explorer, Henry Hudson, to seek great riches.  He sailed into the Delaware Bay and New York Bay in 1609 and then ascended the Hudson River.  He filed a Dutch claim to a wooded and watered area.  The Dutch West India Company was less powerful than the Dutch East India Company, and was based in the Caribbean.  It was more interested in raiding than trading.

Although, Hudson’s whereabouts before 1607 are unknown, historians can still analysis the life events during the known time of Hudson existence. Between 1607 and the year Hudson died, 1611, Bumsted identifies three major event. The first of these events occurred in 1608 when Quebec gained the resident buildings by Samuel de Champlin. Champlin established a new trading post on the St. Lawrence and during the first year of building the new habitations, it went under attack. Fortunately, the post lasted and in the progress, Champlin associated with the First Nations; however, this led the French into violence against the Iroquois. During the same year, the outline of the arrangement to colonize New France started. Second, in Newfoundland, the first English incomers settled in Newfoundland in 1610. The arrival of the Europeans impacted the First Nations people greatly. The impact that the diseases, such as measles, smallpox, typus, and typiod, altered the lives of the First Nations people; Before the Europeans brought these disease to the continent of what is now Canada, the First Nations people were not immune to them and it caused tremendous damage to their communities. And finally, Frobisher’s voyage to the Northwest Passage inspired the great explorer, Henry Hudson. Within Bumsted, it mentions that Hudson was hired to explore the passage to Asia and in the progress he ended entering the Hudson Bay. Bumsted also mentions that the exploration that Hudson sailed was exceptional and it his search was a best known voyage In comparison to Bumsted, Henry Hudson’s biography references that he missed no prospect of landmarks on Quebec and the Diggs Island into the Hudson Bay itself. The biography mentions that Hudson succeeded in setting the further north record on his voyage, but the search for the Northeast Passage was not successful. Furthermore, when studying the biography of Henry

The Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese and Dutch Traders were the only countries that traded with Japan in the 1600s and 1700s.

The working poor which made up the majority of the Japanese citizens were not allowed to become involved in any non-agricultural economic pursuits. Therefore, maintaining constant and traditional Japanese values, yet the Dutch whom were the only foreign power allowed to trade with the Japanese at the port of Nagasaki warned the shogunate that they would have to “accede to foreign demands.” Many young scholars and the samurai class agreed with the Dutch logic in that it is not smart for the Japanese to become stagnant while the rest of the world is booming a merchant dominated economic system. Many scholars such as Fukuzawa Yukichi were worried about the state of the government and stated “I was mortified when I thought over the possible outcome of national exclusiveness.” This hindrance by the government in order to preserve the traditions of Japan irked the citizens in that the “stability” of the shogunate was regression as a culture rather than progress which is what most felt that the government should be striving

The Atlantic Slave Trade lasted between 1450 and 1750 and drastically impacted the lives of both European and African people. During this time, the Europeans, such as the British, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Dutch, traveled to Africa in search of labor workers. In total, over twelve million slaves were taken, mainly because they workers to make money, but it also had to do with their race, religion – as they were not Christian – and to civilize them because the Europeans did not believe that they were humans. Due to these European beliefs, the Europeans saw themselves as the most powerful group and viewed slave trade as a business. The Africans, on the other hand, had a harder time transitioning into slavery. Many of them were taken from their homes and forced to accept a new life working as a slave. These events did not come without many sacrifices from the African people. One of the major reasons the slave trade was so expansive is due to the low life expectancy of the slaves after their capture. While the Europeans believed that they were helping the African culture, as well as themselves, the African society as a whole suffered the most.

Slave trading was a business and “over the four centuries of Atlantic slavery, millions of Africans and their descendants were turned into profits.” (Johnson) The Atlantic trade was highly depended on by slave owners as the life expectancy of a slave working in the sugar cane plantations was about seven years in the Caribbean. Due to the use of slave labor by the 18th century surplus capital was being invested in European industry.

Each slave also supplied a lifetime of service if they would survived the voyage and the numerous possible diseases(Norton, 69). In 1619, when English pirate ships, White Lion and the Treasurer arrived in the British colony of Jamestown Virginia carrying with it, twenty enslaved Africans, colonist traded food and services in exchange for human cargo. Once traded, the Africans were entered into limited periods of indentured servitude and joined the colonies workforce, which had roughly one thousand English indentured servants (Slavery in the United States, 2011).

It is believed that 25 million slaves were sold and shipped using the transatlantic slave trade however there has been plenty of debate by many people that the 25 million slaves figure is not accurate at all. They believe that more than 25 million slaves may have been transported using the transatlantic slave trade also known as the triangle trade, Murphy (2012).

Sakoku, or the national seclusion, of Japan by the Tokugawa Iemitsu in the 1630s was one of the most important periods in Japanese history. Many people perceived that Japan became uniquely unique because of the Sakoku. However, during the Sakoku, Japan was not complete sealed off from foreign influences and trades. The national seclusion of Japan is believed by some people that there is only limited trade with the Dutch and Chinese in Nagasaki. According to Oxford Art Online during the Edo period, the Bay of Nagasaki is “the only port open to overseas trade” (Bonnie), which was not true. During the Sakoku, Japan was not restricted to only the bay in Nagasaki, but Japan had total of four designated places that allowed foreign contacts. Before the detail of the four areas of foreign relations during the Sakoku period, the reasons for the Sakoku need to be explained.