Lagos Chicago Research Paper

This paper will discuss how the centralized and decentralized societies interacted during the slave trade and how the trade had an effect on them. It will also discuss how and why some of the decentralized societies were predatory towards people exactly like themselves by looking at multiple decentralized societies, including the Balanta and the Igbo. Though each side of the debate gives convincing evidence and arguments, the Atlantic Slave Trade was not just centralized societies preying on decentralized societies and the decentralized societies were not completely victims. They used different mechanisms to defend themselves. In some decentralized societies, after they gained some power, they would prey on other weaker decentralized societies.

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.

Africa had been the target of colonialism and slavery for many years. The colonies that European’s developed during fifteenth and sixteenth century were the main reason that started slave trade in Africa.

All this is a little too close to what A. G. Hopkins called, in the Introduction to his brilliant Economic History of West Africa, the 'Myth of Merrie Africa'. This myth, and any static picture of the African past, does an injustice to the dynamic and innovative features in African society.

Trading to make profit was the main reason British business men landed on African soil. This shows economic influences started the relationship between GB and her African empire, highlighting its importance during expansion. Trading in Africa brought high profits back to businessmen and the banks

The changes in African life during the slave trade era form an important element in the economic and technological development of Africa. Although the Atlantic slave trade had a negative effect on both the economy and technology, it is important to understand that slavery was not a new concept to Africa. In fact, internal slavery existed in Africa for many years. Slaves included war captives, the kidnapped, adulterers, and other criminals and outcasts. However, the number of persons held in slavery in Africa, was very small, since no economic or social system had developed for exploiting them (Manning 97). The new system-Atlantic slave trade-became quite different from the early African slavery. The

In this section I try to show how the African Slave System, after gaining a foothold went on to become the most important part of the economy of the new Nation:

This enormous increase in slave trade came from the chartered companies (given trade monopolies in exchange for fees), as well as from new maritime knowledge gained by repeated travels across what became known as the “The Middle Passage”, a stretch of water between the gold and slave coasts, the region of Angola, and Brazil and the West Indies.

Africa’s persistent poverty interrogates the continent’s past through institutions, government, demography, economics, colonialism, and the impact of the trading. The colonial era affected the variety of Africa’s historical development for it was quite the game changer since it put a halt to the continuous drain of scarce labor and paved the way for the expansion of land concentrated forms of agriculture, and engaging smallholders, estates, and communal farms. The establishment of the colonial rule over the African interior reinforced African commodity growth in export. The colonial control facilitated the construction induced significant inflows of European

Tolulope Omokore, a Nigerian-born and Maryland-based basketball player for the University of Central Florida. Family oriented and very cultural is living 868 miles from her hometown. Somehow manages her time between 35+ hrs of training a week, being a full time student, as well as working an internship for marketing and fan development with UCF which includes managing and assisting with all elements of Game-Day production.

The country Benin is truly a wonderful place filled with history and culture. “Benin was the site of Dahomey”,which was a “West African kingdom that rose to power in the 1600s and was well known for its slave trade. During the second half of the 19th century, areas near the sea, also known as coastal areas, began to be controlled by the french. By 1894, the kingdom of Dahomey was taken over. They later achieved their independence in 1960 and 15 years after that, their country was renamed to the Republic of Benin.

Nathan Nunn, author of the article “The Long-Term Effects of Africa’s Slave Trade” was interested in researching and determining how the slave trade had affected Africa’s economy in the subsequent years. Rather than taking a human rights approach, Nunn chose to focus on the economic approach and sets out to investigate how certain characteristics of the slave trade have affected the development of the society economically. To be more specific, Nunn states that his thesis statement is that the African slave trade was not only damaging to the society but that there was a correlation between the process of acquiring slaves and the negative impact in the economy in the following years. To demonstrate that he would be creating a relationship with

The first was the weak sense of nationalism caused by all the ethnic groups where religion played a major part of the division. The main three ethnicities in Nigeria are Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo; the former is Muslim while the two latter are Christians. The second cause mentioned was the “divide and rule” which was a British tactic to employ ethnic groups against one another, and thus “helped ensure that ethnicity would be the main line of political cleavage after Nigeria became an independent country.” The third cause is the personal rule system based on “big men” and what this means is that Nigerian’s who worked for the British used their personal relationships to gain power and wealth, and in a certain way it is still used today in the Nigerian government. The fourth devastating cause was the “creation of an increasingly active and interventionist state during WWII and after until its independence in 1960, but that opened the doors to patronage, which would be used to gain political power and wealth. The past reveals the problems Nigeria has had for several decades, some of which have not disappeared but seem to get progressively worse. (CITATION)

We will now explore the background of the triangle trade in America, Britain, and Africa, along with the economic effects that were brought to not only America and Britain but also the economic effects brought to Africa as a result of slavery and the slave trade.

Before we begin, let’s take a look at the country and its environs. Nigeria a former British Colony, located in the western part of Africa, it shares borders with Benin, Cameroun, and Niger. A growing population of 150million, labour force of 51million (70% Agriculture, 10% industry and 20% service), urbanisation is less than 40%, GDP is over $300billion, Per capita income is $2300. Nigeria is blessed with different cultures, languages and ethnic groups (252 in total); this was due to the colonization of the British in the early 19th century (Columbia Encyclopaedia). The British amalgamated its protectorates in 1914 to enable stable control and governance which made them create one Nation of Nigeria formed from all the groups, community and empires around the Niger area under their control. Nigeria had her independence on the 1st of October 1960 and since then various civil wars, political and religious unrest in the country to share power and resources amicably.