The Demise Of African Prosperity

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

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.

The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker is a great fiction novel that describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, seamen, and captains on their journey through the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage marked the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves provided a great economy for the European countries due to the fact that these African slaves provided free labor while cultivating sugar cane in the Caribbean and America. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). This tells us that African enslavement to the Americas causes a complete

“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the

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.

For numerous centuries land owners were dependent on a free source of labor provided by slaves. They were to pay for these slaves and then allowed to do as they pleased with them. Slaves cooked, cleaned, worked on plantations, and devoted their lives submissive to the orders of their masters. For over 150 years now, historians continue to argue whether or not slaves helped countries as a whole move economically at a faster pace, or whether after calculating the head cost and transporting the slaves, the trade ended up making having little significance to the country pace and the slave owner’s wealth. The Atlantic slave trade, when a massive number of slaves from Africa were taken on enormous

Screams for relief, cries for comfort, and moans for death all revolved around the slave trade. The slave trade is an event that not only impacted Africa, but the whole world even still today. This essay will explain how cultures were ruined and families were torn apart. The slave trade has influenced history worldwide because it has impacted continents economically, socially, and politically.

As the European need for slaves to be exported from Africa to the Americas increased, it allowed them to further develop their societies at the disbursement of Africa. It began as a small profitmaking system of transporting a few Africans in exchange for European goods like guns, but led into being a large market that endorsed the capture of many Africans to be transported to the Americas. In response to the European demands, a new social system evolved as whites were the superior and blacks were subservient. Slaves were viewed as property and had no rights. Slave ownership became a key factor to economic success for Europeans. The result of this was the decline of Africa as it was nearly impossible for poor Africans to avoid being put into the slave trade. This led to descent in Africa as they encountered decline both economically and socially. The problems in current day Africa root all the way back to the participation in the slave trade. The Trans-Atlantic slave trade allowed the Europeans to strengthen their world power to and even greater

The Atlantic Slave Trade was a system of slavery that took place between the 16th and 19th centuries. It comprised of capturing African tribesmen and women from areas of Western and Central Africa and placing them into the colonies of the New World in North, Central, and South America. Many countries like England, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and France, had participated in enslaving the African peoples. The African slaves were used to exploit an array of commodities such coffee, cotton, rum, sugar, and tobacco, and eventually they had become commodities themselves. Often times the slaves were treated awfully by their owners. Most were forced to work long and tiresome hours on plantations to acquire said commodities, and then use them to create products that would be later sold. The slaves did not receive any profits from the sale of the products that they produced, but they were paid with basic needs such as shelter and food. The revenue that was produced by slave labour was highly profitable, but in turn it was counter acted by the cost of keeping the slave labourers alive and well. By the end of the 18th century a period known as the Industrial Revolution had swept Europe, especially England, and her colonial partners. Never before had production been so cheap and efficient. Many believe that the enslavement of Africans was necessary to initiate the industrial revolution. They believe that the slaves provided the foundation to the development of the revolution, and without

“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

Labor exploitation was the key for the effectiveness of european expansion in the new world and define slavery as a principal component for global capitalism until it was not longer profitable. The atlantic slave trade influence europe economic growth and market development to rapidly spread through the atlantic trade. It was a intense dependence on the triangular trade that made merchants made big profits at the expense of the exploited labour abroad. Merchants were involved in all three sides of the triangle trade that allowed the transportation of slaves from Europe to Africa where goods were traded for slaves and then those slaves were brought to the Americas for the cultivation food crops and other raw materials; these later were brought back to Europe, Africa and the Americas to be sold. Resistance and revolts against the trade of slave was stronger in African areas where european demographic power was lower but “It was not until 1780s that increasing european along the west of africa coast finally drove up the price of slaves” and the overproduction of sugar in the caribbean and other raw materials lead the fall in the selling price of these products (shillington p181) european nations began to question whether the trade was still profitable or not. Britain was the first to completely abolished slavery in 1834 when manufactures found european labor in factories more efficient and less expensive than plantations. It was follow for the french colonies 1848, Cuba in

The Atlantic slave trade existed from the 16th to the early 19th century and stimulated trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Over 12 million Africans were captured and sold into chattel slavery off the coast of West Africa, and more than 2 million of them died crossing the Atlantic. These outcomes of the slave trade are rarely disputed among historians; the effect of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa, however, is often a topic of debate. Some academics, such as Walter Rodney, insist that Africans were forced to take part in the slave trade, resulting in demographic disruption and underdevelopment in all sectors of Africa. Historian John Thornton acknowledges the negative consequences of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, yet contends that it was merely an expansion of the existing internal slave trade which African rulers engaged in willingly. A final case made by Hugh Thomas completely contradicts Rodney’s thesis, asserting that the slave trade was not solely responsible for decreasing Africa’s population, and furthermore, that it was primarily beneficial to Africa’s economy and politics. The true outcome of the slave trade in Africa lies not entirely in any one of these arguments, but rests rather in a combination of all three. Although the Atlantic slave trade was detrimental to the economic and social development of Africa, the trade benefited a small portion of Africans, who willingly aligned themselves with

In addition to the impacts of the slave trade on the social history of Africa, there were also major impacts on the political history. Below, three major impacts of the slave trade on the political history of West Africa will be discussed. To begin with, an impact that the slave trade had on West Africa is that it made the area more susceptible to colonization by European powers. There were two main ways in which the slave trade made it easier for European powers to colonize; the ways are the loss of population and the use of slavery as justification for colonization. To start, the slave trade exported an estimated six million people from West Africa. Of those six million, the majority of them were strong, healthy males. The result of

Trans-Atlantic slavery in the 15th century was sparked by the growing hunger for money and power, and was discouraged during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. The ideologies of Charles Darwin and Karl Marx help us understand and explain the reason for the rise and fall of this type of slavery. Great Britain’s capitalistic society, strengthened their drive to form colonies leading to the exploitation of colonial people. The development of the slave trade started off with the Portuguese in the 15th century who were looking to get around Muslims who had a monopoly on the sub-Saharan trade in gold and spices. They exported small amounts of slaves to Europe where they would work or serve in the cities. Near the end of the 15th century other countries became interested in the profitable slave trade due to the agricultural growth of societies, this caused the demand for slaves to increase. When we look at the impact the slave trade had on Africa we see that African populations were greatly reduced during this era, and this stunted the growth of the country. The slave trade caused raids and wars within Africa that brought about additional deaths and established unstable communities within the country. Britain was able to make their daily lives easier with the trade of slaves, it helped raise the standard of living, as well as emerge as the super power of colonization. Great Britain at this time could be considered as the nation of subversion and power, owning up to