The slave trade was, and still is, the most brutal and inhumane exploitation of any human race and considered one of the greatest crimes against humanity. It is estimated that nearly 12 to 15 million human beings were transported from Africa to North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean. According the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database 20% of the slaves perished. Many people believe that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade initiated globalization. The twentieth century had ushered in new ways in doing business internationally with multinational trade deals, general agreements on tariffs and trade in place for somewhat fair and ethical trading. Over time globalization has impacted our world economics, blended cultures, and has improved on the way that the world communicates through modern day technology. History of Globalization The Hellenistic age is period when Alexander the Great ruled over Rome during the first and second century B.C. The Greek culture influenced a large part of the world spanning from India to Spain all the way down to the Persian coast. The Hellenistic age can be referred to as the world’s first form of cultural globalization based on its impact on so many different civilizations. Before the Europeans invaded Africa slavery existed in the form of indentured servants in which over a period of time slaves were able to save up enough money to buy their freedom. When the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began slaves were no longer able to buy their
It took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th to the 19th centuries. It was a trade of human beings from African societies who were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. About 1.8 million people died during the Atlantic Slave Trade due to harsh conditions on the ship. Furthermore, many others perished during the process of capture and transport to the African coast done by the middle men. Slaves were kept in dungeon fortresses and suffered horrid living conditions while waiting to be sent out to sea on boats headed for America. Both on the forts and the ships, they were kept in dirty, dark rooms with little moving space and almost no food and drink. They were usually kept in chains and forced to lie on their backs. The transatlantic slave trade is sometimes known as the "Triangular Trade" because it was trade among three ports or regions. The voyages were from Europe to Africa, from Africa to the Americas, and from the Americas back to Europe. The raw materials and natural resources like rice, tobacco, cotton and sugar that were found in the Americas were brought to Europe. Europe then brought manufactured products such as cloth, beads and guns to Africa in exchange for slaves who were brought to the Americas. This voyage impacted the world. Africa became a permanent part of the interacting Atlantic world and millions of people were
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
King Afonso I was king of Kongo during the 1520s. Qianlong was emperor of China during the Qing dynasty, during the 1790s. In the kingdom of Kongo, there were many Portuguese merchants whom had established close political and diplomatic relations with the king. These relations brought much wealth and recognition to Kongo, but it also brought problems that led to its inevitable destruction. Portuguese merchants embarked on slaving expeditions. Their tactics undermined the authority of the kings, who appealed repeatedly to the Portuguese to cease or at least to limit their trade in slaves. During the Qing dynasty, global trade brought much
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.
For more than three and a half centuries, the forcible bondage of at least twelve million men, women, and children from their African homelands to the Americas forever changed the face and character of the western hemisphere. The slave trade was brutal and horrific, and the enslavement of Africans was cruel, exploitative, and dehumanizing. The trade represented one of the longest and most sustained assaults on the life, integrity, and dignity of human beings in world history.
“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
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 was the transportation of enslaved africans to the New world to be owned and sold. According to the Columbian Exchange article, “By about 1550, African diseases like yellow fever and malaria had crossed the Atlantic and were killing Europeans and Indians.” Brining the African Slaves over to do hard labor and put innocent humans through horrific experiences was hard on the african slaves, but also harmed slave owners. The slave owners did not have immunities built up to protect themselves from these new diseases that were introduced, making them very susceptible to catching these killing sicknesses. The Atlantic Slave Trade was hard on both ends of the spectrum, making it brutal for lots of people but in different
Slavery dates back to as early as the 1400s and continued on into the 20th century. People (Africans and Indigenous) were kidnapped by slave traders and sold off to people (European colonies) who bought the slaves as they needed them for help in labour. By doing so it influenced the cause for globalization, as people were sold off as products to be apart of plantation or agricultural labour. Creating cheap labour helping the colonies achieve high profits. Slavery was one of the starts of globalization.
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.
Imagine going about your everyday life when all of a sudden, you are taken away from your family, friends, and the life you know and you are placed aboard a ship going to a foreign place. On top of all that, you will have to work hard for free and be treated with almost no respect. It’s crazy right? Well not for the millions of Africans during the 15th to 19th century. The Atlantic Slave Trade was a part of the triangular trade which involved trading between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The triangular trade was a trade system between the three continents which involved exchange of goods and slaves. The Europeans traded manufactured goods while the Africans traded slaves and the Americans traded for agricultural products. In all of this, the question arises that who is to blame? The blame can’t be placed on only one group of people because each group has played a big role in the slave trade. By looking at what was the role of each continent in the slave trade, we can see how much they are to blame.
The horrors of the New World Atlantic Slave trade system cannot be expressed in figures along. The humanitarian and cultural losses are staggering. Throughout this period, more than a million and a half died
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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