Around the mid-fifteenth century, the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade began. When the Portuguese moved away from their interests of selling gold, they turned to an asset that would gain them more money, slaves. By the seventeenth century, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was fully established, and hit its milestone by the end of the eighteenth century. There were three stages to the Trans-Atlantic TradeStage, every stage played a role in a journey that was cost-effective for merchants. “As a commercial and economic enterprise, the slave trade provides a dramatic example of the consequences resulting from particular intersections of history and geography. It involved several regions and continents: Africa, America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Indian …show more content…
“For two hundred years, 1440-1640, Portugal had a monopoly on the export of slaves from Africa. It is notable that they were also the last European country to abolish the institution - although, like France, it still continued to work former slaves as contract laborers…” (The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade). The duration of the slave trade, four centuries, was majority resulting in Portugal transporting over 4.5 million Africans. The trade was dispatched in three ways. In the first stage of the Triangular Trade, manufactured goods were taken from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, cowrie shells, metals goods, and guns. In order to obtain slaves, and expand empires, the guns were used to its advantages. The manufactured goods were then exchanged for African slaves. In the second stage of the Triangular Trade, slaves were being shipped over the Atlantic to make it to the Americas. Once the Africans were transported to the Americas successfully, they were then sold throughout the entire continent. In the last stage of the Triangular Trade, America and Europe were connected. Slave traders returned to Europe with produce from the slave-labor plantations: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses and rum. (Transatlantic Slave
Everyone has their own understanding of what slavery is, but there are misconceptions about the history of “slavery”. Not many people understand how the slave trade initially began. Originally Africa had “slaves” but they were servants or serfs, sometimes these people could be part of the master’s family. They could own land, rise to positions of power, and even purchase their freedom. This changed when white captains came to Africa and offered weapons, rum, and manufactured goods for people. African kings and merchants gave away the criminals, debtors, and prisoner from rival tribes. The demand for cheap labor was increasing, this resulted in the forced migration of over ten million slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade occurred from 1500 to 1880 CE. This large-scale event changed the economy and histories of many places. The Atlantic Slave Trade held a great amount of significance in the development of America. Africans shaped America by building a solid foundation for the country.
The journeys represent the European slave trader’s way of human trade labor to be secured. The millions of people who lived along the coastline of Africa were a major slave trade supply. The Portuguese began to exploit the Africans with a slave trade from Africa to America in 1526 by the Portuguese. Although slaves were in on a high demand the slave traders were not able to keep up, because of this they had to go on a different route. Brazil was known to be the sugar producer in this era. An old saying by Marcus Rediker, “That sugar was made with blood.”
What were the social, political, and economic motives of Europeans in initiating slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade?
”European ships brought manufactured goods to Africa, trading them for people. They carried Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas where they were sold into slavery (The Atlantic Slave Trade).” Europeans fueled trade by selling African slaves in exchange for sugar, coffee, and tobacco, impacting economies in both, Europe and the Americas. Further, another triangular network between the English colonies, West Indies, and Africa, led to the trade of numerous commodities including slaves, rum, sugar and molasses. From an economic standpoint, the increased demand for African slaves became integral to trade between the three nations fueling the growth of various trade networks.
Many wonder about the spread of the African race. The answer to that mystery leads back to the Transatlantic Slave Trade/Middle Passage. The Transatlantic Slave Trade/ Middle Passage is the reason for the wide spread of the African society altogether. The first stage included manufactured goods like clothing, food, and artilleries and transporting them from Europe to Africa. The second stage was known as the “Middle Passage” where the enslaved Africans would be shipped to the Americas. The third and final stage of the trade was the shipment of the produce from the enslaved Africans to Europe. The fifteenth century is when the trade began, and the Portuguese interests for Africa turned from its natural resources and into its people who they will pursue as slaves. The triangular trade included the Americas, England, and Europe.
European items were then used to trade with Africans for slaves and conveyed to the American regions, where the cycle of the trade started yet again. The Atlantic slave trade slave trade happened over the Atlantic ocean from the sixteenth through to the nineteenth many years. The Second Atlantic structure was the trading of persecuted Africans most by English, Portuguese, French and Dutch vendors. The chief destinations this stage were the Caribbean states and Brazil, as European nations grew financially slave-subordinate territories in the New World.
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 Europeans created the Atlantic Slave Trade in the Atlantic World and made a huge change in the world's history. The Atlantic Slave Trade started in the 1400s and almost all slaves would go to the Americas instead of Europe or Asia, although some slaves were still deported there from Africa. There was slavery in Africa before the Atlantic Slave trade. It didn't have a major effect on the slavery in africa. As the demand for slaves grew with the European expansion in the new world, rising prices made the slave trade very profitable.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade often known as the triangular trade was described as the largest long-distance movement of people in all of history. The movement of Africa slaves to the Americas lastly for approximately four centuries and can be viewed as one of the first ideas of globalization . The ship would move from the Americas to Western Europe with raw materials, then to Africa with manufactured goods. Lastly, from Africa the Americas with African slaves. Thus the movement of over 12.5 million slaves from Africa and 10.7 million slaves arriving in the Americas. The slave trade changed to the demographics of the world forever. Many historians ask why did the European countries choose African for their source of slave labor
The transatlantic slave trade first began in 1502, with records of the first slaves in the New World, lasting nearly four centuries. It connected the economies of three continents. The route began in West Europe, where it continued to Africa, trading manufactured goods such as rum, textiles, weapons, and gunpowder for slaves. From Africa, the ship went along the Atlantic to America, distributing slaves, and bringing agricultural products such as coffee, cotton, rice, and sugar back to Europe. The entire route typically lasted eighteen months. The slave trade ended in 1867, seventeen years after Britain began arresting slave ships.
The Atlantic Slave Trade caused many important effects on the involved parts of the world from 1492 to 1750. In both Africa and the Americas, there were large trade profits from the slave trade. For example, the triangular trade system that the Americas and Africa were a part of brought slaves to the Americas, and also indirectly provided Africa with European manufactured goods, like guns. The use
Several slaves preferred to jump from the boats and die in deep sea than being brought to countries like America and being traded like animals by slave owners. Approximately 12 million slaves were transported to the Americas between the 17th and 19th century in the so called “Trans-Atlantic slave trade”. Portugal was one of the first countries to transport Africans to America to work as slaves in sugar plantations in Cape Verde. This essay will focus on the processes that originated the Atlantic slave trades, how slavery emerged in the United states, and in the post-slavery life of African Americans.
The transatlantic slave trade which took place during the mid-seventeenth century until the late eighteenth century is observed as one of the largest forced migrations (Lewis, et Al., 2009, 2). The discovery of the America’s pursued by European nations led to the uncovering of significant luxury goods and precious metals such as sugar, coffee, and gold (Eltis, 2008, 1). The slave trade resulted in African slaves that were trafficked from Africa to the America’s to be used as labor supply to mass produce these goods on plantations set up along the coast. These luxury products in its primary form were produced at these plantations and were transported back to Europe to satisfy the high demand for luxury goods (Eltis, 2008, 4).
The transatlantic slave trade was an economic system involving all the major European maritime nations, most notably the British North American colonies, which prevailed from the sixteenth century and went effectively unchallenged for three centuries. It was often known as the Atlantic Triangular Slave Trade due to its three-sided route in connecting the peoples and economies of three continents – Europe, Africa, and the Americas. A variety of manufactured goods from Europe were traded with an enormous number of people in Africa to be imported and work under a harsh labouring environment of the
The Trans-Atlantic Trade was a complicated system of commerce between Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the eighteenth century. All three continents had different supplies and demands that were subsequently traded throughout the regions involved. The Trans-Atlantic trade was caused by the increasing demand for luxury items from Europe and Africa, eventually resulting in slavery and cultural diffusion throughout the entire world.