Transatlantic Slave Trade Dbq Essay

Prior to the movement of European Imperialism in Africa, a major law was passed. In 1807, the British government banned the Transatlantic slave trade. As a result, in 1833, slavery as a whole was completely demolished. Slavery was a very profitable trade for not only Britain, but many other European powers. Without the slave trade, many European nations were looking for a new way to expand their power of others. Therefore, many European nations switched their focus and claimed their share of the African continent, in order to continue their economic and social dominance (Document A).

The act of slavery was already happening in Africa prior to The Atlantic Slave Trade. The slave trade provided no restrictions, this caused chaos in both Africa and America. Africans captured slaves and as the demand grew getting slaves became a motivation for war. This lead to internal conflict in Africa that can still be seen today. An article in The Abolition Project did a good job summing up this statement, “Forms of slavery existed in Africa before Europeans arrived. Some

During the nineteenth century, Europe was scrambling to colonize Africa. Before the year 1880, Europe controlled only ten percent of Africa. However, due to the Industrial Revolution and its inventions, Europe obtained the means to go into Africa and take what they wanted. Some countries wanted the raw materials from Africa while others thought that by taking control of the land, it would show how they were superior to other nations and would gain respect. Some Europeans thought that because they were superior it was their duty to help the Africans. European powers scrambled to colonize Africa because they wanted respect, to strengthen the economy, and to civilize the Africans.

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 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.

Originally, the Europeans wanted little to do with Africa; that all changed when they found slathers of natural resources. Natural resources were very appealing to greedy Europeans, so naturally they would try to go to, or colonize, areas with them. "At the same time, the nature of European interest in Africa changed dramatically. Impressed by the continent's abundant supply of natural resources, Europeans sought to exploit* the potential wealth. To achieve this goal, they attempted to overpower African peoples and force them to accept foreign rule," (Colonialism in Africa). These resources were worth a lot, and if they had the areas with such resources the Europeans would be very wealthy.

During the late 1800s; European powers, such as France, Germany and Britain were the main powers in Africa. Many countries were in competition for high power and land resources in Africa. African groups were very small when Europe came there. This profusion of weak and small tribes made overtaking easy for the more advanced and experienced Europeans,

”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.

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.

Many different races once considered Africa, as a continent that could not support itself since Africans were savages who were not able to prosper on their own. Because of this, life was not easy for Africans and their way of living was very mediocre. Africans’ weakness eventually became evident to the other nations of the world. The European system for instance, fortunately for them, decided to take control of Africa. This was a decision that benefited them financially as they exploited the richness that Africa enfolded. Although many Europeans believed that Africans were much more inferior to them because of their skin color, they knew the significance of the richness that Africa’s soil could give them. It is true that the European’s

The driving forces behind European imperialism in Africa was the Partitions of Africa, African Colonies and their exports, and Great Britain and south Saharan Africa imports and exports. During the 1800’s Africa was under many European colonies rule and certain colonies used very cruel punishments for the natives that lived there. Imperialism started as Europeans wanted to expand into new African territories. After more European colonies sailed to africa they demanded their fair share of land and started a new system to keep peace among the colonies, in order to divide them evenly. Malaria slowed down the process of seizing colonies in africa. During the transatlantic slave trade, slaves were transported and forced to do hard labor.

Long before European slavers arrived on the West African coast line, Africans had traded with Europeans through middle traders in North Africa. The practice of slavery was common as well but in a different form. Most enslaved people were serving punishment of crimes or captured in battle. There were cases in which slaves could work to buy their freedom, and children from enslaved people were not automatically slaves later on. This type of slavery was a norm, and the mentality about it seemed fair in that

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

European nations shifted their interest from Africa’s gold to work due to many reasons; First they in need of cheap and large labor to match their products in their market. The African slaves were cheaper as compared to other continents and thus could be acquired in large numbers. In addition, African slaves were energetic and very resistance to infections and diseases. Besides this slave trade was being practiced in Africa and thus it was easy for the European nations to introduce the chattel slave. African slaves when shipped to the European Nations, they were taken to have a slave status, thus it was easy to maintain their slave status of blacks. There also lacked escape routes for African slaves and no where they could effectively

The transatlantic slave trade essentially laid the foundation for modernized capitalism as we know it today, creating inconceivable wealth for corporations, business enterprises, and families in America and Europe. The trade assisted to the overall industrialization of Europe and created an inter-connected Atlantic world that was made up of Western Europe, Western Africa, the Caribbean islands, and North/South America. Consequently, the staggering impact on Africa of its participation in the creation of this capitalistically driven modern world was unfavorable to say the least. The continent of Africa loss a tremendous part of its strong, healthy, sturdy population, which played a significant role in the societal and political crippling of its infrastructure that left them vulnerable, in the nineteenth century, to colonial exploitation and domination. According to Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro from the book Black Wealth/White Wealth: A new perspective on racial inequality “Disparities in wealth between blacks and whites are not the product of haphazard events, inborn traits, isolated incidents or solely contemporary individual