...European colonization led to certain countries in western Africa’s development in both positive and negative ways. The need for African slaves for Europeans came from a demand for a labor force to work the land in the Caribbean Islands. European colonization in Africa reaches back to Ghana in the late fourteenth century. From the fifteenth century and beyond, Ghana was a major slave exporter for the Europeans to the Caribbean and Europe. In Ghana, relationships were formed with political powers to produce and maintain European slave trading posts on its coast. The African response to European colonization varied. Middle and low class Africans suffered greatly as they supplied the slave force. In contrast, Africans who held power or were wealthy profited as they provided the slaves for trade. In both the past and Achebe’s novel, European colonization in Africa was both highly demanded and discouraged. Prior to colonizing for slave trade, Ghana was known as the “Gold Coast” to the Portuguese, Dutch, British, and English. (Richard, “The Gold Coast Slave Trade”) Only gold and resources were traded between Ghana and Europe. Similar to Sierra Leone, Europeans made their way to Ghana in the fifteenth century, building fortified trading posts along the “Gold Coast”. This area was militant protected which often caused conflicts with inhabitants. Europeans formed relationships with those in political power, which allowed them to colonize parts of Ghana, and also have a consistent source...
Words: 1638 - Pages: 7
...These natives got foreign diseases such as smallpox and many of them were killed off. This meant that no work would get done in the new world, as the europeans couldn't work in tropical climates as they would keel over or be worked to death. Malaria was also very important in these times. Many europeans died from malaria,...
Words: 1370 - Pages: 6
...Transatlantic Slave Trade took place in the Atlantic Ocean through the 15th – 19th century between America, Europe and Africa. The Trade blossomed due to the expansion of sugar production, causing a higher demand for Africans. The expansion of sugar production drove The Transatlantic Trade to prosper. But the Transatlantic Slave Trade did not begin the capturing of Africans, European were capturing Africans long before the slave traffic developed. The Portuguese were the first European that explored West Africa. When returning to Portugal they took 12 Africans as a gift back home to their king, this was one of the earliest experience of European seizing Africans. But did the transatlantic slave trade consist of European kidnapping slaves...
Words: 1493 - Pages: 6
...10. mercantilism (p. 468) Quiz #2 1. caravel (p. 384) 2. conquistadors (p. 394) 3. Columbian Exchange (p. 431) 4. maritime (p. 402) 5. manumission . (p.467) 6. coerced labor systems (p.475) 7. plantation cash crop (p.470) 8. tariffs (p.469) 9. indigenous (p.393) 10. encomiendas (p. 439) 11. serfs (p.529) 12. mestizo (pp. 442 – 45) Historical Thinking Skills: Periodization, Causation, Contextualization Timeline Exercise: Annotate the timeline with two facts about the important effects of each event Unit 3: 1450–1750 (Early Modern) 1453 Ottomans captured Constantinople; end of Byzantine 1450s Gutenberg’s Printing Press; Portuguese expand trade in West Africa: Benin, Kongo 1483 Babur conquered northern India, and founded the Mughal Empire 1492 Reconquista completed; Columbus claimed Americas for Spain 1498 Vasco da Gama attacked Calicut 1517 Martin Luther posted 95 theses...
Words: 8917 - Pages: 36
...difference is that, Atlantic slave trade was very important for 18 century World Economy, because it was one of the three elements of so-called Triangular trade, a three-way exchange between America, Europe, and Africa. European traders would ship textiles, muskets, and manufactured merchandize to Africa and exchange it for slaves. Then they would take slaves to the West to Americas and exchange them for cotton and tobacco, and sail home. On each side of the triangular trade ships made huge profits plus they carried different valuable merchandize from both African continent and the New World. Thus, Atlantic slave trade was vitally important for 18th century sailors . The origin of Atlantic slave trade – and slave trade in general – is mainly associated with the shortage of labor in the developing New World. Contemporary European population in the Americas was not sufficient to support the plans of development. Even criminals that were sentenced to labor ran away, and could easily blend into white masses forever. Native Americans were not efficient as slaves either, because they were not that numerous and did not have immunity for diseases brought to the New World by Europeans . In addition, native Americans could easily escape because they knew the land well, their home were close, and they knew how to survive in the adjacent territories . But labor requirements kept growing with the expansion of mining, harvesting, and growing. Thus, Europeans turned to African Continent...
Words: 1533 - Pages: 7
...1. Evaluate the complex interaction of cultures that resulted with the arrival of European explorers and colonies. Was this interaction more harmful or beneficial to both Europeans and Native Americans? The cultural interactions between the Europeans and the Native Americans were ultimately destructive for the natives, but overall beneficial for the Europeans. It is clearly stated in many history books that the European diseases brought over to the Americas decimated much of the native population. This dramatic loss of population affected the natives willingness to resist European assimilation, and thus contributed to the loss of many native cultures but a blending of European and native cultures. Furthermore, the natives were often...
Words: 1697 - Pages: 7
...Transatlantic Slave Trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The vast majority of slaves transported to the New World were Africans from the central and western parts of the continent, sold by Africans to European slave traders who then transported them to North and South America. The numbers were so great that Africans who came by way of the slave trade became the most numerous Old World immigrants in both North and South America before the late eighteenth century. The South Atlantic economic system centered on making goods and clothing to sell in Europe and increasing the numbers of African slaves brought to the New World. This was crucial to those European countries which, in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were vying with each other to create overseas empires. The evolution of slavery is crucial to understanding the importance of currently standing issues. Slavery began in 1440 when Portugal started to trade slaves with West Africa. The first Africans imported to the English colonies were also called “indentured servants” or “apprentices for life”. By the middle of the sixteenth century, they and their offspring were legally the property of their owners. As property, they were merchandise or units of labor, and were sold at markets with other goods and services. By the 17th century, Western Europeans developed an organized system of trading slaves. However...
Words: 1550 - Pages: 7
...Nowlin Professor’s name Course name Date due Thesis statement Europe underdeveloped Africa economically through their colonization of Africa and through the slave trade Introduction The current underdevelopment in Africa has been one of the biggest concerns facing the economists today. One of the reasons for such underdevelopments is the history of colonial exploitation and extraction and the slave trade. Empirical evidence shows that the underdevelopment has historical connections to the European colonisation (Rodney, 45). This paper analyzes how slave trade and colonisation led to underdevelopment of Africa. Analysis The Europeans invaded Africa at a time when the continent was endorsed with a lot of natural resources, which were still not yet exploited. When they started colonising the continent, they exploited these resources and send them back home to develop their continent. They made very little efforts to develop the African continent. This left the continent prone to underdevelopment due to the exploitation of the resources without any meaningful investment. Moreover, slavery and the slave trade led to a decreased number of people in the continent. The strong men from Africa were captured and sold for slave trade to work in the European farms. This left Africa with no people to work in the farms and the small industries. In fact, research by some scholars shows that population in Congo reduced by over 50% during...
Words: 1932 - Pages: 8
... the Europeans relied on them as a source of food, transportation, and for agriculture. Because of this, Europeans were always coming into close contact with animals and this caused the Europeans to contract many diseases from animals. “Hence when we domesticated social animals such as cows and pigs, they were already afflicted by epidemic diseases just waiting to be transferred to us” (AOD p.70). This clearly shows how coming into contact with domesticated animals caused many Europeans to develop life-threatening diseases. While the contact with animals was the primary source of disease, large populations in Western Europe due to agriculture also introduced crowd diseases. Overtime however, Europeans became...
Words: 1405 - Pages: 6
...Economically, slave trade lost many potential labor necessary for the economic development in Africa. Consequently, slave trade immensely affected the development of African economy and “retarded African commodity production. Additionally, although previously wars had produced tribute from the vanquished and captives to work for the victors, the surplus of captives reduced the incentives to keep the captives. Instead, they were sold for goods which were worth a fraction of what those people might have produced within their own lifetime. Finally, as those being sold were young, aged 14-35, and most productive labor for the continent, the slave trade had seriously impacted on the development of Africa during the 17th and 18th century. [1] Socially...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
...impact on how the world sees this continent. In particular, the transatlantic slave trade affected many African states and people in West Africa. The transatlantic slave trade had affected many African societies and states in various ways. The reason for slave trade was due to the improper climate of European land for the production of sugar. Sugar in Europe was a rising commodity that Europeans did not have the labor and land for. When the Europeans were on route to Asia for spice trade, the weather would blow their ships to the west coast of Africa. Knowing that the Europeans were in not in Asia, they set to explore the continent of...
Words: 885 - Pages: 4
...humiliating. In particular, there is one which has been historically long lasting; the Transatlantic African slave trade. This long and grueling migration paved the way for new races and culture. African Americans thrive all over the world but unfortunately descendants from this race did not come to the Americas on their own free will. A world altering voyage and conquest took shape when Christopher Columbus traveled and discovered the Americas in 1492 (1). Historically true, the America’s took shape but not without risk, sacrifice, or discrimination of a divine civilization. Columbus was on venture seeking route to Asia, in turn; found an untouched land devoured by Native Americans (2). Being distracted new ideas and opportunities, he reset is path. The mark of the Columbian Exchange happened; bringing the eventual commerce of food, disease, culture, power and new races (3). All of the changes were not as promising or good. The transatlantic slave trade brought new life but also brought darker times. Columbus didn’t develop this concept, he actually adapted to it. Although, slavery in the America’s was a forced and free transition, the continent of Africa provided the part of the migrating idea: African slavery and slave trading existed long before European disclosure (4). Since the concept was adapted from one of the countries who defined slavery long before the 19th century, slaves adhered to slavers or masters; this was also contributed from Africa. Men, women and children...
Words: 1239 - Pages: 5
...a man who helped spark a holocaust situation of the people of America and the Atlantic slave trade. Furthermore, Columbus never set foot on the land we call the United States, nor was the first explorer to reach the "new world". Columbus's arrival in the new world was proceeded by the explorer Leif Ericson and others. The true discoverers of the land Columbus encountered are the ancestors of the native people who were living there when he arrived. Unfortunately, the public education system of the United States has failed to teach the entire truth about Christopher Columbus. All they know about is how the three ships sailed across the ocean blue. Little do they know about the mass murder, mass rape, enslavement, torture and the spread of Christianity using their swords. Columbus Day shouldn't be worth celebrating or having parades for. Columbus's "discovery" led directly to torturing and killing innocent souls on the island of Hispaniola. Initially, Bartolome de Las Casas states about the Europeans, "they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that the most powerful ruler of his island had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer" (Bartolome de Las Casas). In other words, the Europeans had no feelings towards the Natives and treated them like they owned them, which no one deserves to be treated like that anyday. Secondly, according to Bartolome de Las Casas, the Europeans, "...spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women... not only stabbing...
Words: 1219 - Pages: 5
...Americans faced in both allying with and waging war against European settlers. Be sure to reference different regions. From the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century, Britain was at many wars with France, Netherlands, and Spain. These nations dragged the Native Americans into their power struggles as the wars reached the New World. Native Americans faced challenges to trade, peace, and relations with each other and with European settlers in both allying with and waging war against European settlers. However, a few turned these challenges to their advantage. In allying with one European country and not the other, Native Americans faced hostility and conflicts with the other. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain was fighting both France and Spain. It allied with the Creek Indians in the Carolinas to attack Spanish settlements in the New World, specifically Spanish Florida. This alliance with Britain resulted in Spanish aggression towards the Creeks. However, even the alliance with Britain could not stop hostility between the English settlers and the Creeks; the Creeks rebelled against the English settlers after the latter ordered the natives to pay trade debts. Farther up north in the New England region, Mohawk Indians allied with the...
Words: 1530 - Pages: 7
...happens though, when nothing is familiar? When nothing is comfortable? It is in this situation that Olaudah Equiano found himself. In European eyes he was a domesticated animal that simply acted well trained, and just like an animal after Equiano has been “domesticated” he would never be welcomed back by his people as one of them. Each group may have tolerated him, but he never again belong to either one of them. In the beginning Equiano was simply average. A normal child in his nation, not worth paying any extra attention to. He started growing up as every male in his village did, learning the same skills and the same beliefs. It is common knowledge that people are most impressionable at a young age. In addition to all of that, generally the most influential people in a child’s life are their parents. Think of how many times you have heard a kid said, “I want to be just like my dad when I grow up.” So should not this be the society that Equiano identifies himself most closely with? It almost seems laughable to think that any African (free or enslaved) could see himself part of European society during the slave trade. Yet there are many arguments that can be made to show that Equiano actually did believe himself to be a sort of “adopted European”. One such justification that is often brought up is religion. After living with Europeans Equiano is converted from whatever his people believed in to Christianity. It is difficult for many people in present times to grasp...
Words: 1015 - Pages: 5
