...Height of slave trade A Point of No Return in Ouidah, Benin, a former gateway for slaves to slave ships. Slavery had long been practiced in Africa.[38][39] Between the 7th and 20th centuries, Arab slave trade (also known as slavery in the East) took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World. In West Africa, the decline of the Atlantic slave trade in the 1820s caused dramatic economic shifts in local polities. The gradual decline of slave-trading, prompted by a lack of demand for slaves in the New World, increasing anti-slavery legislation in Europe and America, and the British Royal Navy's increasing presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West Africa Squadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Action was also taken against African leaders who refused to agree to British treaties to outlaw the trade, for example against "the usurping King of Lagos", deposed in 1851. Anti-slavery treaties were signed with over 50 African rulers. The largest powers of West Africa (the Asante Confederacy, the Kingdom of Dahomey, and the Oyo Empire) adopted different ways of adapting to the shift. Asante and Dahomey concentrated on the development of "legitimate commerce" in the form of palm oil...
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...Africa before the Transatlantic Slave Trade Racist views of Africa In the last 50 years much has been done to combat the entirely false and negative views about the history of Africa and Africans, which were developed in Europe in order to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and European colonial rule in Africa that followed it. In the eighteenth century such racist views were summed up by the words of the Scottish philosopher David Hume, who said, ‘I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or in speculation. No ingenious manufacture among them, no arts, no sciences”. In the nineteenth century the German philosopher Hegel simply declared ‘Africa is no historical part of the world.’ This openly racist view, that Africa had no history, was repeated by Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oxford University, as late as 1963. Africa, the birthplace of humanity We now knowWe now know that far from having no history, it is likely that human history actually began in Africa. The oldest evidence of human existence and that of our immediate ancestors has been found in Africa. In July 2002 further evidence of the existence of early hominids in Africa was found with the discovery of the fossilised remains of what has been called Sahelanthropus tchadensis, thought to be between 6-7 million years old, in Chad. The latest...
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...Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade took place from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. During the Atlantic Slave Trade between twelve to twenty million slaves were brought to the Americas from Africa. An estimated two million Africans did not make it across the Atlantic to the Americas. The Atlantic Slave Trade was part of the Triangular Trade; trade that went from Europe to Africa on to the Americas then back to Europe, creating a triangular shape across the Atlantic Ocean. Millions of slaves were forced to come to the Americas from their home in Africa. This had many effects on not only Africa and the Americas, but the rest of the world also. So, what were the effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade? The biggest effect the Atlantic Slave Trade had was the help in the development of the Americas. Population loss and social disruption from trade caused the underdevelopment of Africa. The culture in the Americas also changed as the slaves brought their culture with them. Although there were many negative effects from the Atlantic Slave Trade there were also some positive ones. The slaves had a large impact on the development in the Americas as they caused the growth in agriculture and the economy. If the slaves were not brought over to the Americas, the development would not have been as fast or large. Because they were forced to work long hours and do jobs nobody else wanted to do. Because they were cheap labor, landowners could buy many so there would be more slaves to work...
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...The continent of Africa has faced many challenges throughout history. The challenges Africa and African states have faced have had a significant 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...
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...THE SLAVE TRADE Portugal and Spain were the first to take advantage of the Age of Exploration. The two countries began their colonial activities in the fifteenth century and became great colonial powers. Later, in the seventeenth century, the Dutch, followed by the French and then the British joined in the colonization activities. The Portuguese sailed around Africa as part of their exploration activities, and their main objective was to find a route to the Spice Islands. The Spice Islands are a group of islands in eastern Indonesia. Although the initial objective of the Portuguese sailing around Africa was to find a route to the Spice Islands, they later realized that they could make some gains or profits from Africa itself. Due to this new idea, the Portuguese constructed forts on both the western and eastern coasts of Africa. One of the economic interests of the Portuguese after they had settled on the coasts of Africa was to dominate and control the trade in gold, which was an important natural resource in Africa. Later in the seventeenth century, the Dutch took control of a number of the Portuguese forts as well as much of the Portuguese trade across the Indian Ocean. The Origins of the Slave Trade Slavery was being practised in the world long before the colonisation of Africa by Europe. You would recall that in our study of the First Civilisations, we came across slaves. Before the Europeans came to Africa in the fifteenth century, most of the slaves that existed were prisoners...
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...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 to supply them with slaves. European colonization of Ghana, ripped the country...
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...effects of the Triangular Trade on Africa Citizens around the world know little history regarding slavery and slave trade despite the fact that slaves were African Americans who not only worked for free but were treated terribly, many individuals lack the knowledge of how slavery was originated and greatly impacted regions of the world. The Triangular trade was a trading method established by the Europeans hundreds of years ago. It’s referred to as the Triangular Trade because it consists of trade with Africa, America, and Europe creating a triangular route of trade. This system was developed to fulfill the needs of each country and to become industrialized. The Triangular Trade caused extreme complication and effected Africa in numerous ways. On the first leg of the trip European merchants went to Africa to trade their household goods in return for a desired number of slaves, Then shipped the slaves to America on what was known was the Middle Passage where they were sold for cash and bought tobacco, rum, sugar and cotton back to Europe where these products were sold for outstanding profits. This trading method was very successful because African Americans already practiced slavery in Africa and America was in high demand for laborers to work the sugar cane plantations and make profit trading the finished product to Europe. “The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New...
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...changed once brought into Africa. This also worked the other way around. Africa spread its influence to others as slaves were transported to other areas, some more than others. The Portuguese went to west Africa until they reached the Cape of Good Hope to make factories, forts and trading areas with merchants. An example of a factory is El Mina, and these factories allowed control over the certain area. The Portuguese gave goods and sometimes slaves in return for African ivory, pepper, animal skins, and gold. Lançados at the interior were to help with economy. Missionaries were made to convert,...
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...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...
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...Ryan 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%...
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...million kidnapped Africans were forced into the Transatlantic slave trade and shipped to the Americas, only a little over 10 million made it. The Transatlantic slave trade was a small segment of the popular global slave trade network and was responsible for the deaths of over two point two million future slaves. This mass kidnapping of oblivious Africans occurred across the Atlantic from the early sixteenth to nineteenth century and was the second part of the “Triangular Trade”. The Triangular Trade or Triangle Trade was a trading system between Europe, Africa, and the North America in which commodities such as arms, slaves, sugar, and coffee were transported between the three nations (Lewis). The...
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...In Africa, Europe and the Middle East all had slavery going on and had similarities to the forms of slavery that was used on the slaves. These three areas were really important because that’s where it all started. Slavery began in 1492 in Africa because of the trade across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic sea which led to slaves into Italy, Spain, Southern France and Portugal. Then slavery in the middle east began right after and then soon came along slaves in America. All of these different countries had slavery, but how are they all the same? Chattel Slavery is one form of slavery which went into America from the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Since the Africans were property, chattel was the only way Europeans could become richer than Africans...
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...Slave, after slave, after slave, were being forced out of Africa to be shipped across the Atlantic to the New world. Commonly known as the African Slave Trade. Little did they know they would involuntarily be living a life of servitude and apprenticing. Although the action of slave trade had existed once before throughout Africa, it had never been this large of an epidemic in the Atlantic World - beginning in the 16th century, and effecting more people and places than expected. Colonizers who had discovered land in North and South America, and in the Caribbean Islands were in need for cheap labor. The founders of the land needed slaves to work in the tobacco, sugar, and cotton plantations, gold and silver mines, as well as domestic servants....
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...11/22/08 A Block: Slavery Slaves As a Commodity The Transatlantic Slave Trade opened a global marketing system when Portugal had an importing business. The “product” of this industry was slaves from West Africa. This business did extremely well since North America, also known as the “New World”, had an unreliable work force. Before Africans were used, Europeans relied on indentured servants. They would have a sentence of about four years work with no pay after that time they had to be freed and paid to work. Other people were used as slaves such as Native Americans and Caucasians but they were killed by diseases that foreigners carried which their immune system could not handle. A lot of people feel that slavery does not exist anymore, but if slavery is making people work for little to no money and taking away some of their rights then sweat shops is slavery. In this paper, I will show how profitable the Transatlantic Slave Trade was. I will prove this first by acknowledging how many places were involved with the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Second, I will explain how other trades affected slavery. Third, I will show how we still use sweatshops as a form of slavery today. The Transatlantic Slave Trade supplied the main base of the New World’s economy. The majority ships that sailed yearly for Africa were from the city of Newport. A little over sixty percent of North American voyages that involved the Transatlantic Slave Trade were founded in Rhode Island because...
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...topic, in general focusing on the Atlantic Slave Trade and those who were enslaved in the Americas. Of particular interest to many recent historians is the fact that black Africans have been experiencing forced settlement outside of Africa for centuries prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Slaves have established a presence in many different urban and rural areas of the world including, Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Europe. Ibn Khaldun has been quoted, “history is information about human social organization and that there were two basic forms of human social organization: urban and rural.” Through urban and rural settings, one can understand the development of African slavery outside of the Africa and excluding the Americas. In ancient times Africans traveled as merchants, sailors, soldiers, and adventurers across the Red and Mediterranean Seas and the Indian Ocean. Africans and Arabs long interacted in the urban areas of Egypt, the Sudan, and across the Red Sea and shared common values and customs. The Arabian Peninsula seems to have the earliest African contact, with Ethiopian traders settling on the peninsula long before the Romans came. Not much is known how these slaves were captured but they were seemingly traded along the Horn of Africa, in urban trading post set up by traders. Furthermore, during the expansion of Islam after the 7th century AD, ushered in the first large-scale movement of black Africans outside of Africa as free and as well as enslaved. A number...
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