Question

Question #25133

Answer 1

The Transatlantic Slave Trade began with the Portuguese in the 1400s, but really took off in the 17th Century as Europe's appetite for tobacco, rice, cotton, sugar, and indigo grew.

Explanation:

The Transatlantic African Slave Trade began in the 15th Century, as the first Portugese explorers went down Africa's Atlantic coast. Portugal had retained the institution of slavery up until the 1400s, due to its long encounter with the Islamic World, and was prepared to tolerate African slavery once they made direct contact themselves.

Once Portugal (and then Spain) established colonies in South America and the Caribbean; they soon found that they needed labour to work new estates and make these colonies profitable. However, the indigenous peoples were dying like flies with their first exposure to the Old World's disease environment. Smallpox, for instance, was bad enough for Europeans, but the disease could kill the majority of an Indian population when they were first exposed to it. Black Africans were more used to the Old World's disease environment and lived longer.

By the end of the 16th Century, the demand for products from the New World was grew rapidly -- Indigo for dyes, tobacco, while some transplated Old World commodities like rice, sugar and cotton never grew that well in Europe. Ironically, Denge and Yellow Fever, as well as new strains of malaria also travelled to the Caribbean and South America with the African trade, and Africans were better able to withstand the effects of these diseases than either Europeans or the Aboriginal peoples.

Plantation agriculture soon became a vital industry, but the only workforce that could withstand the worst of the disease environment were African slaves. European 'indentured servants' and prisoners couldn't meet the demand, and the economics of the 'Triangle Trade' were enormously profitable. The 'Triangle consisted of cheap trade goods to Africa for slaves, to the New World for the new agricultural products, back to Europe for trade goods.

However, during the European 18th Century Enlightenment, more observers noted the brutal dehumanizing aspects of African slavery, and -- ever so slowly -- the Abolition Movement took on strength.