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A new outlet for Aftrican slaves appeared in the 15th century. Portuguese explorers began voyages south along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Portuguese were looking for a route to Asia, but as they moved south they began setting up trading posts. First the Portuguese established trading posts along the coast of West Africa, but gradually moved further south along the coast. Other European maritime powers followed suit. This was the beginning of the African slave trade. The Europeans differed from the Arabs in that they did not normally conduct raids themselves, but usually bougth slaves from Arab slave brokers and African chiefs. Europeans built trading post and forts all along the coast of West Africa. From Senegal south to Cameroons there were about 60 forts that served as trading posts for the slave trade. The Europeans exchanged rum, cloth, guns, and other trade goods for their human cargo. The slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean primarily to Brazil, the West Indies and the English colonies in North America. Imense fortues were made in the trade. As the demand for slaves expanded, whole areas of Africa were depopulated. Scholars estimate that 10-15 million Africans were transported to the New World. The European African slave trade began during the mercantalist era. It continued well into the industrial era. In fact because African slaves played a major role in the industrial revolution in Europe. The ememse profits from West Indian sugar islands helped to finance the industrial revolution. And the raw material for the first real modern industry, cotton textiles, was produced by slaves. The slave trade was finally ended by the Royl Navy in the mid-19th century.
The African political structure is difficukt to describe over the very long period in which the Arab slave trade in Africa took place. The rrade was conducted over 12 centuries, roughly from 650-1900. It is important, however, to roughly sketch the political structure to understand the environment in which both Europeans and Arabs conducted the slave trade. The Arabs conquered North Africa from a very early stage of the Islamic expansion. Arab traders penetrated into sub-Saharan Africa through desert caravans, the Nilr River, and by estanlish trading postas along the Indian coast of the continent. The black African kingdoms they encountered as they moved into the interior varied over time. Europeans had little access to Africa, blocked for centuries by Arab control of North Africa. This only began to change in the 15th cenntury with the European voyages of discovery with the Portuguese edgeing their way down the African coast. Like the Arabs along the Indian Ocean coast, European influence along the Atlantic coast was first limited to coastal regions.
A new outlet for Aftrican slaves appeared in the 15th century. Portuguese explorers began voyages south along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Portuguese were looking for a route to Asia, but as they moved south they began setting up trading posts. First the Portuguese established trading posts along the coast of West Africa, but gradually moved further south along the coast. Other European maritime powers followed suit. While the Europeans were primarily interested in trading with Asia, they found some profits to be had from Africa. This was the beginning of the African slave trade. Initially there was only a minor imact on Africa. The primary interest of the Europeans was gold. Slaves were initially of only minor importance.
Histories of the Atlantic slave trade commonly begin with Columbus and the discovery of the Americas (1492). The trade actually begun earlier. The Portuguese began moving south along the copast of Africa (early 15th centurty). As they moved south they set of trading posts and among the goods traded was captived Afreicans who they enslaved. These voyages were done in great secrecy. Some historians believe that it was the Portuguese who really discovered the America, but kept it secret. Note how Brazil juts out into the Atlsntic Ocean. It seems likely that they would have signted Brazil. As this is not even considering the Portuguese fishermen operating in the North Atlantic. Whether they actually discovered the Americas can not be proven, but it us clear that their movement south along the coast of Africa was the origin of the slave trade.
While the Portugues sailed south, Christopher Columbus convinced Queen Isabela and King Ferdinand to finance a voyage west. The result was the discovery of the Americas (1492). The Spanish were interested primarily in gold and found immense quantities in Peru and Mexico. South America was divided between Spain and Portugal. The Spanish suceeded in turning the Native Americans in Mexico and Peru into a basically enslaved labor force. In the West Indies, however, the Spanish largely exterminated the Native population. As a result they began importing Africans as slave labor. The Portuguese did the same. The islands of the West Indies assumed emense economic importabce when sugar was intrduced. Other European naval powers seized ilands from the Spanish (Denmark, England, France, and the Netherlands). The profitability of sugar created a huge demand for African slaves.
The Portuguese built the first fort in Africa at Arguin in present day Mauritania (1448).
The profits achieved by the Portuguese attracted the interest of other larger European powers. Traders from other countries in the 16th century estanlished rival trading stations and in some cases seized the Portuguese trading stations. Spain began the slave trade (1479). England entered the slave trade (1562). Other countries gradually joined in the rade: the Netherlands(1625), France (1642); Sweden (1647); and Denmark (1697). From Senegal south to Cameroons there were about 60 forts that served as trading posts for the slave trade. The Europeans differed from the Arabs in that they did not normally conduct raids themselves, but usually bougth slaves from Arab slave brokers and African chiefs. Europeans built trading post and forts all along the coast of West Africa. The Europeans exchanged rum, cloth, guns, and other trade goods for their human cargo. Imense fortues were made in the trade.
Most Afro-Americans have, however, have descended from peoples brought to America by force as part of the Atlantic slave trade. The great majority thus came from West and Central Africa. Some of the first slaves came from what is modern Senegal and Gambia. Gradually slaves were accessed from locations further south alonf the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. And finally slaves began flowing in from cental Africa (Kingdom of the Kongo). This included some slaves from Angola. [Lovejoy]
Slaves from southern Africa largely went to Brazil, in part becuse of geography and also because Angola and Mozambique were Portuguese colonies. Some Angolans did reach America, but most cme from West Africa. Slaves frm East Africa were mostly involved with the Arab slave trade network. Slave masters in certain areas durng the 18th century often had preferences as to the origins of slaves. These oprefereces varied from place to place. For the most part such references gradually declined with the ending of the slave trade in Britain and the United States (1807). By the time of Emancipation in the United states (1863), few slave masters or slaves had any idea about orgins. Here Alex Haley's ground-breaking book Roots helped to raise interest anong Afro-Americans as to their origins. Here DNA work can provide indicators, however, most modern Afro-Americans are descended from ancestos who have intermarried without any concern for origins and thus have mixed tribal backgrounds.
The numbers of Africans tranported to the New World is not known with any accuracy. Scholars debate the actual numbers. The American Constitution included provisions ending the slave trade and the British Royal Navy played a major in supressing it in the 19th century. Thus by about 1840 the slave trade to the New World had been reduced to relatively small numbers. Scholars believe, however, that about 10-15 million Africans were transported to the New World. While scholars may debate the actual figure, most will estimates fall in the 10-15 million range. This is a staggering figure as it far exceeds the number of Europeans who came to the New World. (The number of Europeans increased substantially beginning in the 1840s with the Irish because of the Potato Famine and many other countries after the Civil War.) What is staggering about this figure is that European immigration before 1840 titaled only about 2 million. Here figures are again not precise, but much more reliable than data on African slaves. The obvious question is why was the European population in the Americas so much higher if in fact so many more Africans were transported to the New World. The answer is unavoidable. Huge numbers of Africans died both in the passage to America and as a result of overwork and abuse as slaves in America. No fact more eloquently puts to lie the long held myth that slavery in the American south was benign. (Conditions on Caribbean and Brazilian plantations were iften even worse.)
The slaves were transported across the Atlantic Ocean primarily to Brazil, the West Indies and the English colonies in North America. Most African slaves were transported to Brazil and the West Indies. About 90 percent are believed to have been trasported to these two areas. Only about 10 percent were tansported to North America.
The Europen African slave trade was primarily a trans-Atlantic traffic. The Indian Ocean slave trade was dominated by the Arab Sultan of Zanzibar. Europeans (the French abd Portuguese) were also involved to a lesser degree. Most of the slaves taken were worked in EastAfrican plantations by the Sultan. Most of the remaunder were sold in Middle Eastern markets. The Mozambique slaves weresold to French plantation owners. Some of the India Ocean traffic, especially the Mozambique slaves entered the Atlantic slave trade. Many were transported to Brazil.
The Portuguese as they pushed south along the coast of West Africa were the first Europeans to come into contact with the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus when Portugal and Spain established the first American colonies, they first introduced Africans as a labor source in the New World. It was sugar that first made slavery important and Caribbean sugar islands became enormously important. The European countries which conquered native American civilizations in the 16th century enslaved millions in Brazil and South America to work in mines and the tremendously profitable sugar plantations. The conditions were so brutal and European disesases so virlulent that native American populations were descimated. The Spanish and Portuguese turned Africans. Millions of Africans were transported across the Atlantic and sold into slavery in the Americas. Slavery in earlier epochs had no racial connotations. With the growth of the African slave trade, slavery in the Western mind became associated with race as with the collapse of Native American populations, it was Africans who were enslaved in huge numbers. European Christian who would not have tolerated the enslavement of other Europeans found little objection to enslaving black Africans.
The impact on Africa is difficult to assess because there are so few historical recirds. The slave trade profoundly affected the structure of African political organization. Established trade routes shifted. Important trade routes went north to the Sahara and east to Arab-controlled Indian Ocean ports. The demand for slaves by Europeans redirected trade west to the new European trading stations along the Atalntic coast. As a result, the African states of the savanna declined as coastal states increased in wealth and importance. Conflict escalated among coastal peoples trying to control trade routes. Of great importance was access to European firearms. Captives taken in war could be readily sold to the Europeans. As the demand for slaves expanded, there are reports of whole areas of Africa being depopulated.
The European African slave trade began during the mercantalist era. It continued well into the industrial era. In fact because African slaves played a major role in the industrial revolution in Europe. The ememse profits from West Indian sugar islands helped to finance the industrial revolution. And the raw material for the first real modern industry, cotton textiles, was produced by slaves.
African slavery became well estanlished in European colonies, including French colonies, during the 17th century. African slavery was an important economic institition by the 18th century, especially important for the Caribbean sugar islands which were a major element in Western European economies. France lost most of its empire to the British, but retained imporant Caribbean islands. Liberty was a byword of the French Revolution as it had been in the American Revolution. But like the Americans, the leaders of the French Revolution did not move toward abolition. In America any step toward abolition during the Revolution or the frameing of the Constitution would have meant disunion as it would have been unacceptable to the southern colonies. In France it appears to redlect the bouergoise character of the Revolution and the economic importance of Caribbean slavery to the French economy. While France did not move toward abolition, the Revolution did have substantial reverbreations, both in the Caribbean and in England which affected slavery. Neither the Revolutionaries or Napoleon moved yoward abolition. Neither did the restored French momarchy after the Naoleonic Wars. This in fact posed a problen for Britain which after abolishing slavery gave the Royal Navy the task of ending the Atalantic slave trade.
The United States banned the importation of slaves (1808). There was, however, only minimal enforcement. It was the Royal Navy that eventually ended the slave trade. The slave trade had been a lynch pin in thr triangular trade that has been a key element of the British economy and helped bring great wealth to Britain. It had in part helped to finance the growth of the Royal Navy. The expansion of the British merchant fleet under the protection of the Royal Navy resulted in Britain dominating the slave trade by the 18th century. British ships beginning about 1650 are believed to have transported as many as 4 million Africans to the New Wiorld and slavery. The British Parliament during the Napoleonic Wars banned the slave trade (1807). This was a decession made on moral grounds after a long campaign in Britain against slavery at considerable cost at a time of War. After Trafalgur (1805) the powerful British Royal Navy could intercept suspected slave ships under belligerent rights. After the cesation of hostilities this became more complicated. The only internationally recognized reason for boarding foreign ships was suspected piracy. Thus Britain had to persue a major diplomatic effort to convince other countries to sign anti-slavery treaties which permitted the Royal Navy to board their vessels if suspected of transporting slaves. Nearly 30 countries eventually signed these treaties. The anti-slavery effort required a substantial effort on the part of the Royal Navy. The major effort was carried out by the West Coast of Africa Station which the Admiralty referred to as the ‘preventive squadron’. The Royal Navy from this station for 50 years conducted operations to intercept slavers. At the peak of these operartions abour 25 ships and 2,000 officers and men were deployed. There were about 1,000 Kroomen, African sailors, operating West African Station. The Royal Navy deployed smaller, shallow draft vessels so that slavers could be persued in shallow waters. Britain also targeted African leaders who engaged in the slave trade. A British forced in one operation deposed the King of Lagos (1851). The climate and exposure to filthy diseased laden slave ships made the West African station dangerous. The officers and men were rewarded with Prize money for both freeing slaves and capturing the ships. The Royal Navy's task in East Africa and the Indian Ocean was even more difficult. This was in part because of the support for slavery among Islamic powers (both Arabian and Persian). The slave trade persisted into the 1860s, in part because of the continued existence of slavery in the United states. Eventhough thecslave trade was outlawed in America, the American Navy was not used to aggresively inters=dict the slave trade. This did not change until President Lincoln signed the Right of Search Treaty in 1862, a year before the Emancipation Proclamation. The Cuban trade ended (1866).
Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
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