Around 1500, people in the Americas began needing cheap labor so they started using enslaved Africans on their farms and plantations. The spread of Islam into Africa began causing an increase in slavery and also slave trade. Between 650 and 1600, Muslims transported about 17 million Africans to North America and Southwest Asia. Slaves did have some legal rights and an opportunity …show more content…
The first Europeans to explore Africa were the Portuguese in the 1400´s. Portuguese were first more interested in trading for gold than captured Africans. With the colonization of the Americas, natives died very quickly and the Portuguese began needing Africans to help with their work. Portugal was responsible for transporting over 4.5 million Africans. Europeans saw many advantages in using Africans in the Americas for many reasons. For one, Africans had been exposed to so many European diseases that they had built up some immunity. Secondly, the Africans also had experience in farming and could be taught plantation work easily. They also were less likely to escape because they did not know this land as well as their home land. Lastly, their skin color made them easier to catch so they couldn't escape or try to live among others. The Atlantic slave trade became a massive enterprise for the buying and selling of Africans for work in the Americas. Nearly 300,000 Africans were transported to the Americas in a one hundred year span. Then in …show more content…
It existed in societies all around the world. Race was not always a factor in slavery even though many people may feel it played a big role. They were often captured due to a different nationality of religion. The slavery that developed in the Americas was based largely on race and it was also hereditary. Many African rulers and merchants were important in the Atlantic slave trade. African merchants even captured Africans to be enslaved. After this, the enslaved Africans were then delivered to the Europeans in return for gold, guns, and other goods. The slave trade steadily grew. After African men and women were captured, they were shipped to the Americas as a profitable trade network. Millions of Africans died. The Africans that were transported to the Americas were on a trading network known as the triangular trade. The triangular trade route carried a variety of traded goods that they would sell in the West Indies, England, Europe, and Africa. On one of the trade routes, Europeans transported manufactured goods to the west coast of Africa. The traders here then exchanged these goods for captured Africans. After this, the Africans were transported across the Atlantic and sold to people in the West Indies. Merchants would usually buy things such as sugar, coffee, and tobacco in the West Indies and then would sail to Europe to sell these products. On one other trade route, merchants would carry rum and other