Sub Saharan Slave Trade and Europeans Effect

There are two sides to people who blame Europeans for introducing regimes of labor exploitation and markets for enslaved persons from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century, which devastated African societies and those who argue Europeans that had extended older social, economic and political arrangements that already existed in most of Africa. From the class discussions and reading my opinion of the issue is Europeans just commercialized and exploited the slave trading business, so Europeans should not be at fault for starting the slave trade. Slavery has been practiced for almost the all of recorded history; the African slave trade has left a legacy which cannot be ignored. Slavery existed within sub-Saharan African societies before the arrival of Europeans. The internal trade was conducted within the African continent itself. It involved trade between North Africa and West Africa. Africans were exposed to several forms of slavery over the centuries, including slavery under both the Muslims with the sub-Saharan slave trade slave trade, and Europeans through the trans-Atlantic slave trade. For my research topic I will explore the sub-Saharan slave trade though western African kingdoms of the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and Songhai Empire and how the Europeans effected and expanded slavery in western Africa to the newly founded America. This topic means a great deal to me because in the past I was unaware of the details of the sub-Saharan slave trade and what exactly went on in these early African Kingdoms before the Europeans arrived. Trans-Saharan trade, between Mediterranean countries and West Africa, was an important trade route from the eighth century until the late sixteenth century. The powerful kingdoms in West Africa great wealth is based on trade rather than conquest. Much warfare goes on between them; this permits the ruler of the most powerful state to demand the submission of the others. The main business was the controlling of the