The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeThe Age of Exploration 1400-1800 CE

World HistoryArvada West Senior High

Thomson

The “Columbian Exchange” Squash Avocado Peppers Sweet

Potatoes

Turkey Pumpkin Tobacco Quinine

Cocoa Pineapple

Cassava POTATO

Peanut TOMATO Vanilla MAIZE

Syphilis

Olive COFFEE BEAN Banana Rice

Onion Turnip Honeybee Barley

Grape Peach SUGAR CANE

Oats

Citrus Fruits Pear Wheat HORSE

Cattle Sheep Pigs Smallpox

Flu Typhus Measles Malaria

Diptheria Whooping Cough

Trinkets

Liquor

GUNS

Cycle of Conquest & Colonization

Explorers Conquistadores

Mission

arie

s

PermanentSettlers

OfficialEuropeanColony!

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeEarly Encounters 1400’s CE

Existed in Africa before the coming of the Europeans

Muslim, Christian traders, and pilgrimsPortuguese:

Looking for new trade routes to India Controlled West African cities with violence Replaced European slaves with Africans

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeThe Slave Trade 1500’s – 1800’s

Throughout world history there has always been slavery

Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc…Slavery was never a lucrative & profitable

business: Profitable for European Traders & African chiefs Slaves were needed to work in the New World

Sugar cane & sugar plantations First boatload of slaves of African slaves brought by

the Spanish in 1518 CE

Slaves Working in a Brazilian Sugar Mill

Slave Ship

“Middle Passage”

“Coffin” Position Below Deck

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeTriangle Trade:

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeEffects

Numbers 1500’s – 2000 slaves/year sent to the Americas 1780’s – 80,000/year 11 million total 2 million died

African CaptivesThrown Overboard

Sharks followed the slave ships!

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeEffects cont…

Youth population declined in West AfricaEntire cities disappearedAfrican resistance:

King Alfonso I of Kongo believed contact with the Europeans could be beneficial, but the slave trade was evil

His appeal failed

The Trans-Atlantic Slave TradeBasic Terms:

Racism – The idea that some races are superior to others.

White Man’s Burden – The idea that the white man must “civilize” the “backward” people of the world.

Slavery – A condition in which one human being is owned by another. Considered as property and deprived of most rights by free persons.

Triangle Trade – Ships sailed the legs of a triangle formed by Europe, Africa, and the Americas.