Atlantic Slave Trade: Global Economic Scale

The Atlantic slave trade was a system that took African people from their homes and deported them to be sold as slaves, taking place across the Atlantic Ocean (shocker). It is regarded to have been the world's first real system of globalization, dating from the 15th to 19th centuries. In the 18th century, however, it was at its largest size and the greatest determining factor in the world's economy. This triangular trade route had vertexes of the Americas, Europe, and Africa.

The three "stages" of this triangular system are shown in the diagrams below. The first stage of the Triangular Trade involved taking manufactured goods from Europe to Africa: cloth, spirit, tobacco, beads, cowrie shells, metal goods, and guns. The guns were used to help expand empires and obtain more slaves (unti they were finally used against European colonizers). These goods were exchanged for African slaves.
The second stage of the Triangular Trade (the middle passage) involved shipping the slaves to the Americas. This stage accounts for the great deaths of African people. To describe the ships, one could use crowded as an understatement.
The third, and final, stage of the Triangular Trade involved the return to Europe with the produce from the slave-labor plantations: cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses, and rum.

Portugal dominated the slave routes for the first 130 years of its existence, but was soon passed by the British in 1650 with their vast shipments of slaves to the New World. France joined the traffic of slaves in 1624, Holland and Denmark soon followed. The Dutch wrested control of the transatlantic slave trade from the Portuguese in the 1630s, but by the 1640s they faced increasing competition from French and British traders. England fought two wars with the Dutch in the 17th century to gain supremacy in the transatlantic slave trade. The following chart shows the volume of transatlantic slave trade departures by carrier (in thousands) 1701–1800

A large percentage of slaves died from the terrible conditions endured on a Middle Passage ship. Below is the design for a French slave boat.

More images that depict the crowded realities of these boats:

Below is a chart showing the numbers of slaves deported from their home countries.

First, these people were taken from Africa's already existent slave population. But, as slave trade and the number of people involved grew, "The exploitation of a pre-existing slave market in Africa was far from being able to implement the huge market of the Americas which required millions of laborers. Since slaves were obtained mainly through wars, the only reliable solution to this problem was to generate permanent warfare between and within nations. (www.whitneyplantation.com)" Leaders of European countries (the French Company of the West Indies, the British Royal African Company, and the Dutch India Company,etc.) pitted African leaders against one another, causing perpetual warfare in the areas. Soon, they also implemented the technique of giving African leaders "power," which really meant a greater share of European goods coming their way.

In Africa, there had been permanent warfare, plundering, and natural disasters, generating frequent shortages of food which resulted in severe famine and epidemics. People would sell themselves into slavery in order for their family to not starve to death. The Atlantic slave trade has continued to be a source for political unrest in Africa to this day.

SOURCE: http://www.whitneyplantation.com/the-atlantic-slave-trade.html