The Capitalist Atlantic Slave Trade: People for Profit
The cultivation of sugar was of central importance to the Atlantic Slave Trade, as the demand for sugar was rising yet its price made it unattainable to many. With demand comes capitalist opportunity for economic growth, and as early as the 15th century, the Portuguese exploited human beings as slaves in the sugar cane plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil, paving the way for continued use of “coercive labor” and the evolution of slavery as a trade for the Spanish, Dutch and English well into the 19th century (Peabody). The pattern of trade for human beings destroyed the African culture as the Triangle Trade ripped at the heart of tribal life, still impacting today’s world through economic …show more content…
Surprisingly the African states also played into this role, as they wanted guns and goods such as cloth and copper from the Europeans, making their side of the trade profitable. From the 15th through the 19th centuries, Europeans solved the problem of supplying labor to sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas with African slaves, filling in the missing piece to grow their international trade and economy. After attempts to enslave the Amerindian indigenous laborers and European migrant laborers failed (many died from disease or resisted enslavement and were killed) Africans were the best solution since they were used to hot climates, had agricultural skills and resistance to the deadly disease smallpox (Goucher, 2-3). The African slave trade thus officially evolved in the 15th century when the Portuguese attempted to secure slaves through failed “raiding expeditions”, leading the Portuguese into a trading system with the Africans along the West Coast, supplying slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean with the Pope granting the Portuguese “exclusive rights” (Rosenkrans, …show more content…
Although African slaves in the Caribbean and the Americas were displaced for centuries, they kept up their African culture through dance, food and art. The effects on Africa’s west coast also lingered, as the Portuguese left their Christian mark on the Kongo elite as European and African cultures fused, all in the name of profit (Goucher, 7). While the developed role of the African merchant princes sidestepped “inherited patterns of African political systems”, these new dependent merchants thrived as they gained wealth, guns and goods from trading with the Europeans, in return supplying Europeans with slaves, thus ripping apart tribal life and “destabilizing” African culture with violence. Additionally, the profit driven sale of millions of Africans into slavery to grow the Atlantic economy was responsible for Africa’s population loss that affected not only their own agricultural production, but technological advancements as well, furthering the economic inequality seen today. The slave trade also gave rise to racism, as the slaves’ dark skin made them easy to identify thus making the terms black and slave “synonymous”; the slave owners’ belief that “superiority based on skin color” meant the terms white and superiority were equal
The cultivation of sugar was of central importance to the Atlantic Slave Trade, as the demand for sugar was rising yet its price made it unattainable to many. With demand comes capitalist opportunity for economic growth, and as early as the 15th century, the Portuguese exploited human beings as slaves in the sugar cane plantations of the Caribbean and Brazil, paving the way for continued use of “coercive labor” and the evolution of slavery as a trade for the Spanish, Dutch and English well into the 19th century (Peabody). The pattern of trade for human beings destroyed the African culture as the Triangle Trade ripped at the heart of tribal life, still impacting today’s world through economic …show more content…
Surprisingly the African states also played into this role, as they wanted guns and goods such as cloth and copper from the Europeans, making their side of the trade profitable. From the 15th through the 19th centuries, Europeans solved the problem of supplying labor to sugar cane plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas with African slaves, filling in the missing piece to grow their international trade and economy. After attempts to enslave the Amerindian indigenous laborers and European migrant laborers failed (many died from disease or resisted enslavement and were killed) Africans were the best solution since they were used to hot climates, had agricultural skills and resistance to the deadly disease smallpox (Goucher, 2-3). The African slave trade thus officially evolved in the 15th century when the Portuguese attempted to secure slaves through failed “raiding expeditions”, leading the Portuguese into a trading system with the Africans along the West Coast, supplying slaves to the Americas and the Caribbean with the Pope granting the Portuguese “exclusive rights” (Rosenkrans, …show more content…
Although African slaves in the Caribbean and the Americas were displaced for centuries, they kept up their African culture through dance, food and art. The effects on Africa’s west coast also lingered, as the Portuguese left their Christian mark on the Kongo elite as European and African cultures fused, all in the name of profit (Goucher, 7). While the developed role of the African merchant princes sidestepped “inherited patterns of African political systems”, these new dependent merchants thrived as they gained wealth, guns and goods from trading with the Europeans, in return supplying Europeans with slaves, thus ripping apart tribal life and “destabilizing” African culture with violence. Additionally, the profit driven sale of millions of Africans into slavery to grow the Atlantic economy was responsible for Africa’s population loss that affected not only their own agricultural production, but technological advancements as well, furthering the economic inequality seen today. The slave trade also gave rise to racism, as the slaves’ dark skin made them easy to identify thus making the terms black and slave “synonymous”; the slave owners’ belief that “superiority based on skin color” meant the terms white and superiority were equal