African Slave Trade Effects

Throughout all the centuries of the slave trade, approximately six to seven million slaves were brought to the New World (Slavery in America). All of these slaves were greatly affected by the slave trade, as well as all of the other individuals involved. The slave trade also greatly altered the civilizations of Europe, Africa and the New World at the time. These places would have been very different without the changes that the slave trade brought to them, and the civilizations would have had exceedingly diverse long term effects without it. The slave trade facilitated the expansion and development of Europe into the New World (Lansford). On the other hand, it commenced the decrease in power of African kingdoms and communities (“Africa: …show more content…
Many African societies did not have a sufficient number of strong men and women to support their communities and everyone living in them. “Exile of Africa 's male youth as slaves had deprived a labor-intensive economy of its strongest, most productive forces” (“Africa: Political and Historical Effects of the Atlantic Slave Trade”). Africa would have had a hard time being able to feed their communities, and they would have had an even harder time trying to defend their communities from the invasions of the neighboring communities. These societies would not have expanded, and even may have shrunk, depending on the amount of the people captured to be slaves in each one (“Slave Trade: Transatlantic”). After these communities had been ransacked by others looking for slaves, the communities would have been left with their oldest and debilitated people. These people would have been unable to support themselves, or the community that they were apart of (“Slavery in America”). Also, the slave trade created an increase in wars that lead to an extensive decline in population. When the Africans traded the slaves to the Europeans, the often received guns and gunpowder in return. With the increase in guns and gunpowder, wars were a lot more common and were also more deadly (Frank). The increase in wars caused the African communities to have a decrease in …show more content…
While the slave trade lead to the expansion of the New World by the Europeans and an increase in trade throughout the world. It also lead to a lack of healthy men and women in the African communities, and the dehumanization of millions of slaves that were a part of the slave trade (“Slave Trade: Transatlantic”). With the slave trade, Europe was able to expand very swiftly, the New World was able to be colonized quite early, and world-wide trade increased since it was more efficient (Klein). In addition, throughout the duration of the slave trade, African kingdoms’ power declined, and they became less of an important aspect in European and the New World’s affairs ("The African Slave Trade and the Middle Passage”). Everything that was affected by the slave trade was greatly affected. The civilizations of the New World, Europe, and Africa would have had a very different outcome without it. Also, the slaves and slavers would not have been dehumanized or treated in a way that was