Chapter 12: the atlantic slave trade, sixteenth to eighteenth century synopsis

A trade in captives across the Sahara, for sale into slavery, has a very ancient history, going back to at least Roman times. This increased with the general expansion of trans-Saharan trade that accompanied the rise of Islamic states in north Africa and the conversion of west African rulers to Islam.

The roots of the trans-Atlantic trade are to be found in the expansion of western European seafaring ventures of the late 15^th and 16^th centuries, led by Portugal and Spain. The Portuguese set up slave-laboured sugar plantations on the islands of Príncipe and São Tomé, while the Spanish set up conquest colonies, and a demand for imported slave labour, in the Caribbean and the Americas. The trans-Atlantic trade in African captives began in the 1530s and expanded rapidly in the 17^th century as the Dutch, French and English became involved in what was growing into a major economic enterprise.

The scale was huge, especially in the 18^th century, with Europeans providing the demand and the transport, and Africans largely providing the captives for sale at the coast. The human degradation and suffering was terrible. The triangular nature of this violent trade in human beings between Europe, Africa and the Americas, effectively transferred the wealth of African labour to early industrialising Europe, with long-term consequences for all three continents.