Why Did Slave Trading Intensify in Nineteenth-Century East Africa?

During the 19th century the East Africa was marked by the sadness event of slave trading in response to larger demanding markets. For a long time the exportation of slaves was made through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean to supply the Muslin world. However there was a greatly expansion of slave trades to the Atlantic ocean during 19th century.

The slave trading increase during the 19th century due to the fact that the exportation of slaves was a profitable business, more than five times the export of ivory and other goods(1).

During the 18th century ivory dominated the trade of the colonies in northern Mozambique, but the demand for slaves in the begging of the 19th century changed this scenario of hunting for elephants in East Africa. Now, expeditions and exploration efforts were concentrated in the hinterland domain and their population in order to maintain an efficient trade in slaves(1).

Some economic and commercial factors were responsible to enhance the slave trading. In 1800, the large-scale production of cane sugar, and other monocultures such as coffee in Brazil intensified. Slaves were recruited to work in gold mines, to help farmers with the handwork of the land, to help families with usual domestic works and to operate and control the ivory trade.

The presence of Islam in 19th century East African coast was creating forces in the region however it was still very rare in the interior of the continent . This event coined the concept of an ‘’urban islamisation’’ since the population of the city (known as Mombosa) gave more support to the new religion than the people of the interior (known as Wanyika) which demonstrated some resistance to the urban Islamic culture (3, p.276).

Concurrently with the expansion of Islam in the 1...

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...erica and Western Europe.

Key influencers countries increasing the number of slaves in East africa aliens are in 19 century Portugal, France and England due to his domain in eastern africa. However, clearly this trade would not have been enough to sustain the market, the natives themselves have an important role by helping to meet the demand for slaves to slave market.

Works Cited

(1) Alpers, E. A., in Inikori, J.E. ed., (1983), Forced Migration: The Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies, Africana Pub

(2) Feierman, S. A Century of Ironies in East Africa (c.1780-1890)." In P. Curtin, S. Feierman, L.

Thompson, and J. Vansina. African History: From Earliest Times to Independence (1995). 2nd. ed.London; New York: Longman

(3) Sperling, David C., in Levtzion, N. and Pouwels, R. L. (2000) The History of Islam in Africa. Athens: Ohio University Press.