Advantages Of Transatlantic Slave Trade

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The export of Africans throughout the world as slaves acted as the main income for many European countries. Owning slaves represented power, wealth, and free labor that the Europeans valued more than many of the goods that Africa offered. No person would give up their freedom willingly and without contest, so how did exporting people prove to be more profitable, despite the resistant that was faced? What made the slave trade so successful was the method of obtaining slaves, all of which proved more advantageous for the Europeans. There were four main methods that the Europeans utilized during the slave trade of Africa. One of the least effective ways of obtaining slaves was kidnapping the people of Africa and forcing them into slavery. Europeans technological advantage in weaponry proved to make this a feasible …show more content…

He argues that there was a much older slave trade that was focused more around Southern Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. As this continues to grow, yet another system, the system we generally refer to as the trans-Atlantic slave trade also picked up as well. With both trades conducted, it had a substantial impact on Africa’s population. This is argument is particularly persuasive due to the fact that there is evidence that African exportation dated back centuries before the trans-Atlantic slave trade. While Fage focuses on one specific period, Inikori expands on the history of slave trade from Africa, and shows why its population has stagnated for so many centuries. Boahen adds to this argument, stating that the first Europeans to come to West Africa were the Portuguese within the 1400s. There is a general consensus that the African slave trade began much before the period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and each historian except for Fage accounts for this within their

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