Africa's Effect On The Slave Trade Case Study

Scholars have argued whether the history of Africa was controlled by outside forces like Europe, or if it was done by African societies involved in the slave trade. Walter Rodney provides one side of the debate. He believes that Africa was in a more fragile economical and political state throughout the slave trade, which caused the Atlantic Slave Trade to influence their history dramatically. The societies were put in a position where they were unable to stop the slave trade from continuing. Africa lost many opportunities in development because of outside forces and the slave trade; they were simply too fragile to fight back. Another scholar, John Thornton, argued that despite Africa originally being influenced by outside forces, African societies had as much influence as Europe did on their own history. Although, Rodney argued that Africa had been greatly

In John Thornton’s “Africa’s Effect on the Slave Trade” he states how Africa may have been put in a weak state as the aftereffects of the trade, but how the African societies involved were also at fault because slave trade was already spreading throughout Africa. “Slavery was widespread in Africa, and its growth and development were largely independent of the Atlantic trade, except that insofar as the Atlantic commerce stimulated internal commerce and development it also led to more widespread holding of slaves.” African societies were already selling slaves within their societies and the Atlantic slave trade only made it spread out and grow. The Atlantic Slave Trade stimulated the internal trade of slaves until it grew out of hand. Thornton is analyzing how African leaders allowed slave trade to spread for a chance of better economy and political power, but the consequences of this action goes to the