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The impact of colonial econom in africa
The impact of colonial econom in africa
The impact of colonial econom in africa
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For my previous question (to what extent did Africa contribute to the Atlantic Slave Trade), from the scholarly sources I concluded that Africa did play a major role in contributing to the Atlantic Slave Trade. A main cause of the trade was the colonies that European countries were starting to develop and they needed many laborers for the sugar, tobacco and cotton plantations. Paid laborers were too expensive, so the colonizers turned to Africa to provide cheap “merchandise”. True, the Europeans purchased large numbers of Africans, and on the other hand, Africans bear some responsibility themselves: some African societies had permitted slavery in their own countries, and they cooperated with the Europeans to sell other Africans into slavery.
Ever since there has been humanity, slavery has been a mechanism used by people in order to subjugate and dehumanize other individuals. Abina and the Important Men is a book that illustrates how slavery was still able to manifest, even after it had been abolished within British society. By enslaving young women under the false pretense that the individuals were wards, powerful African leaders and British rulers were able to maintain a social hierarchy where African women occupied the lowest rung. The trafficking of Africans through the Transatlantic Slave Trade, brought wealth to European and other western nations as well as African leaders who were willing to cooperate. Europeans, such as the Portuguese, British, and French, first began arriving to Africa in the 16th century since they were drawn by the valuable resources that could be found in coastal, African societies.
... The Economic History Review, by Behrendt, Stephen D. David Eltis, David Richardson that stated, “…second impact of Africans that goes beyond violence on slave ships followed from the natural Africans assumption of equal status in the trading relationship…came in the wake of holding Europeans…”(Source 9). The result of considering the equal status between the Africans and the Europeans from Africa’s point of view was the Atlantic slave trade which millions of African people’s live had been jeopardized and their fate had been seal to work in the fields for the rest of their lives.
African slaves were brought to the America’s by the millions in the 17th and 18th century. The Spanish and British established lucrative slave trades within Africa and populated their new territories with captured and then enslaved Africans. The British brought the slaves to their new colonies in North America to work on the large plantations and the Spanish and Portuguese brought the slaves to South America. Slavery within North and South America had many commonalities yet at the same time differences between the two institutions.
With Europe in control, “the policies of the governing powers redirected all African trade to the international export market. Thus today, there is little in the way of inter-African trade, and the pattern of economic dependence continues.” Europeans exported most of the resources in Africa cheaply and sold them costly, which benefited them, but many Africans worked overtime and were not treated with care.
Though the Atlantic Slave Trade began in 1441, it wasn’t until nearly a century later that Europeans actually became interested in slave trading on the West African coast. “With no interest in conquering the interior, they concentrated their efforts to obtain human cargo along the West African coast. During the 1590s, the Dutch challenged the Portuguese monopoly to become the main slave trading nation (“Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade”, NA). Besides the trading of slaves, it was also during this time that political changes were being made. The Europe...
In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade, where the male-female ratio was 2:1, the Arab slave trade instead usually had a higher female-to-male ratio. Concubinage and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves, though many were also imported mainly for performing household tasks. In both continents, anything a slave owns, is automatically the master’s own too, however in Arabia, a slave may be allowed to earn money to purchase his or her freedom and similarly to pay bride wealth if he was to be married, the marriage requiring the consent of the master first. If the master was to use his slave for sexual gratification, he may not co-habit with a female slave belonging to his wife, neither can he have relations with a female slave if she is co-owned, or already married. In America, a man may have relations with a slave but it wasn’t very likely, as this was taboo and not approved of.
Every year, more and more money is donated to Africa to promote democracy in order to get rid of the powerful coups in many countries through out the continent. While the coups are declining and democratic governments are being established, the economic growth and development of Africa is not anywhere it should be considering the abundant natural resources and coastline that the continent possesses. Even though countries, like the United States of America, donate millions of dollars they are a large reason why Africa is underdeveloped economically. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade is the most devastating event in the history of the world. Nearly 14,000,000 men, women, and children were displaced, sold into slavery, and killed by the trade routes.(
The Africans slaves were treated just as badly as the Native Americans if not worse. They were forced to work hard gruesome hours in a fields, never feed or kept in good health, they were branded like common farm animals and brutally tortured at any signs of disobedience and resistance. As European crops and materials grew in demand, more African slaves were brought to the New World for work, thus beginning the Atlantic slave trade Europeans justified the Atlantic slave trade, which was the buying and selling of African slaves, in different ways. Three commonly used excuses being one: “ Apologist for the African slave trade long argued that European traders purchased African who had already been enslaved and who otherwise would have been put to death.Thus, apologists claimed the slave trade actually saved lives.” As well as two: “ In the Christian world, the most important rationalization for slavery was the so called ‘Curse of Ham’ According to the doctrine, the Bible figure Noah had cursed his son Ham with blackness and the condition slavery.” The last justification was that Europeans, full of greed and power, needed more people that weren't of European descendent to do all the dirty, hard and dangerous work for them. All of
The Atlantic Slave Trade was one of, if not the largest scale movements of human beings from one part of the world to another by sea and could have been considered a mobile killing machine because of the horrible conditions. The numbers were so large that the slaves who came by slave trade were the most Old-World immigrants in the world. Even though there were only races of people enslaved during the Atlantic Slave Trade, African Americans were the most numerous. Records show 34,941 voyages during the time of the slave trade. The Transatlantic Slave Trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean in the 16th century and lasted till the 19th centuries. The way that the Atlantic Slave Trade came about was cruel but not unthinkable. The capture and enslavement of African Americans was inevitable, the only question was when. A lot more slaves were taken to the South America than to the North America because the South “needed” them more. The South Atlantic economic system was based on producing crops, making goods and other things to sell. The enslaved people didn’t just skip into the ship with smiles on their faces. The Spanish colonists asked the King of Spain for permission to bring slaves to The New World to provide for them. Spanish Colonists were currently forcing Native Americans to do their labor for them but they were dying in large numbers because of diseases and lack of care from the colonists. The King of Spain gave approval to the colonists to import Africans and from then on Africans were transported there for use and labor and other needs of the Spanish colonists. During this time many African American slaves were transported. An estimated twelve to fifteen million African Americans were shipped throughout the world includ...
“In the history of the Atlantic slave trade, the French turned four times as many Africans into slaves as the Americans did, they continued the slave trade -- legally -- until 1830, long after the rest of Europe had given it up” (“French Slavery”). The negatives and positives of slave trade come to a stalemate because slave trade both increased the economies of France and Britain, while undermining the human work force. As slave trade began to be questioned by morality, France became the dominant slave trade power. While European political leaders encouraged the colonization of Africa in order to collect cheap labor to compete with neighboring countries, British and French societies suffered from internal disputes, leading to the termination of slave trade in Europe.
The concept of the slave trade came about in the 1430’s, when the Portuguese came to Africa in search of gold (not slaves). They traded copper ware, cloth, tools, wine, horses and later, guns and ammunition with African kingdoms in exchange for ivory, pepper, and gold (which were prized in Europe). There was not a very large demand for slaves in Europe, but the Portuguese realized that they could get a good profit from transporting slaves along the African coast from trading post to trading post. The slaves were bought greedily by Muslim merchants, who used them on the trans-Sahara trade routes and sold them in the Islamic Empire. The Portuguese continued to collect slaves from the whole west side of Africa, all the way down to the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), and up the east side, traveling as far as Somalia. Along the way, Portugal established trade relations with many African kingdoms, which later helped begin the Atlantic Slave Trade. Because of Portugal’s good for...
Great topic! While reading your article, I was surprised to learn that John Hannah Speke also contributed to the slave trade by creating a different spin on the Hamite Hypothesis (50). First of all the writings in his book are credited as having, “…paved the way to colonisation of East Africa (49)”. This is interesting to me on a personal note because I used to hang out at the Source of the River Nile when I was dating my husband ( we met in Uganda) and I never heard this story. At the Source there is a memorial statute in the hills paying tribute to Speke for discovering the Source of the Nile River but no one has ever mention his book of untruths. Even more striking is the unfortunate chain of events that took place as a result of his book
This class was filled with riveting topics that all had positive and negative impacts on Africa. As in most of the world, slavery, or involuntary human servitude, was practiced across Africa from prehistoric times to the modern era (Wright, 2000). The transatlantic slave trade was beneficial for the Elite Africans that sold the slaves to the Western Europeans because their economy predominantly depended on it. However, this trade left a mark on Africans that no one will ever be able to erase. For many Africans, just remembering that their ancestors were once slaves to another human, is something humiliating and shameful.
The origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade began at the purchase of slaves from slave traders. This was due by the formally arrangement that was done by the king of Oba. Where European trade goods were distributed in return for the procuring of slaves (Hine 34). Though this might be seen as wrong in today’s view. The trading of people was seen as normal to the eyes of the Europeans. This was a form of gaining more labor for their crops and a beneficial method for them. Since the workforce of the slaves would not be paid.
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