15th century – 19th century
Africa, the Sahara, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, the Americas, and Western Europe
The African slave trade was the large-scale forced export of people from black Africa to the Americas and other regions between 1500 and 1890. The extract estimates that approximately 22 million people were exported during this period, including 15.4 million through the Atlantic trade and 6.856 million through trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean routes. This forced migration supplied labor to plantation, mining, and other export economies while contributing to demographic loss and dependency structures in Africa.
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The Story
Between 1500 and 1890, the forced export of people from black Africa formed a major component of the emerging Atlantic and wider international economy. The extract distinguishes the trans-Atlantic trade from the older routes across the Sahara, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Taken together, these movements involved an estimated 22 million people, although the figures for the non-Atlantic routes were considered less firmly established than those for the Atlantic trade.
Research published after P. D. Curtin’s 1969 estimates revised the global figure for the Atlantic slave trade upward by approximately 40 percent. Curtin’s estimate of 11 million exported slaves became 15.4 million after subsequent studies examined different portions of the trade. For the wider African trade, Ralph Austen calculated 3,956,000 people transported across the Sahara and 2,900,000 across the Red Sea and Indian Ocean between 1500 and 1890.
The trade connected African societies to plantation, mining, and commercial systems in the Americas and the Caribbean. In Brazil, sugar production and later gold production depended heavily on African slave labor. In the Caribbean, the expansion of plantation agriculture and the large-scale importation of African slaves transformed population structures and displaced subsistence production in favor of export commodities.
The forced transfer of population altered the economic possibilities of African societies at a moment when many were already undergoing significant social and economic transformation. The extract describes Africa’s population as relatively small and widely dispersed, with difficult terrain and the Sahara limiting long-distance commerce. Under these conditions, the removal of approximately 22 million people was presented as a major demographic shock that discouraged the growth of commodity production and helped lay the foundations of dependency structures.
The early expansion of seaborne commerce initially offered African societies new opportunities. Gold exports increased, pepper entered wider commercial circulation, and Portuguese and Dutch participation stimulated the distribution of African cloth along parts of the coast. These developments were short-lived, however, because the growing accessibility of American resources changed Africa’s position within the Atlantic economic system.
The extract links the loss of population to the failure of a broader structural transformation in African economies and societies. Population growth was identified as a condition for expanding internal markets and production, while the massive transfer of people to the Americas removed labor and depopulated large areas. The demographic effects are introduced but not fully developed in the surviving extract.
15th century – 19th century
Africa, the Sahara, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, the Americas, and Western Europe
The African slave trade was the large-scale forced export of people from black Africa to the Americas and other regions between 1500 and 1890. The extract estimates that approximately 22 million people were exported during this period, including 15.4 million through the Atlantic trade and 6.856 million through trans-Saharan, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean routes. This forced migration supplied labor to plantation, mining, and other export economies while contributing to demographic loss and dependency structures in Africa.
Continue exploring
The Story
Between 1500 and 1890, the forced export of people from black Africa formed a major component of the emerging Atlantic and wider international economy. The extract distinguishes the trans-Atlantic trade from the older routes across the Sahara, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Taken together, these movements involved an estimated 22 million people, although the figures for the non-Atlantic routes were considered less firmly established than those for the Atlantic trade.
Research published after P. D. Curtin’s 1969 estimates revised the global figure for the Atlantic slave trade upward by approximately 40 percent. Curtin’s estimate of 11 million exported slaves became 15.4 million after subsequent studies examined different portions of the trade. For the wider African trade, Ralph Austen calculated 3,956,000 people transported across the Sahara and 2,900,000 across the Red Sea and Indian Ocean between 1500 and 1890.
The trade connected African societies to plantation, mining, and commercial systems in the Americas and the Caribbean. In Brazil, sugar production and later gold production depended heavily on African slave labor. In the Caribbean, the expansion of plantation agriculture and the large-scale importation of African slaves transformed population structures and displaced subsistence production in favor of export commodities.
The forced transfer of population altered the economic possibilities of African societies at a moment when many were already undergoing significant social and economic transformation. The extract describes Africa’s population as relatively small and widely dispersed, with difficult terrain and the Sahara limiting long-distance commerce. Under these conditions, the removal of approximately 22 million people was presented as a major demographic shock that discouraged the growth of commodity production and helped lay the foundations of dependency structures.
The early expansion of seaborne commerce initially offered African societies new opportunities. Gold exports increased, pepper entered wider commercial circulation, and Portuguese and Dutch participation stimulated the distribution of African cloth along parts of the coast. These developments were short-lived, however, because the growing accessibility of American resources changed Africa’s position within the Atlantic economic system.
The extract links the loss of population to the failure of a broader structural transformation in African economies and societies. Population growth was identified as a condition for expanding internal markets and production, while the massive transfer of people to the Americas removed labor and depopulated large areas. The demographic effects are introduced but not fully developed in the surviving extract.