XVᵉ siècle – XIXᵉ siècle
West, Central and Southeast Africa; Europe and the Americas
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
The Atlantic slave trade transported millions of Africans to Europe, Atlantic islands, and the Americas between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Initially connected to European demand for gold and labour on Atlantic islands, it expanded dramatically with plantation agriculture, especially sugar cultivation. African rulers, dignitaries, and traders participated as suppliers and intermediaries, while European companies and states organized maritime transport and monopolies. The trade caused severe demographic losses and linked African economies to an unequal Atlantic system.
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Le récit
The Atlantic slave trade grew from older patterns of slave export toward the Arab countries and from Portuguese commerce in West Africa. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Portuguese traders made regular purchases in West Africa, especially Senegambia, and worked with local rulers and merchants. Enslaved Africans were sent to Europe, Spain, Atlantic islands, and eventually the Americas, where their labour became increasingly valuable as sugar-cane and cotton cultivation expanded.
The trade changed scale when plantation economies developed in the New World. Between 1451 and 1600, Europeans carried an estimated 274,900 enslaved people from Africa: approximately 149,000 went to Europe and the Atlantic islands, 75,000 to Spanish America, and 50,000 to Brazil. The early Portuguese presence on São Tomé and the growth of Brazilian sugar plantations formed part of this transformation, while Spanish colonists used licences and contraband to obtain labour for American settlements and plantations.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European trading companies received monopoly rights from their governments and transported enslaved Africans to American markets. England became the leading trading power on much of the African coast during the eighteenth century, although Dutch and French merchants remained active. Coastal centres such as El Mina, Accra, Whydah, Porto Novo, Badagri, and Calabar served as meeting places where African suppliers exchanged captives for European goods.
The trade reached far beyond the coast. Captives were forced to travel long distances from inland regions to embarkation ports, and powerful states such as Asante and Dahomey became major suppliers in the eighteenth century. Calabar traders also played an important role, while older states including Benin and Oyo were described as less involved. Central and southeastern Africa supplied approximately 810,100 enslaved people to the Americas between 1711 and 1810, showing the widening geographic reach of the trade.
The consequences were profoundly unequal. European expansion remained largely commercial rather than fully territorial, but the exchange of manufactured goods for large numbers of enslaved labourers inflicted major demographic damage on Africa. Enslaved people were transported to plantations in Brazil, the Caribbean, Spanish America, and North America, where sugar, tobacco, rice, and later cotton depended heavily on coerced labour. The chapter identifies the introduction of maize and manioc as limited benefits that could not compensate for the losses and suffering caused by enslavement.
Between 1500 and 1890, an estimated 22 million people were exported from black Africa to the rest of the world. The forced migration removed a population that African societies needed for demographic growth and economic transformation. Mortality between capture and final export added to the losses, while the removal of women of child-bearing age further weakened reproductive capacity.
The demographic impact varied by region and by route. Across the Sahara and the Red Sea, young women predominated because of demand for concubines, with a reported ratio of two women to one man. In the trans-Atlantic trade, women represented 32.9 percent of a sample of 404,705 Africans imported into New World territories. The Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra exported especially high proportions of women, while Congo-Angola exported a larger proportion of men.
The combined effect of exports and associated mortality was severe. The excerpt states that the population of black Africa declined absolutely at least between 1650 and 1850, and that the principal exporting zones suffered serious depopulation. The demographic shock therefore operated not only through the number of people removed, but also through the age and sex composition of those who were taken.
The export trade also altered political structures by making warfare a means of acquiring captives for sale. A 1730 observation about the Gold Coast describes rulers and princes fighting one another after the introduction of European firearms, with prisoners immediately resold as slaves. Olaudah Equiano likewise recalled raids between small states or districts conducted to obtain prisoners or booty, sometimes encouraged by traders seeking African captives.
Military aristocracies gained influence in major African states because the external market rewarded the capture of people rather than the conquest and integration of territory. States remained limited in size and politically fragile. In several societies, merchants and government officials connected with the trade also held large sections of the population, encouraging the expansion of slave-based production.
The excerpt links these developments to a long-term shift away from development and toward underdevelopment and dependency. The expansion of slave-based production restricted domestic markets, discouraged commodity production, and obstructed trade with Europe that might otherwise have stimulated intra-African exchange. By the middle of the nineteenth century, subsistence food production remained dominant, manufacturing generally remained beyond the handicraft stage, and colonial rule later completed the process of external domination.
XVᵉ siècle – XIXᵉ siècle
West, Central and Southeast Africa; Europe and the Americas
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
The Atlantic slave trade transported millions of Africans to Europe, Atlantic islands, and the Americas between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Initially connected to European demand for gold and labour on Atlantic islands, it expanded dramatically with plantation agriculture, especially sugar cultivation. African rulers, dignitaries, and traders participated as suppliers and intermediaries, while European companies and states organized maritime transport and monopolies. The trade caused severe demographic losses and linked African economies to an unequal Atlantic system.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
The Atlantic slave trade grew from older patterns of slave export toward the Arab countries and from Portuguese commerce in West Africa. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Portuguese traders made regular purchases in West Africa, especially Senegambia, and worked with local rulers and merchants. Enslaved Africans were sent to Europe, Spain, Atlantic islands, and eventually the Americas, where their labour became increasingly valuable as sugar-cane and cotton cultivation expanded.
The trade changed scale when plantation economies developed in the New World. Between 1451 and 1600, Europeans carried an estimated 274,900 enslaved people from Africa: approximately 149,000 went to Europe and the Atlantic islands, 75,000 to Spanish America, and 50,000 to Brazil. The early Portuguese presence on São Tomé and the growth of Brazilian sugar plantations formed part of this transformation, while Spanish colonists used licences and contraband to obtain labour for American settlements and plantations.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European trading companies received monopoly rights from their governments and transported enslaved Africans to American markets. England became the leading trading power on much of the African coast during the eighteenth century, although Dutch and French merchants remained active. Coastal centres such as El Mina, Accra, Whydah, Porto Novo, Badagri, and Calabar served as meeting places where African suppliers exchanged captives for European goods.
The trade reached far beyond the coast. Captives were forced to travel long distances from inland regions to embarkation ports, and powerful states such as Asante and Dahomey became major suppliers in the eighteenth century. Calabar traders also played an important role, while older states including Benin and Oyo were described as less involved. Central and southeastern Africa supplied approximately 810,100 enslaved people to the Americas between 1711 and 1810, showing the widening geographic reach of the trade.
The consequences were profoundly unequal. European expansion remained largely commercial rather than fully territorial, but the exchange of manufactured goods for large numbers of enslaved labourers inflicted major demographic damage on Africa. Enslaved people were transported to plantations in Brazil, the Caribbean, Spanish America, and North America, where sugar, tobacco, rice, and later cotton depended heavily on coerced labour. The chapter identifies the introduction of maize and manioc as limited benefits that could not compensate for the losses and suffering caused by enslavement.
Between 1500 and 1890, an estimated 22 million people were exported from black Africa to the rest of the world. The forced migration removed a population that African societies needed for demographic growth and economic transformation. Mortality between capture and final export added to the losses, while the removal of women of child-bearing age further weakened reproductive capacity.
The demographic impact varied by region and by route. Across the Sahara and the Red Sea, young women predominated because of demand for concubines, with a reported ratio of two women to one man. In the trans-Atlantic trade, women represented 32.9 percent of a sample of 404,705 Africans imported into New World territories. The Bight of Benin and Bight of Biafra exported especially high proportions of women, while Congo-Angola exported a larger proportion of men.
The combined effect of exports and associated mortality was severe. The excerpt states that the population of black Africa declined absolutely at least between 1650 and 1850, and that the principal exporting zones suffered serious depopulation. The demographic shock therefore operated not only through the number of people removed, but also through the age and sex composition of those who were taken.
The export trade also altered political structures by making warfare a means of acquiring captives for sale. A 1730 observation about the Gold Coast describes rulers and princes fighting one another after the introduction of European firearms, with prisoners immediately resold as slaves. Olaudah Equiano likewise recalled raids between small states or districts conducted to obtain prisoners or booty, sometimes encouraged by traders seeking African captives.
Military aristocracies gained influence in major African states because the external market rewarded the capture of people rather than the conquest and integration of territory. States remained limited in size and politically fragile. In several societies, merchants and government officials connected with the trade also held large sections of the population, encouraging the expansion of slave-based production.
The excerpt links these developments to a long-term shift away from development and toward underdevelopment and dependency. The expansion of slave-based production restricted domestic markets, discouraged commodity production, and obstructed trade with Europe that might otherwise have stimulated intra-African exchange. By the middle of the nineteenth century, subsistence food production remained dominant, manufacturing generally remained beyond the handicraft stage, and colonial rule later completed the process of external domination.
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