How did the slave trade affect the economy?

The slave trade was important in the development of the wider economy – financial, commercial, legal and insurance institutions all emerged to support the activities of the slave trade. Some merchants became bankers and many new businesses were financed by profits made from slave-trading.

How did the slave trade affect Africa?

The size of the Atlantic slave trade dramatically transformed African societies. The slave trade brought about a negative impact on African societies and led to the long-term impoverishment of West Africa. This intensified effects that were already present amongst its rulers, kinships, kingdoms and in society.

What is the history of slave trade in Africa?

The transatlantic slave trade began during the 15th century when Portugal, and subsequently other European kingdoms, were finally able to expand overseas and reach Africa. The Portuguese first began to kidnap people from the west coast of Africa and to take those they enslaved back to Europe.

How did the Atlantic slave trade affect the economy of Europe?

The profits gained from the slave trade gave the British economy an extra source of capital. Both the Americas and Africa, whose economies depended on slavery, became useful additional export markets for British manufactures. Certain British individuals, businesses, and ports prospered on the basis of the slave trade.

How did Britain profit from the slave trade?

The profits of slavery were ploughed back into the economy and helped to develop industry in Britain and its colonies. Manchester became an important textile centre, where factories made cloth from cheap slave-picked cotton. Much of this cloth was sold back to African traders in return for more enslaved people.

How did the Atlantic slave trade affect African economy?

The slave trade had devastating effects in Africa. Economic incentives for warlords and tribes to engage in the slave trade promoted an atmosphere of lawlessness and violence. Depopulation and a continuing fear of captivity made economic and agricultural development almost impossible throughout much of western Africa.

Which areas were most affected by the slave trade in Africa?

Except for a fifty-year period between 1676 and 1725, West Central Africa sent more slaves to the Americas than any other region. In the first century of trading over 900,000 (52%) of all Africans leaving the continent came from West Central Africa. Map of embarkation areas in West and West Central Africa.

How were African slaves captured and sold?

The capture and sale of enslaved Africans European traders captured some Africans in raids along the coast, but bought most of them from local African or African-European dealers. These dealers had a sophisticated network of trading alliances collecting groups of people together for sale.

Where did the slaves come from in Africa?

Of those Africans who arrived in the United States, nearly half came from two regions: Senegambia, the area comprising the Senegal and Gambia Rivers and the land between them, or today’s Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; and west-central Africa, including what is now Angola, Congo, the Democratic Republic of …

When was slave trade abolished in Africa?

1807
In January 1807, with a self-sustaining population of over four million enslaved people in the South, some Southern congressmen joined with the North in voting to abolish the African slave trade, an act that became effective January 1, 1808.

What effect did the end of the Atlantic slave trade have in Africa?

The effect of slavery in Africa Other states were completely destroyed and their populations decimated as they were absorbed by rivals. Millions of Africans were forcibly removed from their homes, and towns and villages were depopulated. Many Africans were killed in slaving wars or remained enslaved in Africa.

What factors led to the Atlantic slave trade?

These seven factors led to the development of the slave trade:

• The importance of the West Indian colonies.
• The shortage of labour.
• The failure to find alternative sources of labour.
• The legal position.
• Racial attitudes.
• Religious factors.
• Military factors.