The Triangular Trade, Mercantilism, and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms, economic theories, trade routes, abolitionist groups, and treaties from the 18th-century Atlantic slave trade and colonial history.

Bourgeoisie

A social group that does not engage in manual labor and possesses significant income, including bankers, business owners, and plantation owners.

Code noir

A set of laws written from 1685 onwards to regulate the institution of slavery in the French colonies.

Triangular trade

Trade carried out by European ships between Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

Exclusive trade rights

The monopoly of the metropolitan power over trade with its colonies, often granted by monarchs to private companies.

The slave trade

The buying, selling, and transporting of enslaved people.

The Atlantic slave trade

The exchange of goods for captives in Africa, followed by the deportation of these captives to the American colonies, where they were sold and became slaves of European colonists.

Slave trader

A merchant or sailor who participates in the transport and trade of enslaved people, or the ship used for this transport.

Slave

A person who is not free, belonging to an owner and treated as property.

Plantation economy

The intensive cultivation of tropical crops sold in Europe (such as sugar, coffee, cocoa, and tobacco) that regimented life and societies in the colonies.

Plantation

A large agricultural enterprise specialising in tropical crops.

Captive

A person who has been deprived of their freedom.

Middle Passage

The transatlantic voyage of enslaved people aboard a slave ship, specifically the sea journey undertaken from West Africa to the West Indies and the Americas under brutal conditions.

Mercantilism

An economic policy of the 17th and 18th centuries where governments sought to maximize national wealth and power by acquiring gold and silver and maintaining a favorable balance of trade (selling more than buying).

Abolitionists

Anti-slavery militants and former slaves who argued for the emancipation of all enslaved people, the complete end of the slave trade, and punishment for slave traders.

Sons of Africa Movement

An abolitionist group established in London in 1787 by Ottabah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano, and other Black abolitionists to campaign for emancipation and the abolition of the slave trade.

Treaty of Paris (1763)

The peace treaty ending the Seven Years' War among France, Britain, and Spain, through which France ceded Canada, most of Louisiana (to Spain), and its influence in India.

Taubira Law

A French law definitively adopted in 2001 that officially recognises the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity.

French and Indian War

The North American theater of the Seven Years' War in which Great Britain defeated France, leading to the loss of French colonial territories in North America.