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“New World” Crops

Crops like maize, potatoes, and cassava first grown in the Americas and spread to Europe, Africa, and Asia after 1492. They transformed global diets and populations, tying continents together in early Atlantic globalization.

Kingdom of Kongo

A Central African kingdom (1390–1800s) that traded with Portugal after 1483 and adopted Christianity in 1491. It shows how African states engaged in cross-cultural exchange but were later destabilized by the Atlantic slave trade.

Manikongo

The royal title of the Kongo king, such as Afonso I (Nzinga Mbemba, r. 1509–1543). The Manikongo used Christianity to assert authority but condemned Portuguese slave raids, revealing both African agency and European exploitation.

Olaudah Equiano

An Igbo man enslaved through the Middle Passage who later gained freedom and published The Interesting Narrative (1789). His firsthand story exposed the brutality of slavery and fueled the Atlantic abolition movement.

Mohammah Gardo Baquaqua

A Muslim from Benin enslaved in Brazil who escaped and wrote his autobiography in 1854. His travels across Brazil, Haiti, and North America show how Africans experienced and resisted the Atlantic system.

The Middle Passage

The Atlantic voyage transporting Africans to the Americas under horrific conditions lasting months. About 1.8 million died en route, making it central to the violence and profit of the Atlantic slave system.

The Gun-Slave Cycle

A trade pattern where African rulers exchanged captives for European guns, sparking wars that created more captives. It deepened dependence on the Atlantic trade and destabilized African kingdoms like Kongo.

Intra-American Trade in Enslaved People

The movement of enslaved Africans between colonies, especially from the Caribbean to Brazil and Spanish America. As David Eltis notes, it reveals the Americas—not Europe—as the slave trade’s economic core.

African Rice

Oryza glaberrima, a rice species domesticated 3,500 years ago in West Africa and grown with advanced irrigation. Africans carried this knowledge to Carolina plantations, shaping agriculture and technology in the Atlantic world.

Kongo Cosmogram / Dikenga Cross

A Kongo spiritual symbol representing life, death, and rebirth, often merged with the Christian cross. It shows how Africans reinterpreted Christianity through their own beliefs, creating a syncretic Atlantic faith.