0.10- African Slave Trade (pt.5 final)

Why did Europeans set up small forts on the coast of West Africa?

to resupply ships and profit form local trade (especially gold)

Who did Europeans turn to for labor when setting up their colonies in the Americas? Why?

Africa—needed large numbers of laborers to make colonies profitable

Who brought the first few Africans back to Europe as slaves?

Portuguese and other Europeans

What were Africans seen as?

exotic servants of the rich

Europeans turned to who because what?

European colonies in the Americas grew so Europeans turned to slave laborers to clear plantations

What were plantations?

large estates run by overseer/owner

Who did Europeans rely on for slaves and why?

local African rulers and traders b/c lacked resources to travel inland and get slaves to coastal trading posts

Where did the slaves usually come from?

other African nations

Traders exchanged captured Africans for what?

goods (textiles, gunpowder, weapons, etc.)

The trade became what?

a huge profitable business, traders shipped tens of thousands of enslaved Africans across Atlantic to tobacco/sugar plantations in the Americas

Slaves were seen as…?

property

Why couldn’t some African leaders stop the or slow down the trade?

as slave trade grew, the system supporting the trade was too strong for them to resist

The Atlantic Slave Trade was apart of a what?

triangular trade (3-legged international trade network)

The triangular trade routes linked what continents?

Europe, Africa, and the Americas

How did the triangular trade work (each leg)?

1st leg- merchant ships brought European goods (guns, cloth, cash, etc.) to Africa in exchange for slaves

2nd leg- (Middle Passage) slaves transported to Americas and were given there in exchanged for sugar, molasses, and other products manufactured at plantations owned by Europeans

3rd leg (final)- merchants carried sugar, molasses, cotton, American goods like furs, salt fish, rum, and shipped/traded it to Europe for profit so European commodities can return it to Africa

Why was the slave trade so bad for Africans/slaves?

taken from inland villages and forced to march to coastal ports when enslaved, many died along way, some punished harshly for attempting to escape, once purchased by European traders they were packed/crammed below decks of slave ships and chained

How long were the voyages?

3 weeks - 3 months

How many Africans died on board and why?

1/2; brutal mistreatment, disease (biggest threat to captives and profit), smallpox, dysentery—- also called “floating coffins”

Slave trade triggered what?

wars, increased tensions w/ neighboring peoples, and rise of strong new states

Where did the Asante Kingdom emerge from?

area occupied by present-day Ghana

What did Military leader Osei Tutu (Asante Kingdom) do?

unified his ppl to defeat neighboring Denkyera

Who managed royal monopolies on gold mining and slave trade?

efficient government officials chosen by merit

The Asante traded with who and how did they protect themselves?

Europeans on coast and exchanged gold and slaves for firearms; played rival Europeans against one another (built powerful and wealthy states this way)

How did the Oyu empire arise?

from successful settlement by Yoruba ppl of present-day Nigeria and began as small forest kingdom

How did the Oyu Empire arise?

Leaders started to use wealth from slave trade to build impressive army conquering neighboring kingdom of Dahomey, Oyu continued to gain wealth by trading w/ European merchants at port city of Porto-Novo

The Atlantic Slave Trade brought what type of ppl to the Americas?

Different societies in Africa, mostly West Africa

West Africa was home to what?

Diverse communities from small chiefdoms to larger states and kingdoms

What was added to emerging new cultures of the Americas?

Rich variety of African traditions, languages, beliefs, stories, music, and other cultural elements