1880s, the gilded age, was the time when the world experienced an enormous economic growth and prosperity. At the time, the second industrial revolution was at the high point even though America was just recovering from the trauma that came from their civil war. Europe just like America, was experiencing an exceptional industrial development and economic growth. During that time, railroad became prevalent for faster and convenient means of travel across America and in some other fast developing countries at that time.
Specifically, for Europe and America, the 1880s was characterized by economic growth and prosperity with the emergence of modern cities, corporations, franchises, brands, and especially the introduction of the skyscrapers. While all those developments were happening in the world, and other continents rising, guess what was most prevalent in the African continent, the transatlantic slave trade. The transatlantic slave trade was the only booming business in Africa which even the Dutch, French, and England, Netherland, Britain and others had all taken part in it.
COUNTRIES WHO PIONEERED THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVETRADE
Portuguese
For the first, it was the Portuguese who took the first slave out of Africa. As early as 1400, they had captured and transported the enslaves Africans to Europe and Americas. By 1490, they were already transporting over 3,000 slaves a year to Portugal and Spain.
Spanish
The second was the Spanish, who began taking the enslaved Africans to America from Europe in 1503, until 1518 when they were bold enough to start shipping them directly from Africa.
The transatlantic slave trade started as early as in the 14th century which involved the transportation of enslaved Africans to the Americas, and Europe and lasted until the 19th century. It was a practice where human being are being imported and exported like commodities across the seas.
The Triangular Trade
This system of trade was invented by the Europeans which involved the exchanged of manufactured goods for enslaved people in Africa, and the shipment of plantation crops and products back to Europe.
The transatlantic slave trade had a devastating impact on Africa and Africans, and its effects are still felt till today. That was the reason why I think Africa deserves some heart felt apologies from the western world, especially America and Europe.
It was also common for most people in the modern world to think that the Europeans and the Portuguese were the first to start the concept we know today as the slave-trade in Africa. But if you ask if they were the ones that started what we know today as the transatlantic slave trade? Yes. In other words, the Europeans were not the ones who invented slave trade, but they did invent the transatlantic slave trade which turned out to become one of the catastrophic event ever existed in human history.
The Portuguese arrived in Africa in the early 1880’s, and even before then, Africans were already engaging in slave trade, selling themselves among themselves. The only difference was that Africans were not crossing the oceans to deliver or get their slave because they were simply Africans. Their trade is mainly carried out only in their domain. When the Europeans emerged, the tide through which slaves were traded drastically changed because first, the Europeans had realized their needs for slaves, and secondly, the Africans couldn’t say no because they need the incentives that came with selling their own brothers to the white men.
The Europeans were in desperate need for strong hands for their plantations, while the Africans at the time needed the money which the Europeans had to offer. Apart from the money which the Africans were receiving from the Europeans, one of their chief motivators was to exude dominance and supremacy over their fellow clansmen. That was because, it was only the men of prominence and influence that had the ability to capture and enslave others. A commoner had no power to enslave a fellow commoner, unless he was hired by an influential man to do so.
The transatlantic slave trade was a global phenomenon that affected the world in which its enormous impact can never be erased in the sand of time. The transatlantic slave trade was a horror and a nightmare to humanity, but at the same time it left an indelible mark in the world. As a matter of fact, in today’s world, if you ever see a black man as part of the natives in the white men’s country, trace the ancestry well and you would be rest assured that slave trade brought them.
Take America as an example, America is made up of black people and white people just because of the transatlantic slave trade. And I do not think that without the transatlantic slave trade there would have been anything called The Black Americans. Today, in the United States of America, the black people made up most of the populations, and they are vibrantly contributing in the growth of the country’s economy. The impacts and contribution of these black people in the white men’s land are undeniable which stretches across music, science and technology, business and so many other walk of life.
THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE ABATED THE FURIOUSNESS OF RACISM
The transatlantic Slave trade abated the furiousness of Racism in the already developed countries. This may sound a little sarcastic because it is obviously not what the world is thinking about right now. But just as every dark cloud has a silver lining, if we can look closely enough, the traumatic event of the transatlantic slave trade left with us it’s brighter side. Today, most of the black people in the white man’s countries still face some kind of prejudice in subtle and obvious ways even though those black people had some of their ancestries in those white men’s country through the transatlantic slave trade. Now imagine how severe racism would have been if those western countries never had black race at all as part of their origin? It would have been more brutal because the concept of being black would have been totally strange which the rest of the world would have been treating with certain level of disdain. However, somehow, the severity of racism has been abated because the blacks are now an indispensable part of the world, even in the white men’s world. However, even though the world has always wanted to discriminate, the transatlantic slave trade forced the world to be mixed up in a way. This article was inspired by Chinonso Aguzie’s, The Mind of a Hero.
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