Answer to Question #238106 in History for Mphokolodi Belina

Question

The importance of the Atlantic slave trade to the world history

Answer 1

The Atlantic Slave Trade is largely considered the greatest contributor to the underdevelopment of the African continent to this date. 

The exploitation of a people that occurred from the 15th century through the 19th century is a hard history for African’s to look back on, but it is important to study it and learn from it. To best understand what occurred 

on the continent for roughly 400 years, it is best to go back to its origins and see how it all began. The Atlantic slave trade finds its origins in 15thcentury West Africa,but slavery in Africa has much deeper origins. For instance, beginning in 

1076, roughly one third of the population of Ghana was slaves. Other African empires, including Mali and Songhai, were known to have slaves beginning in 1235 and 1275 respectively (

KiZerbo, 1997). These existing slave networks helped catalyze the creation of the Atlantic slave trade when the Portuguese arrived in the 15

the century. A fact that is commonly overlooked when analyzing the slave trade is how prevalent slavery was in African societies, long before the 

Europeans came along. Being aware of the preexistence of slavery in Africa is just as important as studying Africa once the external trade 

began. Additionally, played a crucial role in the development of the modern world economy. Slaves also produced the products for the first mass consumer markets: sugar, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and later cotton.