Answer to Question #323831 in History for Nickname

Question

Was the Transatlantic slave trade shaped by the economic demands of the slave market or by the internal social dynamics of African societies?

Write it in an essay form

Answer 1

The Trans-atlantic slave trade was shaped by economic demand of slave market. The needs and desires of elites determined how land and laborers in the New World were exploited. Though on a different continent, the goal was to support the economic growth of European communities. The shift to plantation agriculture in Brazil and the Caribbean meant that sugar could now be produced and exported on a large scale. In return for supplying slaves, African elites were paid with a variety of manufactured products including guns, cotton textiles, glass, and food products made from the very sugar grown by slaves in the Americas. This had a drastic economic and political impact in Africa, which drove so many to participate in the trade. From the European point of view, slave labor was crucial for economic production and increasing wealth.