Expansion of Slavery Notes

Background

1. The Atlantic slave trade was central to European colonization and imperial competition.
2. Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, European powers, especially Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, and the Netherlands, enslaved millions of Africans to supply labor for plantations in the Americas.
3. This system became the economic foundation of the Atlantic world, linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas in a cycle of human exploitation, profit, and power.

The Rise of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Portuguese Beginnings

1. Portugal initiated the transatlantic slave trade in the mid-1400s, transporting enslaved Africans to its colonies in the Atlantic islands and later to Brazil.
2. Sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean required large numbers of laborers, making slavery the backbone of colonial production.
3. By the sixteenth century, Portugal was the leading slave-trading power, shaping patterns later copied by other nations.

Spanish Participation and the Asiento System

1. Spain also used enslaved Africans in its Caribbean and South American colonies but lacked a strong African trading network.
2. To solve this, Spain introduced the asiento system, contracting foreign merchants to supply enslaved Africans.
3. The system became a formal monopoly in the early 1500s, with Spain selling exclusive contracts to other nations in exchange for taxes and fees.

European Expansion and Rivalry

The British Asiento and Imperial Competition

1. Through the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), Britain gained the Asiento contract, allowing it to dominate the slave trade for thirty years.
2. British traders transported tens of thousands of enslaved Africans annually to Spanish America, marking Britain’s rise as the leading slave-trading nation.
3. The British Royal African Company and private merchants profited immensely, fueling Britain’s industrial and maritime growth.