See how European influence in West Africa led to the mass exportation of enslaved Africans to the Americas
Learn about the origins of the transatlantic slave trade, which eventually became a major impetus for abolitionism.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Transcript
[Music in]
NARRATOR: European influence in West Africa began when Portuguese ships began sailing down the western coast searching for a passage to the spices and riches of the Orient. As more countries began sending ships into African waters, stations and forts were built along the West African coast. Because the West African coast was the nearest part of the continent to the European holdings in Middle and South America, it became the center for the slave trade to the Americas.
But the slave trade was not a new enterprise. For centuries the Arabs had been paying African middlemen from the Sudan, as well as the East African coast, for slaves to be exported to North Africa and Asia. But the European entry into the slave trade had drastic economic consequences for West Africa. African middlemen became rich and powerful, as did the coastal states from which they operated. But the savanna states of the interior grew weak and unstable as their people lived under the constant threat of raids, capture, and enslavement.
[Music out]
NARRATOR: European influence in West Africa began when Portuguese ships began sailing down the western coast searching for a passage to the spices and riches of the Orient. As more countries began sending ships into African waters, stations and forts were built along the West African coast. Because the West African coast was the nearest part of the continent to the European holdings in Middle and South America, it became the center for the slave trade to the Americas.
But the slave trade was not a new enterprise. For centuries the Arabs had been paying African middlemen from the Sudan, as well as the East African coast, for slaves to be exported to North Africa and Asia. But the European entry into the slave trade had drastic economic consequences for West Africa. African middlemen became rich and powerful, as did the coastal states from which they operated. But the savanna states of the interior grew weak and unstable as their people lived under the constant threat of raids, capture, and enslavement.
[Music out]
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