The Atlantic triangular slave trade is for many a dark spot in American history and it has left the country, and others, with some deep wounds that are till this day still healing. The massive import of slaves from Africa to America increased greatly during the late 1700s and is one of the reasons why the current state of Africa’s countries are far worse compared to European, American and Asian counterparts. Slavery was especially devastating because it decimated the African population, made it vulnerable to colonization, destroyed the chances of modernization and brought political fragmentation. African slavery was terribly negative for Africa because it is responsible for transforming Africa into a dependent continent, which it is till this day. The first consequence is the displacement of a huge population and growth rate which couldn’t replace the captured slave population. In other words, they sold more slaves than people were born, causing them to lose men.
This meant the previous societies were permanently altered and African communities would soon cease to exist. The second consequence is the development of Islamic slavery. Unlike European slavery, Islamic slavery didn’t stop; rather it prospered because the middle-east didn’t have an industrial revolution like Europe. It’s thought that as many people were enslaved in the Eastern slave trade as in the Atlantic slave trade. It’s ironic that when the Atlantic slave trade was abolished the Eastern trade expanded, suggesting that for some Africans the abolition of the Atlantic trade didn’t lead to freedom, but merely changed their slave destination.
The Essay on The Slave Trade in Africa
... core of the slave trade in Africa. When Europeans came into Africa to trade they dealt with these weakened African states. They provided ... a profit without that person actually being present. The Atlantic Slave Trade was then an example of capitalism. English investors ... slavery in the English economy. In his thesis Williams proposes the idea that capitalism is a result of the Atlantic slave trade. ...
The third consequence is the decline of African trade in the world. Since the slave trade thrashed aside all other forms of trade and development, Africa was dependent on the slave trade. When the Europeans abolished the slave trade in the mid-1800s, poverty rose in Africa because their incomes dried up. There was no Industrial revolution to substitute for the slave trade in Africa, and this paralyzed the continent. The fourth consequence is the proletarianization (A term used in Marxism to describe the process of an employer becoming the employee, kind of) of African workers for European industries which occurred because migrant workers went to work on European farms and industries.
This further destroyed traditional African agriculture economy and lifestyle. Thus traditional African societies no longer existed because their traditional norms vanished during the slave trade. The fifth consequence is the boundaries made by European countries did not match the traditional boundaries and dynamics of African society. This caused a great deal of balkanization that became evident in the post-colonial period. The sixth consequence is Africa’s dependency for manufactures from Europe and its position as a supplier of raw materials, which has not changed from the colonial period.
