The Atlantic Slave Trade Introduced

I personally believe that Europe’s rise to the forefront has a lot to do with the growth of individual European nations that slowly began to have access to the Atlantic Ocean. This newfound access to the Atlantic made trade with other nations easier and in the process, it greatly benefitted Europe at this time. Access to the Atlantic affected Europe both directly and indirectly. For one example, the growth of the New World, and Asian trade with parts of the commercial middle class (bourgeoisie), allowed groups to obtain and sustain institutions to protect the rights of their property. However, the most significant changes and economic affects were related to nations that had a governmental system of checks that would limit some overseas trading activities. This enabled new merchant from these nations with a system of checks to benefit from trade via the Atlantic. Europe’s rise was largely a result of capitalist development that happened as a result of new opportunities because of Atlantic trade.

The geographic setting of North America enabled it to be a great trading partner with Europe and Africa. Many European and African chose to come to North America. Due to distance, many Asians chose not to immigrate. Europe’s economy was flourishing as a result of their geographical advantage that resulted in the creation of many new and improved trade relationships with other nations. While Africa, Latin America, and Asia also traded at this time, they had some trouble reaching other parts of the world because of their location. At this time, Europe was a big part of most of the trading that involved the Atlantic in some way, shape, or form. This new flourishing economy affected the labor systems in Europe. This new capitalist emergence was essential for the growth of Europe. While there was a hold on rural labor at this time, there was an increase and in some cases, a surplus, of labor to commercial and industrial labor sectors.

The Atlantic slave trade system took place across the Atlantic Ocean. Slaves involved in this were forced to labor on farms, usually on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, cotton, sugar, and more. However, this system of slavery differed from previous, traditional slave systems. Specifically, one major example of this is that before this period, women were the coveted commodity. However, the Atlantic slave trade concentrated more on young men. Before the Atlantic Slave Trade, slaves were not transported as heavily as they were at this time. The colonies needed labor forces and African slave traders sold slaves to the highest bidder. Slavery, at this time, was not considered as a form of evil. It was simply commerce, or a business transaction.

During this period, Latin America was the main destination of millions of black people transported from Africa to French, Portuguese, and Spanish colonies. Slavery was an important part of the Spanish Casta system. As a result of this new civilization, the African presence in Latin American had an affect on their culture. Slaves were baptized upon arrival to the New World. And in most cases, the Catholic Church came to the defense of slaves.