Exam 7: Sub-Saharan Africa

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Portuguese sailing ships began to appear off Africa's west coast in the mid-1324s. By the 1530s, the Portuguese had organized a slave trade with the Americas. The trading of slaves by the Portuguese, and then by the British, Dutch, and French, was more widespread and brutal than any trade of African slaves that preceded it. African slaves became part of the elaborate production systems supplying the raw materials and money that fueled Europe's Industrial Revolution. To acquire slaves, the Europeans established forts on Africa's west coast and paid nearby African kingdoms with weapons, trade goods, and money to make slave raids into the interior. Some slaves were taken from enemy kingdoms in battle. Many more were kidnapped from their homes and villages in the forests and savannas. Most slaves traded to Europeans were male because they brought the highest prices and the raiding kingdoms preferred to keep captured women for their reproductive capacities. Between 1600 and 1865, about 12 million captives were packed aboard cramped and filthy ships and sent to the Americas. One-quarter or more of them died at sea. Of those who arrived in the Americas, about 90 percent went to plantations in South America and the Caribbean. Between 6 and 10 percent were sent to North America.