Slave Trade

Slave Trade in Africa

“The law of the Shrewd”

The XV century came along with a great variety of events and transformations that affected Europe and marked the beginning of a new era in many parts of the world, compromising Asia, America, and Africa. Among these events stand out the changes in the European society through the growing bourgeoisie which demanded a better quality of life that directly pushed Europe to engage in commerce and trade. By this time, the European population also experienced a dramatic increase and along with the development of commerce, a strong economic expansion was unleashed. Europeans focused on the search of raw materials for the handcraft industry and also new markets where to trade these manufactured goods. As a result, this generated a greater monetary circulation and in turn increased the demand of goods. Besides these economic events, there were some ideological factors that inspired Europeans to become more adventurous and to increase their eagerness to enrich themselves. Both economic and ideological events experienced by these people produced scientific advances that introduced the discovery of the compass, new navigation equipment and the construction of new ships that made possible the navigation over the turbulent and open seas. Such factors strongly influenced Europeans to discover new lands and soon stir up their ambitions of power, lust of gain, and avarice that motivated them to go far beyond the goods commerce to engage in the slave trade in Africa. This slave trade was the result of the diplomatic relationships established by African rulers with Spanish and Portuguese kings, especially the Portuguese. Both Africans and Europeans engaged in bargaining and negotiation; however none of them benefited in the same way or held an equal strong bargaining position. In understanding the events that made possible the slave trade, it is very important to say that: Despite of the Europeans’ advantages in military, the slave...