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The Atlantic System & Africa, 1550-1800

The Atlantic System & Africa, 1550-1800. English Royal African Co. (RAC) controls African slave trade Atlantic System becomes world’s premier trading system Caribbean islands were first to see Europeans, first to lose native pop. African slaves and European capital rebuild Caribbean economy

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The Atlantic System & Africa, 1550-1800

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  1. The Atlantic System & Africa, 1550-1800

  2. English Royal African Co. (RAC) controls African slave trade • Atlantic System becomes world’s premier trading system • Caribbean islands were first to see Europeans, first to lose native pop. • African slaves and European capital rebuild Caribbean economy • Sugar plantations form base for economy • Spanish begin to ignore Caribbean in favor of American mainland colonies • Northern Europeans focus on Caribbean (England, France, the Netherlands) • 1614: English concentrate on Caribbean tobacco trade • Chartered companies/colonies • Dutch West India Co. • Portuguese sugar model exported to Dutch, British, French Caribbean • African slaves brought to work sugar plantations Plantations & Slaves

  3. 1700: French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) is world’s largest sugar producer • English establish Jamaica as their top sugar producer • For profit, plantations need own mills (crushing/processing) • Average plantation size=200 acres • some islands devote all land to sugar production, import food • Ecological shift, European introduced plants/animals thrive • Plantocracy • Slaves work under harsh conditions • Down period for seasoning • Specialized labor gangs • Long hours • Cruel punishment at hands of drivers Plantation Life

  4. Plantocratic Social Structure • Large Land Owning Whites • Non-Planter Whites • African slaves • Slave born children of whites freed—manumission • Sizeable freed black population emerges in Caribbean • Maroons, slaves who escape and form freed communities in mts. Free Society

  5. Based on Capitalism & Mercantilism • Mercantilism produces competition b/w powers • British and French defeat the Dutch, break their monopoly on Atlantic trade • The Atlantic Circuit • The Middle Passage The Atlantic Economy

  6. Europeans more interested in African trade, not colonies • Africans capture rival Africans, chain them together, march them to coast, sell/trade them to Europeans • Europeans stuff African slaves onto ships, sell them in Americas • Also traded for gold, ivory, timber (later rubber) • Biafra and Angola suffer huge populations losses, large slave market • Islamic traders engage in eastern slave trade, Swahili Coast • European colonies are few • Portuguese Angola connected to Atlantic trading system • Dutch Cape Colony (South Africa) • Muslim traders bring religion to Sub-Saharan Africa • Songhai (Mali) • Bornu (Sudan) Africa, The Atlantic, & Islam

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