Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

1. Mr. Millhouse AP World History Hebron High School Africa in the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade

2. Volume of the Slave Trade • 15th century minimal – to Atlantic island plantations • 16th century – small • 17th c. increase to 16,000 per year • 18th c. most of trade, 7 million slaves, 80% of all trade over all years • 19th c. slows down, under attack, still exports to Cuba & Brazil (1.7 million)

3. African Slave Trade

4. African Slave Trade

5. Middle Passage

6. American Sugar Plantation

7. African Slavery • Slavery was common in African society • Where? • The Kongo, Ghana, Benin, etc. • All land was owned by the state • Owning slaves was a way to gain wealth • Slaves were used for servants, concubines, and field workers • Arrival of Europeans provided new opportunities for expansion of slavery

8. Slavery & African Politics • Competition between rival kingdoms led to endless wars • Kingdoms trade slaves for guns • Wars led to political centralization • Slave trade shifts balance of power • From Sudanic Africa to the Gold Coast, the Kongo, and Angola

9. The Asanti: A Sample Kingdom • Asante is on the Gold Coast • Modern day Ghana • Asante were members of the Akan people • Began as twenty small states • Matrilineal clan lineage • Most prominent clan was the Okoyo • Access to firearms allowed the Okoyo to centralize their authority after 1650 CE • Under the leadership of Osei Tutu (d. 1717)

10. Asanti Kingdom • Other Akan clans forced to pay tribute • Clans maintain some autonomy • A council advised the ruler on important issues • Used an ideology of unity to overcome clan divisions • Dealt directly with the Dutch at El Mina • Slave made up 2/3 of trade by 1700

11. The Kongo • Centralized kingdom • Converted to Christianity • Maintained diplomatic ties with Portugal • Attempted to abolish the slave trade • Portugal monopolized trade with the Kongo • Cowries, slaves, Asian luxuries Loango, capital city of the Kongo

12. Cape Colony • Dutch East India Co. establish a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 • Provision ships headed to Asia • Large fertile lands were great for farming • Used slave labor • Slaves brought from Indonesia and other parts of Asia • Eventually enslave the natives • Dutch settlers, called Boers, move to Cape Colony in search of land • 17, 000 settlers, 26,ooo slaves, and 14,ooo natives by 1800

13. East Africa & the Arrival of Europe • Swahili city-states continued traditional commerce in the Indian Ocean • Portuguese settlers on the coast used slave soldiers to expand their territories • Established plantations growing Asian spices using African slaves • Some African states copied European plantation system • Zanzibar had 100,000 slaves by 1860

14. Sudanic Africa • Fall of Songhai brought period of violent Islamization • Islamic elites vs. animistic natives • Violence helped supply slaves to coastal regions • In the 1770s Muslim reform movements began to spread a “purified” Sufi Islam • Movement had a major impact on Fulani tribe of the Western Sudan

15. The Sokoto Caliphate • Founded by Usman Dan Fodio • Believed he was an instrument of Allah • Preached jihad against Hausa kingdoms • Usman’s son founded the Sokoto Caliphate in northern Nigeria • Attacked neighboring Muslim kingdoms • Effects of reformist Islam • Spread literacy, new centers of trade emerged, attempts to eliminate pagan practices