Slavery

1. DevenGirgenti, Shane Riordan, Tim McGowan, Anna Heagle Slavery 1450-1800

2. What • Slave-a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them • Slavery-owning slaves • Slavery was a terrible thing seen from most point of views. However, from others point of views, like the slave owners, slavery was a great thing that developed work to be done quicker, cheaper, and required less work for the slave owners.

3. Who? • The Portuguese were the first to develop the idea of slavery. African Kings and merchants were trade their own people or captives/prisoners to the Americas. The Americas sent the goods made, to Europe. Europe then sent a variety of goods to African Kings and merchants.

4. Where • The Portuguese, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and the Americans were all involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade. • Slaves were taken from the coasts of Africa and sent over to the ‘New World’ also known as the Americas.

8. Silver The Global Trade connector of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries.

9. What? • China demanded to be paid in silver as well as Japan. Silver began to be used as currency throughout the world; China, the Middle East, Europe, and even partially in the Americas. • The major port of silver was Potosí in the Americas. 5/7 of all world silver traveled on Spanish galleons across the world. • The Manila galleons was the largest ship the Spanish had to transport silver across the Pacific from the Americas to the Philippines and eventually into China. • Silver transported to Spain raised the price exponentially and inflation ensued within Spain causing their empire to weaken greatly.

10. Where? -Spain found a major silver mine in Potosí, Bolivia near the coast of Central America. -The Spanish took the silver from Potosí and took it either back across the Atlantic to Spain, or more likely, to Manila in the Philippines. -Manila was a major Spanish trading port to China. It connected Europe to South East Asia through the Americas. -After 3 centuries, Potosí ran out of silver and the overall increase in silver amounts in the world slowed greatly.

11. How? • The Spanish used their galleons to transport their silver. Their hold on the Americas let them transport 5/7 of all silver in the world at the time. • They used large convoys as general purpose fleets to transport silver, gold, timber, porcelain, and more. • They were able to mine the silver at first with their own labor but eventually they turned to the mit’a system of a certain number of years for a person to work and there is a rotation system. The natives were used in this system for all mining. • Since natives began dying, the Spanish turned to slaves from Africa.

12. Who was involved? • In Potosi, the Spanish who were the largest silver traders controlled the silver mines. • The Spanish were responsible for 85% of the world’s silver. • China was also involved in the trade of silver because they didn’t have many deposits and it also helped their economy by trading their goods for it.

13. When? • The trade of silver became a vital part of the Chinese economy in the 1400’s and was used throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. • In the 16th century trade with China became very profitable and demand for silver became so high that Europeans began to search for more deposits.

14. Why silver? • China preferred silver over any paper money because paper caused many problems in their economy but also because of the value in silver. • The Asian countries wanted silver products for their religious temples.

15. Impacts: Slavery • Largest major forced migration of the entire world history. Approximately 10 million African slaves were transported. • Boosted the European colonies’ economies. The plantations and mines had cheap labor and had more products made and shipped for less cost. • The darker skinned people were lower on the social strata. Slaves were the lowest; mulattoes, creoles, and mix races were in the middle, and peninsulares or the white Europeans were at the top of the spectrum. • African elites that had sold their war captives and exiles had traded for guns. These resulted in increased warfare throughout Africa that lead to several powerful empires including Asante, Dahomey, and Oyo.

16. Impacts: Silver • Silver amounts rose exponentially in Europe, especially in Spain. Silver prices dropped drastically because of the surplus of silver and the economy dropped. Spain collapsed as the major world power. Its influence on other countries was almost completely destroyed because it invested most of its economy into silver and not other products. Spain’s banks crashed because silver was used as a currency, jobs were lost, and inflation rates increased drastically with the surplus silver. • Silver mines made the need for slaves increase because the Spanish realized the work needed for mining was labor-intensive. • Spanish crown lost many of its major influences in the Americas because its entire investment was in silver.