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Emergence of a New World1500 - 1800
The Origins of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
European Empire Building
Focus Questions & Terms• Where were the early centers of trade prior to
European development and expansion? • What are the origins of the Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade? • Straight of Malacca• Malian & Songhai Kingdoms• Iberian Sugar Industry & New Mercantile Capitalism• Prince Henry “The Navigator” of Portugal• Crusading Mentality• Seafaring Technology
Early Centers of Trade
•13th C - 16th C Muslims and Conversos developed the Spice Trade.
•16th C Malacca was the leading economic power in the region
• Spread of Islam •South East Asia
Early Centers of Trade
• 14th C Musa made Haj to Mecca
• Islamic Merchants transmitted Islamic values
• Political culture & Legal traditions• Trade items
– Continued to expand into west Africa
Malian Empire (14th -15th C) Mansa Musa
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
1. One of the keys to the trans-Saharan trade was Carthage, established about 813 B.C.E. in North Africa by Phoenicia. Carthage did not directly carry out the African trade but used the nomadic Berbers as intermediaries. Utilizing camels that were domesticated sometime at the beginning of the Christian era, the traders could move about 500 pounds for each animal and travel around twenty-five miles a day. Merchants usually walked and guided the animals. Travel, which could last three months, was predominantly at night since the desert day temperatures reached well over a hundred degrees while the low at night would be in the twenties. One caravan in the fourteenth century reportedly contained 12,000 camels. After about the fifth century the Berbers adapted the saddle for the camel thereby giving them powerful political and military advantage, especially in controlling the trade routes.
2. Ancient trade routes included trans-Saharan links between North Africa and the Nile River. There was also an ancient route connecting the Nile and Niger Rivers. Since at least 130 B.C.E West Africa shipped north and east gold, precious stones, cola nuts, slaves, and wild animals. In turn, horses, cattle, millet, leather, cloth, and weapons came from the north.
3. One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century. Emerging in the fifth century C.E. north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The gold was procured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana also exported to the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town of Awdaghast which gave it control of the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in its place grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River. Timbuktu was not only one of the main trading centers from which gold was traded to build the power of wealth of Mali but also by the fifteenth century had developed into a great center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was under Mali's control until 1375. By the late fifteenth century Songhai dominated the entire upper Niger and had captured Timbuktu. Under Songhai the trans-Saharan trade reached its height focusing on gold and other commodities of West Africa such as slaves and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhai collapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanem from 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to the Mediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.
Question:1. What was the relationship between the growth of empire and trade?
Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
1. One of the keys to the trans-Saharan trade was Carthage, established about 813 B.C.E. in North Africa by Phoenicia. Carthage did not directly carry out the African trade but used the nomadic Berbers as intermediaries. Utilizing camels that were domesticated sometime at the beginning of the Christian era, the traders could move about 500 pounds for each animal and travel around twenty-five miles a day. Merchants usually walked and guided the animals. Travel, which could last three months, was predominantly at night since the desert day temperatures reached well over a hundred degrees while the low at night would be in the twenties. One caravan in the fourteenth century reportedly contained 12,000 camels. After about the fifth century the Berbers adapted the saddle for the camel thereby giving them powerful political and military advantage, especially in controlling the trade routes.
2. Ancient trade routes included trans-Saharan links between North Africa and the Nile River. There was also an ancient route connecting the Nile and Niger Rivers. Since at least 130 B.C.E West Africa shipped north and east gold, precious stones, cola nuts, slaves, and wild animals. In turn, horses, cattle, millet, leather, cloth, and weapons came from the north.
3. One of the most important areas of West Africa was Ghana with its capital at Saleh, a city of 15,000-20,000 by the twelfth century. Emerging in the fifth century C.E. north of the Senegal and Niger Rivers, it was located near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The gold was procured from neighboring people and transported to Marrakech and Morocco where it was distributed to the northern world. Ghana also exported to the Mediterranean ivory, ostrich feathers, hides, leather goods, and ultimately slaves. In 992 Ghana captured the Berber town of Awdaghast which gave it control of the southern portion of the major trans-Saharan trade routes. By the thirteenth century, Ghana was destroyed and in its place grew several states including Mali, Songhai, Kanem-Bornu, and the Hausa. Mali extended from the Atlantic coast to the Niger River. Timbuktu was not only one of the main trading centers from which gold was traded to build the power of wealth of Mali but also by the fifteenth century had developed into a great center of scholarship and learning. Songhai, at the eastern end of the Niger, was under Mali's control until 1375. By the late fifteenth century Songhai dominated the entire upper Niger and had captured Timbuktu. Under Songhai the trans-Saharan trade reached its height focusing on gold and other commodities of West Africa such as slaves and ivory. At the end of the sixteenth century Songhai collapsed. The fourth significant state was Kanem-Bornu near Lake Chad. Kanem from 1100 to 1500 controlled the trade routes north to the Mediterranean and east to the Nile. In the fifteenth century power shifted to Bornu.
Question:1. What was the relationship between the growth of empire and trade?
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Trans-Saharan Trade Routes
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The Songhai Kingdom, 15th C• Sunni Ali 1464 – 1492
forged new Empire– Restored influence of trading
centers• Jenne and Timbuktu
– system of provincial administration
– Extended boundaries, by mid 1500’s dominated Central Sudan
The Songhai Empire•.
Timbuktu• Great Sankore mosque– Library– University– Scholars, Jurists,
Theologians– Book symbolized the
Islamic world• Book trade, most
lucrative Business in Timbuktu
1. Origins of Trans Atlantic Slave-trade
• Early Sugar Industry– 1095-1291 CE Enslavement to produce sugar
began in Southern Iberia
– 1382 Castilians - Canary Islands
• New Mercantile Capitalism of Mediterranean: Genoese, Venetians, Florentines– Principal financiers of Iberian Explorers &
Colonizers
– Key sugar industrialists & players in slave trade
Crusades beginning in 1095 beginning
600-700 years of struggle
Crusading MentalityValued warValued accumulated wealthSense of Religious superioritySense of Religious Mission
2. Origins of Trans Atlantic Slave-trade
• Portuguese interest in gaining from the Trans-Saharan gold-and-slave trade.
• Portuguese expansion in Africa
–Objectives of Prince Henry • Challenge Islamic presence• Expand Trade (Mercantile Capitalism)• Expand Christianity (rationale)• Slave raiding for Sugar industry
Trade in Humans
• 1441 Portuguese ships reached the Senegal River
• Exported first human cargo to Lisboa
• 1443, 1,000 people were being enslaved– Circumvented the traditional trans-Saharan
slave route from central Africa to the Mediterranean
– engaged in slave raiding to supply demand for labor in Sugar Industry of southern Portugal.
Complicity of Catholic Church
• Pope Eugene IV (1431-1447) first to compromise with European Atlantic Slave traders– Rescinded Bull Sicut Dudum that ordered
freedom in the Canary Islands– Followed Prince Henry’s report of success of
Captain Goncalvez’s slave raids– Re-invoked “Curse of Caanan or Ham” that
demonized Africans in the 2-6th CE.
© The Art Archive/Museo de la Torre del Oro, Seville/Gianni Dagli Orti
New Map technology - Cartography15th C took into account the curvature of the earth
Sea worthy Ships or Caravels
Sternpost Rudder (Chinese) & Lateen Sails & square rigNavigational techniquesCompass (Chinese), Astrolabe (Arab), Knowledge of Wind Patterns
3. Origins of Trans Atlantic Slave-trade
• Technological breakthrough launched the Trans-Atlantic slave trade
• Launched world wide European Expansion
• 1450s – restructuring & Expansion of Slave Trade– Focus on Senegambia Region – dense
populations and states allowed for defense– Trade and barter for slaves began
Fort Jesus at Mombasa© William J. Duiker
The Rise of the West
• Imperial Rivalries for control of the commerce & trade: Portuguese, Spain, Dutch, English and French
• Dutch East India Company consolidated military and political power over spice trade in Indonesia by 18th C
• The Mainland resisted encroachment– Burma, Thailand, Vietnam
