The Atlantic System Africa 1550 1800 The Atlantic

The Atlantic System & Africa 1550 -1800 The Atlantic System: moved goods and wealth, as well as people and cultures, around the Atlantic. Africa: impact varied by region, where several major kingdoms dominated the continent

� After 1650 sugar plantations, African slaves, and European capital made these islands a major center of the Atlantic economy � Before 1650 English colonies prospered first because of greater support from home gov’t, grew tobacco � Competition with VA tobacco made the switch to sugar easy when the Dutch introduced it to Brazil � The Dutch West India Company monopolized the sugar trade and became essential to the slave trade � By the 1680 s sugar was the major crop from the New World and the slave trade grew as a result � Why Africans? Not better suited, not just prejudice, but mostly economical. Plantations in the West Indies

� Sugar production required only simple tools, but was a factory as well as a farm; took lots of land (Jamaica) � Environmentally responsible except when overusing land, deforestation, upset of food chain � Most islands were 90% slave, ruled by a small plantocracy (a few rich men) � Profitability of plantations depended on how much work was extracted from slaves � Slave men outnumbered women � Overwork and poor nutrition led to infertility and low life expectancy (23 for males, 25. 5. for females) � 1/3 of slaves died from seasoning, or new diseases � Plantations then increased purchases of slaves, who increasingly wanted to run away 18 th Century Plantation Life

�Capitalism-a system of large financial institutions-banks, stock exchanges, trading companies-reduced risks and increased profits �Banks: the central capitalist institution �mercantilism-how European states promoted their citizens’ overseas trade and gain capital in precious metals; discouraged trade with foreigners �Citizens were strongly discouraged from trading with foreigners Capitalism and Mercantilism

�Restrictions on trade caused a war between Dutch, French, and English; Dutch lost and the Dutch West India Co. went bankrupt. �Less competition meant England France could end their monopoly and open up trade; high tariffs on foreign goods kept colonists loyal �The Dutch turned to Asia for trade Chartered Companies

�A clockwise trade network: Europe, Africa, across the Atlantic to Americas, back to Europe �Europe to Africa: metal, hardware, guns traded for gold, timber, slaves �Slaves from Africa to Americas: the Middle Passage �Colonial goods to Europe: crops, timber, cheap products �European interests dominated this system– provided the capital and the consumers The Atlantic Circuit

� On the Atlantic coast (Gold Coast and Slave Coast) Europeans were always more interested in trade than in colonization � Royal African Company lasted 80 years; 40 % profits made from gold & ivory, 60% from slaves � African merchants who sold slaves for European goods were picky about what they traded � They mostly wanted textiles & guns, later tobacco and rum from the Americas � African governments made Europeans follow African trade rules, preventing colonization � Dahomey: a large kingdom that rose in the 1720 s, dependent heavily on firearms for it’s great armies. Effects on Africa

• densely populated interior had no large states with powerful princes on the coast for trading. • most slaves came from kidnapping because of a lack of POWs Bight(Bay) of Biafra

�C &C with previous relationship with �Prior to late 1700 s Europe had two Islam permanent colonial areas: Portuguese in Angola and Dutch East India Company’s Cape Colony at the tip of the continent (tied to Indian Ocean trade) �North Africa: Muslim by C. E. , sub-Saharan Africa learned of Islam through trade gradually; during 1500 s was annexed to Ottomans, the Sahara still left alone Africa’s European contacts

�Was pushing its kingdom into the Sahara from the south �Descended from Mali kingdom and like it, drew wealth from trans-Saharan trade, ruled by Muslims �Challenged by Morocco (NW), lost in 1591 �For two centuries Moroccans extracted many slaves and goods �Weakened the trans-Saharan trade in western Sudan �Hausa trading cities in central Sudan attracted caravans with textiles, hardware, & weapons Songhai Empire of West Africa

�Large # of slaves went to Islamic north and Middle East but not as much as on the Atlantic �Most African slaves in Islamic world were soldiers and servants (contrast to Americas); soldiers often more trusted than native ones �Also unlike the Americas, the majority of African slaves were women entertainers, concubines, & servants �Trans-Saharan slave trade had a much higher proportion of children than Atlantic trade �Muslims were not always strict adherents to the no Muslim slaves rule Slavery in Islamic World

� Muslim vs. European � #s: Between 1550 and effects 1800 8 million Africans were exported on the Atlantic, and 2 million on the Islamic trade � Effects: 1) sub-Saharan Africa’s population remained large. 2) places like the Slave Coast lost significant populations. 3) ability to recover lost population was related to proportion of reproductive women � Angola supplied more slaves over time than anyone else, but from vast areas � African imports in this trade were minimally influential in the local economies � Europe won out economically, while Ottomans and Africa begin a major decline Comparing the two influences