Triangular Trade The Triangular Trade was a form of racism. It was a route to receive slaves. The name was given because there were three routes that formed a triangle. Initially in the 15th century the Portuguese were only interested in gold in Africa. This quickly changed for them as their interest then changed to slave trade.
To fill in the labor shortage Spanish and Portuguese American colonies used African slaves for labor on plantations. 4. The English and French colonized the Americas almost a century after the Spanish and Portuguese because both countries were involved in military conflicts in Europe and had to allocate resources to these conflicts. The French and English colonies were similar to the Spanish and Portuguese because they did use diplomacy to interact with the natives, but often resorted to violence. African slaves were a critical factor in the development of all the colonies.
Imperialism was a very important time period that occurred from the 1850s to 1914. Imperialism meant “one country’s domination of the political, economic, and social life of another country.” There were many factors that fueled imperialism, which had three different forms. Imperialism affected Africa, Asia and South America. Imperialism had two main motivations, economics and the desire for new markets. Economics was a big cause of this because western industrialists had wanted new markets for their manufactured goods; these people also had some type of competition going on with other countries.
Since they only supplied raw goods, the colonies could not compete with Britain in manufacturing. British mercantilism showed itself in the form of the triangular trade. The trade routes linked the American Colonies, West Indies, Africa, and England. Each port gave shippers a reward and a new cargo. New England’s rum was shipped to Africa and traded for slaves, and then they were brought to the West Indies and traded for molasses and sugar, which went back to New England.
Gary Nash discusses the impact of black people in a white peoples colony. The first negro people to come to America in Virginia were probably indentured servants who would receive some type of reward after their time of service was over, until 1660. After 1660 though many of the “Negros” that came to America were slaves, purchased as property. By the 1800’s every colony in America had “slave codes” which stripped black people of every right they had and made them property. His biggest claim was his stating of, “More than anything else it was sugar that transformed the African slave trade.” The slave trade became an extremely profitable enterprise for European nations once the sugar plantations reached the New World.
The Silk Road began approximately 2,500 years ago and was an extensive trade route that linked many areas of the world together. More specifically this route according to E.E. Kuzmina and Victor H. Mair was between China, the Eurasian Steppe, Central Asia, and Europe, which went on to Byzantine and beyond (p. 1). This Road as Kuzmina and Mair stated, “Was used for transporting silk from China, while in the opposite direction, from Rome and other countries, traders brought to the Celestial Empire glassware, jewelry, and other goods of high aesthetic value” (p. 1). As Kuzmina and Mair also pointed out, the opening of this famous route is usually referred to as “taking place in the second B.C.
There were also many economic similarities between the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire. Both empires focused on improving their commerce. For example, Persia built a road system to help with their trade system. Rome traded using sea routes and roads that were protected from crime. Each empire had great wealth, which lead to architectural advancement.
The Chinese are a prime example of taking the opportunity that America brought to many people. There are many reasons on why the Chinese were immigrating to America. The Chinese migrated to America to seize the opportunity of a better job, better living, and an overall better life. Many things lead to this movement
Slavery was established in the British colonies of the Americas to provide a cheap abundant work source, which would reproduce ensuring many years of hard labor. The continent of Africa provided an abundance of peoples to be forced into subjugation, and Africa’s political conditions made the slave trade more important to the domestic commerce and international influence. (Pg. 49) Political leaders and merchants of the slave trade in both Europe and Africa recognized the enormous monetary gain and political advantages, encouraged by the slave trade. The slave trade was no longer monopolized by the Royal African Co., therefore opening up a new market of human trade to fuel the growth of the American colonies which was dependent on the cheap forced labor to oversee the cultivation of corps like tobacco in the United States, and Sugar cane in the Caribbean Islands and its Lesser Antilles.
Britain, France and Netherlands all started the slave trade for one main reason, profits. “Slavery was not born of racism; rather, racism was the consequence of slavery.” 1 When the Europeans migrated to America, they needed a huge task force to help them cultivate crops such as tobacco, sugar, and coffee. The Europeans first tried Native Americans. They initially started trading and eventually