The Transatlantic Slave Trade Begins

Between 1526 and 1867, Portuguese traders initiated transatlantic slave voyages, forcibly transporting an estimated 12.5 million Africans from West and Central Africa to the Americas. Approximately 1.8 million died during ocean crossings. Portuguese, British, French, Dutch, and North American merchants participated. Enslaved people produced sugar, cotton, tobacco, and coffee on plantations across Brazil (40%), the Caribbean (35%), Spanish South America (20%), and British North America (3.5%). The trade disrupted African societies through population loss and political destabilization while generating wealth for Western economies. Britain and the United States banned the trade in 1807-1808, though Brazil continued trafficking until the 1860s.