Triangular Trade was a system in which slaves, crops, and
manufactures were traded between Africa, the Caribbean, and the
American colonies.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES [ edit ]
Define the Triangular Trade.
Differentiate between the First and Second Atlantic slave system.
KEY POINTS [ edit ]
The First Atlantic system refers to the 16th­century period in which
Portuguese merchants dominated the West Africanslave trade—supplying Spanish and
Portuguese New WorldColonies with imported African labor.
The Second Atlantic System characterizes the 17th and 18th centuries, when British, Dutch, and
French merchants replaced the Portuguese as the major slave traders in the Atlantic.
African communities enslaved members of neighboring or enemy ethnic groups. They then sold
these slaves to European traders.
Enslaved Africans were imported from Africa to the American colonies as the labor force needed
to produce cash crops, which were exported to Europe to exchange for manufactured goods.
European goods were then used to trade with Africans for slaves and exported to the American
colonies, where the cycle of the trade started again.
TERMS [ edit ]
Atlantic Triangular Trade
The best­known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated from the
late 16th to early 19th centuries, carrying slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between
West Africa, Caribbean or American colonies and the European colonial powers, with the
northern colonies of British North America, especially New England, sometimes taking over the
role of Europe.
Second Atlantic System
The Second Atlantic system was the trade of enslaved Africans by mostly British, Portuguese,
French and Dutch traders. The main destinations of this phase were the Caribbean colonies and
Brazil, as European nations built up economically slave­dependent colonies in the New World.
First Atlantic System
The Atlantic slave trade or trans­atlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic ocean from the
16th through to the 19th centuries.
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The Atlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean, predominantly from the 16th to
the 19th centuries. The vastmajority of slaves transported to the New World were Africans
from the central and western parts of the continent, sold by native African tribes to European
slave traders who then transported them to the colonies in North and South America.
Various African tribes played a fundamental role in the slave trade by selling their captives or
prisoners of war to European buyers, which was a common practice on the continent. The
prisoners and captives who were sold to the Europeans were usually from neighboring or
enemy ethnic groups, and therefore not considered part of the African group dealing with the
European slavers. Sometimes, African kings sold criminals into slavery as a form of
punishment. The majority of African slaves, however, were foreign tribe members obtained
from kidnappings, raids, or tribal wars.
The First Atlantic system is a term used to characterized the Portuguese and Spanish African
slave trade to the South American colonies in the 16th century­­which lasted until 1580, when
Portugal was temporarily united with Spain. While the Portuguese traded enslaved people
themselves, theSpanish empire relied on the asiento system, awarding merchants (mostly
from other countries) the license to trade enslaved people to their colonies. During the First
Atlantic system, most of these traders were Portuguese, giving them a near­monopoly during
the era, although some Dutch, English, and French traders also participated in the slave
trade. After the union with Spain, Portugal was prohibited from directly engaging in the slave
trade as a carrier, and so ceded control over the trade to the Dutch, British and French.
The Second Atlantic system, from the 17th through early 19thcenturies, was the trade of
enslaved Africans that was dominated by British, French, and Dutch merchants. Most
Africans sold into slavery during the Second Atlantic system were sent to the Caribbean
sugar islands, as European nations developed economically slave­dependent colonies
through sugar cultivation. It is estimated that more than half of the slave trade took place
during the 18th century, with the British as the biggest transporters of slaves across the
Atlantic. In the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, most of the international slave trade was
abolished (although American slavery continued to exist well into the late 19th century).
European colonists in the Americas initially practiced systems of both bonded labour and
indigenous slavery. However, for a variety of reasons, Africans replaced Indians as the main
population of enslaved people in the Americas. In some cases, such as on some of the
Caribbean Islands, warfare and disease eliminated the indigenous populations completely. In
other cases, such as in South Carolina, Virginia, and New England, the need for alliances
with Indian tribes, coupled with the availability of enslaved Africans at affordable prices,
resulted in a shift away from Native American slavery.
The resulting Atlantic slave trade was primarily shaped by labor shortage as the colonies
attempted to produce raw goods for European consumption. Many American crops (cotton,
sugar, and rice) were not grown in Europe, and importing crops and goods from the New
World often proved to be more profitable than producing them on the European mainland.
However, a vast amount of labor was needed to create and sustain plantations that required
intensive labor to harvest and process tropical commodities. Western Africa (and later,
Central Africa), became the Europeans' only source for acquiring enslaved peoples to meet
the demand for labor in the American colonies in order to produce a steady supply of cash
crops .
Atlantic Triangular Trade
The term "triangular trade" is used to characterize much of the Atlantic trading system from
the 16th to early 19thcenturies, in which three main commodity­types were traded in three key
Atlantic geographic regions: labor, crops, and manufactured goods .
Depiction of the classical model of the Triangular trade
Depiction of the classical model of the Triangular trade.
A classic example would be the trade of sugar (often in its liquid form, molasses) from the
Caribbean to Europe or New England, where it was distilled into rum. The profits from the
sale of sugar were used to purchase manufactured goods, which were then shipped to West
Africa, where they were bartered for slaves. The slaves were then brought to the Caribbean to
be sold to sugar planters. The profits from the sale of the slaves were then used to buy more
sugar, which was shipped to Europe, etc. This particular triangular trip took anywhere from
five to 12 weeks, and often resulted in massive fatalities of enslaved Africans on the Middle
Passage voyage .
Slave Ship
Diagram of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade.