Geographies of Colonialism and Slavery
What is colonialism?
Colonialism is the act of one nation
extending its influence by occupying
territories outside its national borders. The
motivation for doing this is almost always to
gain access to resources. In most cases
this will include natural resources, (e.g. oil
or gold) but there might also be a desire to
gain access to land which offers some
strategic military or economic advantage
over rivals.
European colonialism
Between 1500 and 1800 Holland, England,
Spain, Portugal and France all practised
colonial campaigns motivated by the profits
that could be gained by occupying less
powerful nations in Africa and the Americas
and exploiting their resources.
Colonialism and slavery
Colonising powers often justified their
treatment of indigenous populations by
asserting that those from the colonising
nation were somehow naturally ‘superior’ to
native peoples. Colonial thinking therefore
found a natural ally in classification systems
that placed Europeans at the top of a
‘hierarchy of races’ (see the information
sheet on ‘Classifying Race’). During the
slave trade European colonising nations
treated black Africans as a source of
labour, to be bought and sold.
other goods produced by plantations to
Europe.
The triangle of trade
The transatlantic slave trade is often
referred to as ‘The triangular trade’ as it
consisted of three journeys – each
journey forming one side of an oceanspanning triangle.
• One side of the triangle was formed
by the journey from Europe to
Africa, carrying manufactured goods
such as cloth, glassware, guns and
ammunition
• The second side of the triangle was
called ‘The Middle Passage’ which
took an enormous toll on the slaves
who were forcibly shipped from
Africa to work on plantations in the
Americas and the Caribbean (see
the information sheet ‘About
Slavery’)
• The third side of the triangle saw the
transport of sugar, rum, cotton and
The use of slave labour made it cheaper
for Europeans to purchase goods like
sugar and tobacco – which in turn
increased demand for the goods.
Production to meet this demand grew to
such an extent that the southern United
States was sometimes referred to as
‘plantation America’.
More information
•
•
•
•
www.slavetrade.parliament.uk
www.antislavery.org
www.understandingslavery.com
www.blackhistory4schools.com/slavetrade