How did the Atlantic Slave Trade expand from the 1500s onwards?

The Atlantic Slave Trade expanded from the 1500s onwards due to increasing European colonisation and the growth of plantation economies.

The Atlantic Slave Trade, also known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade, began in the 15th century with the Portuguese exploration of West Africa. Initially, the trade was relatively small-scale, but it expanded significantly from the 1500s onwards. This expansion was primarily driven by the increasing European colonisation of the Americas and the Caribbean, and the subsequent growth of plantation economies that relied heavily on slave labour.

The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492 marked the beginning of a new era of European exploration and colonisation. As European powers such as Spain, Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands established colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean, they began to develop plantation economies. These plantations, which produced commodities such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton, required a large and cheap labour force. African slaves, captured and transported across the Atlantic in horrific conditions, provided this labour.

The demand for slave labour was further fuelled by the demographic catastrophe that befell the indigenous populations of the Americas. Diseases brought by the Europeans, such as smallpox, decimated these populations, leaving the colonisers without a sufficient local labour force. As a result, they turned increasingly to the importation of African slaves.

The expansion of the Atlantic Slave Trade was also facilitated by technological advancements in navigation and shipbuilding. These advancements made it possible for European ships to travel further and faster, and to transport larger numbers of slaves. The development of the triangular trade system, in which European goods were traded for African slaves, who were then transported to the Americas and exchanged for plantation commodities, further increased the scale and profitability of the slave trade.

Finally, the expansion of the Atlantic Slave Trade was underpinned by a complex web of social, economic, and political factors. These included the complicity of African rulers and merchants in the slave trade, the role of the slave trade in financing European industrialisation, and the ideological justifications for slavery provided by racial theories and religious doctrines. Together, these factors created a self-perpetuating system of exploitation that sustained the Atlantic Slave Trade for over three centuries.