Long-Term Impact of the Slave Trade on the Atlantic World Essay

Long-Term Impact of the Slave Trade on the Atlantic World - Essay Example It is known as the triangular slave trade as it involved three continents, Africa, America, and Europe. There were two significant parts of this slave trade. The first was the voyage of Europeans from England to Africa with their own goods such as rum for trade with manufactured goods. In West Africa, there existed a form of barter trade where these goods were exchanged with slaves. Consequently, these slaves were gathered together in ships and transported to the new world in West Indies where they were forced to work in sugar plantations. However, most of them died on the way due to diseases, mistreatment, and harsh conditions. After slaves were sold in the region, the profit from the transaction was used to buy sugar, molasses, and other commodities and these were shipped back to England. In this trade Ships were used to carry slaves, rum, sugar, molasses, tobacco, and other type of crops, which maintained this trade (Rawley & Behrendt,2005, p.189-190). This paper seeks to discuss the long-term impact of slave trade on the Atlantic world. The Atlantic slave trade had its impact on the Atlantic region. These regions were Africa, Europe, and America (new world). These long-term effects were either positive or negative. The impact of Atlantic slave trade had detrimental effect on Africa’s demographics. ... This caused a decline in population of West African states for a long time such as upper guinea. Population growth stagnated in the first in the second decades of the 19th century. Additionally, social unrest started due to intertribal warfare and capturing of slaves for the new market from the Europeans. This fuelled major disasters such as famine and drought as people shifted their efforts from economic activities to fights and slave trade. This was complicated further as there were fewer people to produce for the society and this led to further decline of the population. Moreover, the continued mix of different people at this time led to spread of diseases and further decline of population especially in the state of Angola (Thornton, 1998, p. 326-329). Additionally, Atlantic trade had an impact on African economy. There was a profound social and political change, which had a significant role in underdevelopment of Africa economy as well as ethnic fictionalization and disruption of effective states. It is worth noting that most of the slaves were taken from weaker states. The trade led to taking away of skilled and strong labor force that could have played a role in the progress of African region. Consequently, the only population that remained in most of these regions was old and could not do anything meaningful in economic development leading to stagnation and regression of the African states. Many communities relocated to other regions far away from the trade routes, which led to decline in their technological and economic development and most of the energy was dedicated to their security. In addition, relations between kingdoms, ethnic groups, and religious functions were changed. Actually, the present religious, ethnic,