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The Atlantic Slave Trade : The Impact Of The Atlantic Slave Trade

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When Columbus sailed to the what he thought was India, he would never know the full implications of his “accident” that changed the world. Columbus’s discovery of the Americas created a whole new avenue for competing European states to jockey for world dominance, and most importantly, for wealth. In order to gain the power that Spain, France, Britain, and Portugal so greatly desired, an intercontinental trading network called the Atlantic Slave Trade was established. The need for cheap labor and the desire for large profits brought slaves from Africa, to North/South America. Slavery began to take a new shape, with a focus on plantation agriculture through a dehumanized class of workers. During the Atlantic Slave Trade, slavery was primarily beneficial to European’s. Not only did the Atlantic Slave Trade supply European’s with the resources (primarily crops) required to assume a position of world dominance, slavery also benefited Europeans by providing the wealth that was needed to compete with traditional Asian powers. However, slavery during the Atlantic Slave Trade was detrimental to African’s. They were ripped from their home lands, brought across the Atlantic, and sold into a life of manual labor, and often abuse. Similar to how Columbus would never know the full impact of his discoveries in 1492, Europeans during Atlantic Slave Trade would never know just how much it would catapult the European continent into a position of power, meanwhile having devastating effects on

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