Colonialism: Explain what it is and how the slave trade evolved as an instrument of power and suppression of enslaved people from Africa.

The official definition of Colonialsim is “The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.”

The Slave Trade

The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Passage from the 16th to the 19th centuries during ‘The Slave Trade’. The slave trade refers to transatlantic trading patterns, with trading ships containing manufactured goods which would sail from Europe to Africa where goods would be traded for people. The ships conditions were awful, they would be full with the slaves crammed together in the hold. They had no room to move and many did not survive the journey to America or the Caribbean.

The majority of those sold into slavery were destined to work on plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas, where huge areas of the American continent had been colonised by European countries. These plantations produced products such as sugar or tobacco, meant for consumption back in Europe.

Britain was one of the most successful slave trading countries. It was estimated that they transported 3.1 million Africans between 1640 and 1807.