TimeMaps

The Atlantic Slave Trade began almost as soon as Europeans sailed into West African waters. By the 18th Century, it had become a vast industry, with Britain taking the lead. This sequence of maps looks at the origins and growth of the trade, at the way it worked, both for Europeans and Africans, and at the impact it had on all areas involved.

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How to use The Atlantic Slave Trade

1. Presentation Mode:
Maps are ideal resources which: put the study area in context, show changes over time, provide a visual overview for the topic, and engage visual learners.

2. Depth Study Mode:
Let students interact with and explore the historical period in their own time with extra information and images to guide them and gain a much deeper understanding.  

Questions asked/ answered in the Atlantic Slace Trade TimeMap

 - Why was slavery common in Africa at this time (according to some modern scholars)?

- By which two main routes were slaves taken out of Africa?

- What were the Portuguese sailors most interested in buying when they arrived off the West African coast?

- What region in West Africa was the main source of slaves at this time?

- Which place had become the main source of sugar by about this date?

- Were the Portuguese only interested in slaves?

- Did all the slaves bought by Portuguese traders end up in Portugal?

- Why did the rulers of the two African kingdoms mentioned here change their attitude to Portuguese slave traders as time went on?

- Which European nations were settling the New World at this time?

- The information in this map describes new developments in the slave trade - did these mean that the Portuguese stopped being involved in the slave trade?

- The main production centres of the sugar trade shifted - from where to where?

- The main source of slaves also shifted to a new region in Africa; where was this?

- List the reasons why African captives began being taken to the Americas by Europeans in the 16th century.

- Which was the first of the northern European nations to become involved in the Slave Trade? Which areas of the New World did it control? How did it come to be involved in the Slave Trade?

- What goods did the European merchants take out to sell to the Africans?

- How were the peoples of Central Africa, far from the Atlantic, affected by slaving?

- Were Europeans the only ones involved in the Slave Trade?

- In answering this question, does the information provided in map 1 help you to understand why this was so?

- What developments within African society at this time helped expand the supply of slaves?

- How, do you think, might these developments have been actually caused, or at least helped, by the Atlantic Slave Trade?

- Referring to these developments, how do they help to explain the fact that, in history, the effects of some developments are often the causes of others?

- List the impacts described in this map which the Atlantic Slave Trade had upon various African societies.

- Why did some African societies become predators, and some prey, when it came to the Slave Trade?

- The information in this map shows that the centre of gravity of sugar production shifted once again - from where to where?

- Why did slavery take root in the Caribbean islands?

- Who owned the sugar plantations in the Caribbean islands?

- Why did the Caribbean islands' demand for slaves from Africa never slacken?

- Sugar was the main crop grown by slaves in the New World, but two other crops are named on this map - what are they and where were they grown?

- What were the slaves exchanged for in the New World?

- List the effects that the Atlantic Slave Trade had on Britain and Europe.

- What sort of societies arose in the Caribbean islands and in the southern colonies of British North America?

- Looking back at the previous four maps, can you see why the Atlantic Slave Trade was called the "Triangular Trade"?

- According to the information in this map, in what ways was a slaving voyage different from any other trading voyage, from the crew's point of view?

- In what ways did Africans tend to become enslaved?

- Of every 100 people in West Africa attacked by slaving gangs, how many (according to modern estimates) would be still alive after their capture and march to the coast?

- Remember the group of 100 Africans attacked by a slave band in the last-but-one map? How many of them survive the "Middle Passage" to become slaves in the New World?

- Why, do you think, were the European crews so brutal? (No right answer - just you thoughts!)

- Why may the ruling classes on the African coast have been suffering from such widespread anxiety at this time? (No right answer - just your ideas!)

- Remember the group of 100 Africans attacked by a slave band, and whose fortunes we have been following in the previous few maps? How many survive the first three years of captivity?

- Looking back over this and the three preceding maps, which was the most dangerous part of the process for the European crews, do you think? and which for the enslaved Africans?

- A common idea of a slaving voyage was for a European ship to go to Africa with its cargo of European goods, then go to a New World port with its cargo of slaves, and then return home to Europe with its cargo of sugar. In what ways is this picture not really accurate?

For the Advanced Questions and Activities see the Teacher Notes

World History  > Products  > The Atlantic Slave Trade

Other titles available in the Interactive Series:
The Rise of the Roman Empire, The Fall of the Roman Empire, The Rise of Islam, The Black Death, The Norman Conquest, Medieval England and Her Neighbours pt. 1 (1087-1215), Medieval England and Her Neighbours pt. 2 (1215-1453), European Exploration and Discovery,