Exam 13: Worlds Entangled, 1600-1750

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While the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on the individuals who were enslaved and sent to the Americas was uniformly negative, its effect on African societies was more ambiguous. For urban merchants whose wealth and power were increased by trade, warriors whose skills were in demand, and princes who were able to create strong states, the presence of the slave trade was beneficial. Their gains came at the expense of rural villagers and traditional local authorities such as: village elders, whose ways of life were disrupted by the trade; people who controlled older forms of wealth such as herds and land, which were eclipsed by the new trade; and those leaders who were unable to harness the slave trade's potentially destructive power and found themselves caught in disorder or civil war. For those leaders who were able to benefit, the slave trade contributed to the formation of states by providing a commodity that was demanded by global trade networks. Further, the gender imbalance caused by the Atlantic slave trade's preference for young male workers threatened to exacerbate the decline in population and upset traditional economic roles. However, this imbalance was partly offset by an increase in polygyny, which allowed more women to reproduce than would have been possible under monogamy. Thus, the longer-term impact on the population was not as great as it might have been and, combined with the added nutrition from new food crops from the Americas, the African population slowly recovered. In West Africa, the Asante state began to emerge in what is now Ghana in the early eighteenth century. The Asante had access to gold, some of which they exchanged for weapons. Weapons were used to catch slaves, who were then traded to Europeans for more manufactured goods and weapons. A trade network based in the Asante capital, Kumasi, eventually spread throughout the kingdom and to the coast, helping to solidify the kingdom's authority. In contrast, the Kongo kingdom of central Africa was destabilized by the trade. A civil war began in the mid-seventeenth century and lasted for over a century, during which many combatants and bystanders were enslaved and exported. Captured soldiers were sold into slavery; others took advantage of the disorder to kidnap rural villagers as they worked in their fields. The spread of guns and gunpowder, funded by the slave trade, both fueled the war and made the capture of slaves much more efficient. On a societal level, social disorder, the decline of effective governance, and outright warfare-the fate of places targeted by the slave trade-were also potential outcomes for those who participated in the lucrative but risky venture.