Chapter 26: Africa and the Atlantic World

Vocabulary

• Antonian Movement: A form of Christianity and of which was centered around the beliefs of Dona Beatriz. It began around 1704 in the Kingdom of Kongo. The movement died shortly after Dona Beatriz died in 1706. This was an extremely influential syncretic cult. 

• Creole: Creolized languages are languages that are created through the mixture of two languages. Creole peoples were a person of European descent that was born in the West Indies or Spanish America. 

• Queen Nzinga: Queen Nzinga was the Queen of Angola, and for forty years she led Angolan resistance against Portugal in its conquest of much of Africa. She had dreams of an empire stretching all over the lower Congo Basin. 

• Syncretism: The joining or mixing of two different religions, societies, or sets of beliefs. This was very common in the colonization of South America, especially Brazil. 

• Cash crops: Cash crops were crops grown in the new world primarily as commercial crops, and not sustenance. Some prime examples were tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo, and sugar. 

• Abolition Movement: Abolition movements were movements to end slavery. This was a long and drawn-out process. The complete emancipation of slaves came about in… 

                                                Great Britain in 1833

                                                France and French Colonies in 1848

                                                The U.S. in 1865

                                                Cuba in 1886

                                                Brazil in 1888

                                                Saudi Arabia and Angola in the 1960s

• Dona Beatriz: Dona Beatriz was the leading advocate of the Antonian Movement. She believed that the patron saint of Portugal, Saint Anthony, and was said to be the cause of many miracles and healing of people. She was charged with heresy and was burned at the stake in 1706. 

• Triangular Trade: Triangular trade referred to a trade pattern/route that involved Europe, Africa, and the new world. This took place in the Atlantic Ocean.

  • Europe to Africa: cloth, metalwares, and firearms.

  • Africa to N.W.: African Slaves 

  • N.W. to Europe: Cash or sugar/molasses 

• Kingdom of Kongo: This was a region of fast development near the Zaire River (or Congo River). The villages nearby developed fast economically and soon formed small kingdoms. This in turn began to fight amongst them until larger kingdoms were formed. The Kingdom of Kongo was one of the most prominent of these kingdoms, and took up most of modern day Angola and Republic of Congo. 

• Maroons: Maroons was a term used to describe slaves that had escaped, or in other words, fugitive black (African) slaves. This term was used in the 17th and 18th centuries.

• The Fulani: An Islamic people that inhabited West Africa between northern Nigeria and Mali. This was also the language of the Fulani people. They were originally pastoral nomads. They led a series of military campaigns in the attempt to impose their form of Islam on surrounding African states and territories.

• Dahomey: The Kingdom of Dahomey was located in West Africa. It was a colony of France. The Kingdom was later renamed Benin, because Dahomey was not politically correct.

Focus Question #1

            Trace the origins and practice of slavery in Africa. To what extent were Africans involved in the slave trade?

            Slavery was practiced in Africa before Europeans began to ship slaves to the new world by the thousands, and Africans played a pivotal role in the delivery of slaves to Europeans.

            The map to the left shows the regions in which slaves were commonly taken from (or traded to by Africans) by Islamic or European peoples. The larger portion on the left was the parts that were frequently visited by the Europeans in search of slaves, and in their minds, profit. And the smaller portion on the left was what was used by the Muslims to find slaves to take and sell in the Middle East and India.

            However, a large difference between African slavery and slavery in the Americas is that they were given more opportunity, trust, and respect. African slaves were likely to be given high positions in societies because they could be trusted since they did not seek to gain personal power. Also, after serving a family for an extended period of time, slaves would often be given the chance to join their master’s kinship group. This could eventually lead to their freedom.

Focus Question #2

            Compare and contrast plantation society in North and South America.

            Whereas South America and North America both utilized slavery to advance their agricultural production, North America received a far lesser number of slaves, while South America received the majority.

            South and North America both were involved in the Triangular Trade that was so pivotal to their development. Both Americas traded cash or cash crops for the slaves. However, there were many more contrasts then similarities between the two societies.

            The living conditions of the slaves were perhaps the largest contrast. In South America, they were horrid. This was due to the high concentrations and huge numbers of slaves (especially males) that were forced to work there. On the other hand, because North American plantations received a smaller number of slaves, they gave better conditions to those they did receive. North American plantations also had more females, which allowed for slave families. This led to an increase in slaves born on North American plantations, whereas South American plantations had few females and therefore had little reproducing between slaves.

            Nasty tropical diseases were also much more common on South American plantations than on North American ones. This was due to the climate, and to the poorer living and working conditions of South American slaves.

Focus Question #3

            What were the effects of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa?

            The effects of the Atlantic slave trade in Africa were, with the rare exception, extremely negative.

            The social effects on Africa were huge. Sixteen million Africans were taken to the new world, and a large portion died on the brutal trip across the Atlantic. Also, several million Africans were enslaved through the Islamic Slave trade. While, African slavery numbers were not as high as the previous two, it still occurred for many hundreds of thousands of Africans beginning after the Bantu Migrations began.

            As well as keeping other Africans as slaves, Africans sold their slaves to Europeans and Muslims. This was largely a degradation of the slave’s life because African slave conditions were far better then the Americas’ slave conditions or those of the Middle East or India. Because so many male slaves were taken and/or traded for, many African women had to start doing the typical work of an African man. This was because of the decrease of population of the able bodied African men.

            All-in-all, the global desire for slaves (especially African) led to numerous African wars. The results of these wars were large populations being sold into slavery. Also, this inner turmoil just made it easier for the Europeans and Muslims to come in and enslave Africans.