| json_metadata | "{"musingAppVersion":"1.1","appParentPermlink":"fkdttd9lx","appDepth":2,"appTitle":"Why did the Spaniards and the Portuguese decide that the slaves should have been from Africa and not from China or India?","app":"Musing","musingPostType":"answer","musingAppId":"aU2p3C3a8N","appParentAuthor":"seeee3","appTags":["history"],"appCategory":"history","appBody":"<p><br><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com.es\/medio\/2014\/11\/13\/esclavos1_2000x1179.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><strong>Offer and demand.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>In Sub-Saharan Africa, there was already a culture of selling slaves. Prisoners of war or criminals could be sold to slave traders, usually Bedouins who transported them across the Sahara to Arabia. During the middle ages and the beginning of the modern age, the slave trade was common in the Muslim world. If pirates from North Africa attacked your ship, it is likely that they sold you as a slave. But slavery within Muslim countries was usually limited. After some time of work the slave could obtain privileges and even emancipation. Faster if you accepted Islam.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>When the Portuguese explored the African coast, they found it interesting to acquire black slaves and take them to Europe, but there was no greater demand. During the middle ages in Europe the concept of slavery was abolished in the Christian world and there was no greater demand for slaves.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>But soon the Spaniards discovered America and the Portuguese came across Brazil. And two types of jobs appeared in which slave labor was very useful: mining and plantations.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>Then there was the offer in sub-Saharan Africa. And there was the demand in the Americas. An attempt was made to enslave the Native Americans, but diseases and the existing culture did not facilitate the activity. In addition, the Indians could escape and hide among their communities. Black Africans had some advantages for Europeans: they had no communities in the Americas, they resisted certain diseases better, and they were easy to detect because of their race.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>Then certain European investors realized that there was a good round business: they bought slaves in Africa, they transported them to America where they were put to produce in the mines and plantations, this product took them to Europe where they paid well and with which they could acquire goods coveted by the African kingdoms that captured and sold the slaves.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>This triangulation would have been more difficult with China or with India. Particularly because China or India did not have enough slaves for sale, nor enough demand for American or European products.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p>As for sub-Saharan Africa, the slaves that produced and sold before transatlantic traffic were relatively small. Some criminals Some prisoners of war. When Europeans began buying slaves wholesale, the need to produce more slaves increased, so many kingdoms began to wage war against their neighboring kingdoms only to obtain prisoners of war that would be exchanged for goods such as gold and weapons, the latter they made it easier to continue making war and enslaving neighbors. Much of the backwardness of West Africa was the result of the destruction that the transatlantic slave trade produced in communities that were once more prosperous.<\/p>"}" |
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