the beginning of slavery
This political cartoon demonstrates the slave trade of Africa. There are mounds of coins on America and Europe, while the African continent is completely empty. The Europeans took the Africans, sold them as slaves, and earned lots of money because of it.
Africa was primarily used for the Europeans to obtain gold. This is what it was used for in about 1440, before slavery initially began. One of the very first trading posts Europe established in Africa was called "Elmina', which is the translation of "the mine" in Portuguese. This fort was also useful as a harbor for European ships. African people were kidnapped and then brought back to the fort to be traded for goods such as iron, guns, cloth, and other valuable items. Before Europeans even got to Africa, slavery already existed. However, it was much different from what we know it as and think of it as now. It didn't have the racism and the typical idea that whites were the masters and that Africans were slaves. They were also allowed to marry and even have their own slaves.
Colonization essentially started with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 1400's. This trade cycle, known as triangular trade, involved Americans, Europeans, and Africans. It was beneficial for everyone...except for Africa. The Europeans were lacking workers, and they knew that the African people were excellent workers. They came up with the idea to start military campaigns in Western Africa, at first, and literally captured these people.They worked efficiently in harsh climates and were used to it. The three stages of this slave trade were crucial at the time. The first involved taking European goods and tools over to Africa. These tools were used to get more slaves and the goods were traded for workers. The second stage was shipping the slaves to the Americas, where usually, very few survived. So, the Europeans didn't care one bit about them, to the point where they allowed for them to die. In the final stage, the products from slave labor were transferred back to Europe. This cycle was primarily involving Europe and Africa. The Europeans treated the African slaves very poorly for their own benefit. Later, around the sixteenth century, there was about 200,000 African people sent to Europe to be used as slaves. Then, many new ways for African people to be used were found, and it only progressed from there. The start of this slave-trading and colonizing process began with the sole idea that Europeans, whites, were better, and that they could do whatever they please, and rule Africa.