The Triangular Trade

Overview

The Triangular Trade refers to a trade model that took place between the 15th and 19th centuries between three regions: Western Europe, West Africa, and the Americas.
The term “triangular” derives from the shape the routes would make on a map, effectively forming a triangle.

European goods were transported to Africa. These included textiles, rum, tobacco, and manufactured goods.
These European goods were traded with African leaders and merchants for slaves who had been captured in wars and raids.

This stage is known as the Middle Passage. It involved the gruelling transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean.
Slaves were tightly packed into ships, with appalling conditions often resulting in high mortality rates.
The slaves were taken to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and the Southern States of North America.

In the Americas, slaves were traded for raw materials and goods not found in Europe, including sugar, cotton, tobacco, molasses, and rum.
These goods were then transported back to Europe, completing the triangle.

The Triangular Trade had significant economic, social, and human impacts on all regions involved.
On a human level, millions of Africans were forcibly captured, transported, and enslaved; this had profound social and cultural impact on West African societies.
Economically, the trade fuelled the development of capitalist economies in Europe, particularly the rise of port cities like Bristol and Liverpool in Britain.
In the Americas, enslaved Africans were the labour source for plantations and mines, shaping their economic and social structures.

Abolition movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries led to the ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The British Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, prohibiting the slave trade within the British Empire.
Other European nations and the United States gradually followed suit, with the USA abolishing the trade in 1808.
The end of the trade did not mean the immediate end of slavery; in many places, it continued well into the 19th century and beyond.