Slavery Politics

Besides social changes and the visible difference in Africa’s demographics, the political effects of slavery were devastating to Africa during the 17^th and 18^th centuries. With the increasing desire for slaves and firearms, trade for the two between the Africans became overwhelmingly popular. Conversely, the rise violence among the African states was directly correlated with the trade.

The demand for slaves drove African states to go to war with each other in order to avoid becoming enslaved themselves. This weakened the stability of political structures throughout Africa and caused fractionalization. These wars led to a form of imperialism. In a particular case, the Kingdom of Dahomey, modern day Republic of Benin, was able to use the trade to easily obtain firearms, which allowed them to absorb surrounding kingdoms along with their slaves. This form of imperailization, while not typically common throughout the African states, however, was enough to alter its politics and societies. 


While politically, the slave trade was damaging to Africa, economically the trade contributed greatly to new societies, especially in the Americas. Slave labor cultivated and extracted many of the crops and minerals that made their way around the global trade networks during the early modern era. This allowed the new economies to grow at an exponential rate; without the slave trade the colonies in the America’s would have not been as successful.