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The Transatlantic Trade and Slavery in Africa Use two chapters from different texts to begin to investigate the links between the themes therein and the broader issues of looking at Africa In your answer consider how these issues and themes are formulated

...... The rising interest in Africa in terms of trade can be seen as one of the root causes that began the form of slave trade that is so maligned in today's moral viewpoint. American plantations became a very large industry in the accumulation of wealth. In order to maximize profit, wealthy plantation owners began to use slave labor to work on their lands. During the late 15th century, East Africa was marked by thriving Swahili states, and a peaceful climate. This was however changed during the course of the century by several invasions that began with the Portuguese (Gilbert and Reynolds 223)[3]
For various reasons also addressed by Amin and Gage, Africa had lost its autonomy by the mercantilist period, and was reduced to a supplier not only of goods, but also of manpower for wealthy American landowners. The underlying reason for this is demographic, according to Amin and Gage (3); while Europe and China developed in terms of both population growth and agriculture between 1000 and 1500AD, Africa developed only in terms of population growth. Hence, the continent's lack of agricultural productivity led to its involvement in other forms of trade, which included the supply of slave labor......