The Slave Trade
History: KS3, topic 6.3.1
The Triangular Trade
Britain lost control of her North American colonies, but still controlled important colonies in the Caribbean. These colonies were at the centre of the slave trade, which brought Britain great wealth.
Sugar
- Many British settlers in the Caribbean established vast sugar plantations, where they grew sugar which was then refined and exported to Britain.
- Increasing demand for sugar in Britain meant increasing amounts of sugar needed to be produced in the Caribbean.
West African slaves
- But these British settlers needed workers to turn the sugar cane into refined, granulated sugar.
- This was a time-consuming and laborious job, requiring a lot of labour.
- Many of the native population of the Caribbean had been killed by European diseases, and the British were not prepared to do the work themselves.
- So they resorted to using slaves from West Africa.
The triangular trade
- This resulted in the creation of the triangular trade.
- Goods were transported from Britain to West Africa and exchanged for captured West Africans.
- They would then be transported as slaves to the Caribbean and exchanged for rum or sugar which would be transported back to England.
Atlantic crossing
- Over 3 million Africans were enslaved by the British and forcibly taken to the Caribbean.
- If they survived the terrible journey across the Atlantic, these slaves lived harsh lives, doing intense manual labour on the sugar plantations, which made the European plantation owners rich.
Wealth
- The triangular trade brought great wealth to British port cities, such as Bristol and Liverpool, and marked the beginning of a period in which Britain would come to dominate world trade.
Test yourself on The Slave Trade
What kind of plantation did many British settlers establish in the Caribbean?
The Triangular Trade