How did the slave trade in West Africa begin?
vahokies Teacher High School – 11th Grade Slavery in any part of Africa didn’t just begin. Slavery, sadly enough, has been a part of many cultures of the world for thousands of years. Not only has it been a part of it, but it was more or less socially accepted as well. What I mean by this is that when one tribe went to war with another, then the victor would conquer the enemy and make their defeated foes a part of their spoils. With that part said, let’s go back to early exploration by the Spanish and Portuguese. Hundreds of years before Columbus set sail to the Americas, Europeans had tried to find a shorter water route to Asia. The task was difficult simply because the technology was poor so developing structurally sound ships on a consistant basis was hit or miss. Navigational tools by the Europeans were less than adequate to handle long distances as well. As mentioned before, Spanish and Portuguese were constantly pushing the limits by sailing further and further south along the co
