Latin America and Africa during the Age of the Atlantic Slave Trade Lesson

Slavery in Latin America Image When the Europeans discovered and colonized the Americas, a new hemisphere was incorporated into the ever-widening world trade network. Different regions experienced different consequences thanks to this broadening network. Western Europe benefited from this contact with the Americas as the Europeans colonized the new areas and attained economic profit from them. This module will focus on the other regions affected by the inclusion of the western hemisphere into the world trade network: the Americas themselves and Sub-Saharan Africa. For the people of these regions, the consequences of contact were much different. Entire societies were changed or destroyed as the Europeans brought new diseases, technologies, and power structures. The changes that occurred in the Americas, particularly in Latin America, and Africa in the Age of European colonization were historically significant.

Latin America (1450-1750)

The Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec empire in 1519, while Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incas in 1534.
The Spanish relied on better weapons technology, the use of horses, and European diseases such as smallpox to devastate the Native American populations.
The Columbian Exchange refers to the cultural diffusion that took place between Europe, the Americas, and Africa due to the new contact between the eastern and western hemispheres in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Colonial economies in Latin America were designed to export mainly silver and sugar and relied mainly on slave labor. The mita system, where each Native American community was expected to supply a certain number of laborers for a certain amount of time, was a typical example of this forced labor system. The Spanish actually borrowed the idea of the mita system from the Inca, who had used it very effectively in their empire.
Native Americans did not make particularly profitable slaves because of their susceptibility to European diseases like smallpox and measles. The Europeans therefore turned to Africans as alternative forced laborers.
A new social system developed in Latin America primarily based on race. Whites were considered at the top of the social hierarchy.

Review information presented in the summary below of Early Latin America:

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