The Dark Side of Commerce: Atlantic Slave Trade

Commerce has brought many great products, advances in technology, new wealth, prosperity and more. But it has also brought a dark side of history, slavery. The industry of slavery began through the Atlantic Trade. Europeans came into Africa looking for something to trade, originally they found sugar. It was a brand new sweetner much sweeter than the traditional honey, they had to have it. However, sugar had to be grown. The Europeans did not know anything about sugar therefore they decided to make the natives, the Africans, grow and harvest it. Europeans did not pay them therefore kickstarting the development of slavery, work without any benefit. Slavery grew from there. Colonists in the Americas saw they needed labor for harvesting cotton but did not want to pay anyone. This lead to importing Africans into the Americas for free labor. Slaves were treated horribly. They were beaten, raped, transported in crowded corriders, they were treated so badly, the average slave would last for 7 years before dying under the horrific conditions (Strayer 688). It was not just the colonists of the Americas that enlisted slaves. Many other kingdoms, including kingdoms in Africa, allowed and encouraged slavery of Africans such as the Kingdom of Kongo and Asante (Strayer 705,707). Slavery is a part of the dark history we would all like to forget. But it happened. There is nothing we can do it about. No doubt has it shaped our perceptions of Africans in present day. Racism, prejudices against a race especially those of African descent, exist because of slavery. However, we as the next generation can change that. We don't have to make the same mistakes our founding fathers did. Even if it's the small things like speaking up against a racist joke, we can change the culture of racism. We are all humans with many different backgrounds. All it takes is just to acknowledge our history, learn from it, and change.

Transforming the World Through Commerce

Commerce is what distinguishes the "old world" versus the "new world," (Strayer 670). In the old world, most countries were isolated. One grows up in a certain culture dependent on the country they are born in. Then this culture is passed down to future generations. However, in the new world, countries now started to interact with each other. They started to trade ideas, fur, food, textiles, money, weaponary, people, even other countries. This is known as commerce, otherwise known as large scale trading. The first regions to participate in commerce were Europe and Asia in the Indian Ocean commerce. Asia had many goods that the Europeans wanted, spices, silver, gold, cotton silk, people. Europe however had nothing of interest to the Asians (Strayer 673). This led to the Europeans, specificaly the Portuguese to use force. In essence they cheated the trade system. They used their powerful naval forces and strategic militray manuevers to conquer small Asian states to create posts for trade. They stole and ransaked. This became the norm, Europeans would come into weaker countries and steal their goods. However not only did the Europeans steal goods, they stole people. After, a new commerce emerged, the Atlantic Slave trade, where Europeans would capture people from African societies (Strayer 687). These African people would be transported mainly to the Americas to live their lives as slaves. The Americas were "discovered" by the Europeans then later colonized for American goods. After they colonized, slavery boomed in the Americas. Slavery not only took form in simple manual labor. It now had many forms. One slave could working in a household while another could be a sex slave. There were slaves in farms, businesses, even as high as in military and politics (Strayer 688). Slaves were fundamental in the developing American economy, they were free labor. With free labor, work could be done without losing profit. This was obviously great for the slave owners but horrible for the slaves. Slaves were treated as non-human demeaned to status of animal. Soon the Europeans and Americans realized this harsh treatment of slaves was inhumane and therefore outlawed slavery. However, the ideas of people who were once slaves, African Americans, are present today. Many African Americans are victims of stereotypes, discrimination, and ill treatment because the preconceived notion that African Americans are inhuman is still present today. In America especially, even in present day, there are unarmed African Americans who are shot without any consequence. This is because the Atlantic Slave trade brought not only people but ideas of a whole people. Despite this, there are some positives from this commerce. Africans brought into America brought their culture. They brought their food, language, spices and more. Their culture is alive in America. We would not have that without the Atlantic Slave trade. Commerce has brought great ideas, new cultures but it also had negative consequences like slavery and ill conceived notions of a group of people. One can not grow crops without growing weeds. Same with commerce, one can not only take the good from it, some bad must come of it too. This way we can learn from commerce what we want as a people and what we need to reject.

Modern Era: Empires

History is broken up into different eras: Paleolithic -> Neolithic -> Ancient -> Classical -> Modern. The modern era in my opinion is one of the most complex eras. It stands for evolution. People of this era gave rise to: "the beginnings of genuine globalization, elements of distinctly modern societies, and a growing European presence in world affairs," (Strayer 611). These great milestones were achieved through the rise and strengthening of empires. One empire that arose in the modern era is the Europeans. During the classical era, Europe had a massive societal decline. Europe's society rebounded because they got a revamp in attitude through the Renaissance movement. Europeans focused on the human form, how powerful how graceful how complex humans truly were. They began to believe in their superiority again as not only humans but as a people. Their new found confidence is what led to their rise in power. Europeans began to conquer the Americas. Europeans begun to believe their religion, knowledge, and overall culture was above the Native Americans.  This led to new advances in culture, technology and agriculture. The European empire was not the only empire that grew. Their neighboring continent housed a new empire the Chinese empire. It was ruled by many but the three main ones were: Qing Dynasty, Mughal, and Ottoman. The Chinese people like their European counterparts made some conquests. However, the Chinese empire did not focus on expansion as much as Europe. China specifically focused on defenses by building the Great Wall. They were inward focused making sure the people they were ruling were in line and keeping everything contained. This ultimately led to their downfall. Empires are truly strong if they are willing to adapt. As time passes, things change. If an empire is sedentary in their ways, they will fall. The people the Chinese controlled died out and because they did not evolve with the changing world, they fell behind. They did not have sight of the modern era. They were stuck in old times. The modern era stands for evolution. When one doesn't change one can't grow. That is why the Chinese empire died out before Europe. The Chinese were cowardice, stayed stagnant while the Europeans took risks and made strides to grow.

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