{"id":2899,"date":"2016-04-30T23:15:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T23:15:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=2899"},"modified":"2025-11-28T08:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T08:59:27","slug":"trade-triangle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/trade-triangle\/","title":{"rendered":"Trade Triangle: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Trade Triangle is a term used by historians to refer to the form of trade that occurred across the Atlantic Ocean during much of the time of the\u00a0Atlantic Slave Trade<\/a>.\u00a0 In fact, it took place from about the 16th century until the 19th century and involved a major network of trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas.\u00a0 As a historical event, the Trade Triangle occurred after the events of the\u00a0Age of Exploration<\/a>, which saw European explorers sail along the west coast of Africa and to the new lands in the Americas.\u00a0 As the Americas developed colonies, trade with Europe and Africa became incredibly important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

THREE ROUTES OF THE TRADE TRIANGLE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In general, the Trade Triangle was a set of three routes that saw goods and people travel between Europe, Africa and the Americas.\u00a0 European traders exported manufactured goods (metal tools, textiles, tobacco, beads, etc.) to the societies of west coast Africa in exchange for African slaves.\u00a0 The European goods were manufactured in European factories and shops.\u00a0 Next, the African slaves were put aboard European slave ships and taken to the Americas to be sold for huge profits.\u00a0 Here the slaves would be put to work on plantations in order to harvest raw materials.\u00a0 The final stage of the Trade Triangle involved European traders taking the harvested raw materials from the plantations back to Europe where they were processed into goods in European factories.\u00a0 The most notable of these raw materials included: sugar, cotton, coffee, metals, and tobacco.\u00a0 In general, the Trade Triangle formed a cycle that saw raw materials, manufactured goods, and people transported all across the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0The route from Africa to the Americas was commonly known as the\u00a0Middle Passage<\/a>.\u00a0 This was the part in which African slaves were shipped to the Americas, which was a central part of the Atlantic Slave Trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As stated above, the Trade Triangle of the northern Atlantic Ocean began in the 16th century, and was developed alongside the events of the Atlantic Slave Trade.  At its heart, the Atlantic Slave Trade was about transporting African slaves to the New World to work on plantations. The Atlantic Slave Trade began in the 16th century, and reached its peak in the 18th century.  It finally concluded near the end of the 19th century.  During the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade, approximately 12 million Africans were put on slave ships, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and sold into slavery.  Of this 12 million, approximately 600,000 were transported to the United States, which means that about 5% of all African slaves from the Atlantic Slave Trade were brought to America.  This process first began in the early colonies of America but continued well into the 19th century.  In fact, African slavery in the United States became an important feature of early America.  The early trade in slaves proved so profitable for slave owners in the New World that the practise expanded in 18th and 19th centuries.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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*Editors note – To be clear, we are not condoning the use of African slave labor in the Americas, rather trying to explain and understand the choices made at the time.\u00a0 The discussion of the use of African slaves below is from the historical perspective of European slave merchants and does not represent modern views.\u00a0 It is also important to remember\u00a0and make note of the terrible treatment\u00a0that African slaves experienced aboard the slave ships as well as on the slave plantations in the Americas.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Trade
Trade Triangle Map by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

ROLE OF EUROPE IN THE TRADE TRIANGLE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In all, Portugal, Spain, Britain and France were the European nations that participated in the\u00a0Atlantic Slave Trade\u00a0the most.\u00a0 For European merchants, a reliable work force was needed in the New World in order to work on\u00a0plantations\u00a0in order to grow crops, such as: tobacco, sugar, and cotton.\u00a0 The indigenous peoples of the Americas proved inadequate (from a European slave merchant perspective) because most were dying from European diseases and a large enough population could not be kept to act as a work force.\u00a0 Europeans themselves were unsuited for the climate of the Americas (especially in Central and South America) and suffered from tropical diseases.\u00a0 Furthermore, European merchants were seeking the economic benefit that came from slave labor.\u00a0 Therefore, African slaves were the preferred choice (from a European slave merchant perspective) to act as slave labor in the New World, because they usually were experienced with the work required (farming) and they were used to a tropical climate and resistant to tropical diseases.\u200b\u00a0 As well, European racist beliefs (such as\u00a0Social Darwinism<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ethnocentrism<\/a>) caused European merchants to view African people as a commodity rather than a people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the slaves from Africa were taken by the European slave ships along the west coast of Africa.  However, it should be noted that the Africa played an active role in the Atlantic Slave Trade.  For instance, African societies along the western coast often captured and enslaved other Africans from the interior of the continent.  Then, the western societies would sell or trade the captured slaves to European traders along the coast.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Atlantic
Atlantic Slave Trade Map by History Crunch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MIDDLE PASSAGE OF THE TRADE TRIANGLE<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most famous route of the Trade Triangle was the one that stretched from Africa to the Americas.\u00a0 This route saw millions of African slaves transported to the New World and was referred to as the Middle Passage<\/a>.\u00a0 As such, the Middle Passage is notorious for the terrible conditions and treatment that the African slaves were subjected to as they were forced across the Atlantic Ocean by European slave traders.\u00a0 For example,\u00a0life aboard the slave ships\u00a0for African slaves was terrible while crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the Middle Passage. Slaves suffered in cramped conditions (each slave only had 4 square feet of space) and the lower decks received poor air circulation meaning the stench would linger and lead to horrible air quality.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all, the Trade Triangle was a significant event in world history.  This is because it led to the further economic development of colonies in the New World, including the United States.  As well, it heavily benefitted European nations, since they prospered from the economic trade that occurred along the routes of the Trade Triangle.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Atlantic
‘The Slave Trade’ by Auguste Fran\u00e7ois Biard. (1840)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trade Triangle was a system of transatlantic trade in the 16th to 19th centuries where goods, enslaved Africans, and raw materials were exchanged between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. This article details the history and significance of the Trade Triangle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":21,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,49,36,34],"tags":[96,95,57,62,15,97],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-age-of-exploration","category-economics","category-slavery-in-the-united-states","category-thirteen-colonies","tag-age-of-discovery","tag-age-of-exploration","tag-american-history","tag-economics","tag-history","tag-slavery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4522,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2899\/revisions\/4522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}