1450–1900 · Global · Trade
European and American traders forcibly transported millions of Africans across the Atlantic into systems of plantation slavery; African and diasporic resistance never ceased.
Atlas dossier · Early Modern WorldFree device narration · synchronized English captions · transcript available
Why it matters
European and American traders forcibly transported millions of Africans across the Atlantic into systems of plantation slavery; African and diasporic resistance never ceased.
Enslaved Africans · African states · European traders · maroon communities · abolitionists
The trade transformed demography, capitalism, food systems, racial ideologies and cultures across four continents.
Interpretation note
This dossier distinguishes the event’s basic chronology from later arguments about meaning, responsibility and legacy. When comparing religious, national, Indigenous or scholarly interpretations, consult the primary and institutional sources above alongside peer-reviewed historical work.
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