re: Who owned 100% of the slave ships and ran the Triangle Trade for molasses and rum

Forgot about he Barbary slave trade

You're not allowed to explore this avenue of history anymore because it inevitably leads to acknowledging that economy was a significant issue in the Civil War which equals politically incorrect. You'll just have to figure that one out yourself...

To answer your question though, there was not always a single ship or even owner that completed the 'triangle'.

In fact, the 'triangle' was not always literal in terms of a ship or even geography. A better way to think of it is in terms of economic quid pro quos resulting in a triangular relationship of dependency.

Someone in the thread listed banks as financing ships - undoubtedly true. But not sure how that is particularly relevant...who does anybody think would finance ships, etc. or other large capital?

Another mentioned that the generation of a supply of slaves for sale out of West Africa was created by African tribes and internal warring - absolutely true but not often emphasized by modern day historians..

One of my history professors -African History 1500-present (when 'present' was circa 1990)- always emphasized two things: 1) the historian should never project contemporary sensibilities onto past history and 2) all of history is driven by economic and religious imperatives.

Go get your own sources!

quote:

---

goldennugget

---

I'm triggered

West Indie Trading Company

Controlled the entire sea at one point

quote:

---

Totally did Nazi that coming.

Waka waka... :rimshot:

---

quote:

---

Most slaves were bought from African warring tribes. They would take each other captive, then when they saw a chance at a profit in trade, they began to deal through European and US slave traders. nobody's hands were clean. Doesn't excuse our countries part in it, but it's not like we invented slavery or controlled the slave trade.

---

Definitely more true for the latter stages (the British, French, and Dutch era).

It was a bit different for the initial phase by the Portuguese and, to a lesser extent, the Spanish. Sales from local tribes were certainly a substantial part, but the Portuguese actually had set up a colony with missionaries, legions of soldiers, a governance structure, etc. The Portuguese were some brutal arse MFers, and they took by force and crook plenty on their own. The vast majority of those went to Brazil and the Spanish American vice royalties. They also were from a bit further to the east and south of where most slaves to went to North America came.

The British, French, and Dutch generally didn't have much more than brokers on the coasts while the Arabs were pretty deeply embedded in the system.

It's actually a little bit amazing and horrifying that the Spanish and Portuguese managed to drive off the caliphate from the Iberian Peninsula, conquer half the world, and enslave tens of millions of people all within a 200 year period or so - probably one of the more remarkable (in both the good sense and bad sense) achievements in human history.