Gabon, Angola, the Republic of Congo,
and the Democratic Republic of Congo
(formerly Zaire). (Africa’s two nations
known as Congo trace their roots back to
the Kingdom of Kongo, which was
founded in the 15th century and col-
lapsed in the wake of European colonial-
ism in the 18th century.)
The West African coast had its share
of powerful states. In eastern Senegal, the
Tukulor people established the Tekrur
state, which dominated its area from the
11th to 14th centuries. The kingdom of
Benin, in what is now Nigeria, was a
powerful force in trade with Europe from
the 15th to 18th centuries, and it also
produced magnificent bronze sculptures.
Benin was later eclipsed by the Oyo
Empire, led by the Yoruba people, who
emerged in Nigeria in the 17th century
and survived into the 19th century. The
kingdom of Dahomey in what is now
Benin and the Ashanti (Asante) confeder-
ation in what is now Ghana also lasted
from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Despite the existence of states like
these, ruled by kings or princes, many
people in West Africa lived in stateless
communities: the Ibo, for example, who
lived in the forests of what is now
Nigeria east of the Niger River; and the
Tiv, who lived along the Benue River,
which flows through what are now
Cameroon and Nigeria. The status of
people in these societies was based on
kinship affiliations, with village elders
administering justice and each family
worshipping its personal gods and har-
vesting its own crops, particularly yams,
palm oil, and kola nuts. The wood sculp-
tures and music of some of these stateless
peoples were as remarkable as works pro-
duced in the centralized kingdoms.The Slave Trade
Even before the transatlantic slave trade
began, African societies captured, sold,
and used slaves. But the pace of the slave
trade greatly increased after 1444–1445,
when Portuguese explorers reached Cape
Verde, an archipelago off the West African
coast, and the mouth of the Senegal River
in what is now Senegal. The Portuguese
soon began trading with the Africans,
seeking primarily gold but also pepper,
ivory, and slaves. Portuguese trade soon
extended down the West African coast; inthe 1480s, it reached what are now Angola
and the Republic of Congo.
At first, the trade in slaves was light,
with captives shipped mainly to Europe
to work as domestic servants. These
slaves, heavily Europeanized, were the
first Africans to come to the New World,
entering as servants of the Spanish con-
quistadores. They shared their masters’
religion, language, and culture, and
became known as ladinos, a word derived
from a Latin term for “cunning” or
“learned.” By contrast, slaves shipped to
the Americas directly from Africa, unfa-
miliar with European language or culture,
became known as bozales, a word that
also referred to the muzzles used on dogs
or horses.
The slave trade began to grow in
the late 15th century, when Portugal and
Spain were establishing sugar plantations
on such Atlantic islands as Madeira, the
Canaries, and São Tomé. The planta-
tions needed agricultural workers, so
slaves were imported directly from Africa.
Their unpaid labor helped generate con-
siderable profits for their owners.
Desiring similar wealth from the
Americas, Spain, began to import vast
numbers of slaves in the mid-16th centu-
ry for its American empire. Africans were
brought to Peru and Mexico to toil at
everything from mining and textile man-
ufacture to skilled crafts such as metal-
working. But they were especially in
demand in the West Indies, where
Spanish brutality and disease had killed
off much of the Native American popula-
tion, eliminating them as potential work-
ers for the sugar plantations that were
beginning to sprout there.
The slave trade boomed as the years
went on. From Columbus’s discovery of
the New World in 1492 until 1600,
Spanish America imported about 75,000
African slaves. In the 17th century, the
number imported was 292,000; from
1701 to 1810, the total was 578,600. Nor
was Spain alone in this commerce. By
1810, the various American empires—
including those of Spain, Portugal,
Britain, France, the Netherlands, and
Denmark—had imported a total of more
than 7 million African slaves. Portugal
dominated the transatlantic slave trade
for more than a century, but Spain,
Britain, and other European powers
eventually joined in the business. The
European slavers were aided by African16 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY