Chapter 18 Pages 458-473

Royal African company: association of English investors that in 1672 had received a charter from the English monarchy giving them exclusive rights to trade along the Atlantic Coast of Africa Atlantic System: moved goods, wealth, and people around the Atlantic After native cultures of the West Indies collapsed, sugar plantations, African slaves, and European capitals increased the level of economy Sugar and tobacco grown by African slaves Chartered companies:France and England gave groups of private investors monopoly over trade to the West Indie colonies in exchange for the payment of annual fees to promote national claims without government expense Dutch West India Company: Dutch government chartered this to carry the conflict between Dutch and Spain to Spain's overseas possessions Was a private trading company Seized Elmina and Luanda, Spanish ports When Portuguese was freed from Spanish rule, they tried to reconquer Brazil Slaves were primary source of power for sugar plantation African slave trade increased France and England created new colonies Processing sugarcane needed maximum efficiency Windmills and watermills were used to power the larger plantations Plantation size increased Soil exhaustion and deforestation New species crowded indigenous ones Human population decrease Plantocracy: small number of very rich men who owned most of the slaves and the land Slave life was grueling great whites-little whites-free blacks-slaves Manumission: legal grant of freedom to an individual slave Maroon communities were groups of runaway slaves The different types and number of ships on the Atlantic Trading System increased new economic institutions, new partnerships and new working relationships were factors Capitalism: ability to manage large financial resources through mechanisms Banks Stock exchanges Mercantilism: policies adopted by European states to promote their citizens' overseas trade and accumulate capitol in the form of precious metals Atlantic Circuit: clockwise networks of sea routes in the Atlantic Ocean Middle Passage: transported slaves across the Atlantic Ocean Complex Many other trade voyages supplemented the basic circuit European interests came first Transportation of slaves was supposed to be a highly specialized trade Mercantilist policies placed slave trade in the hands of chartered companies To make a profit, slave traders had to buy the slaves for less than he would sell them for, and he had to get the majority to the destination alive Some captives tried to escape Some captives rebelled Slaves were also usually treated badly Death by disease was more common than death by poor treatment Crew members also feel to disease