Title: Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade - Implications of the slave trade for African societies - Higher History Revision - BBC Bitesize
Headings: Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade
Higher
Implications of the slave trade for African societies
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Roles played by leaders of African societies in continuing the trade
Kings and warlords
Middlemen, traders and merchants
Labourers and subsistence farmers
Implications of the Atlantic Slave Trade for Africa

Content: At that time, there was no concept of being African – identity and loyalty were based on kinship or membership of a specific kingdom or society, rather than to the African continent. States based on slavery grew in power and influence. For example the Kingdom of Dahomey became one of the most prosperous nations: total receipts from slave exports were an estimated £250,000 per year by 1750. African rulers largely maintained and dictated the control and supply of captives to the Atlantic slave trade. The impact of the trade was to increase individual fortunes in the short run. But through competition with each others, rulers could have their powers reduced or eliminated as well as strengthened. In the long run, the scale of the Atlantic trade caused instability and collapse in many African states. Middlemen, traders and merchants
The kings and warlords needed points of sale, and Europeans needed access to sources of slaves. Some African slave sellers became extremely wealthy from the expansion of the slave trade networks.