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1442
Portugal enslaves the Berbers.
A young Portugese ship captain, Gonçalvez, led a raiding party into Cap Blanc, a narrow peninsula between Western Sahara and Mauritania, and kidnapped two Berbers, one man and one woman. -
1482
Portuguese build first slave-trade post at the Gold Coast
The initial Portuguese interest in trading for gold, ivory, and pepper so increased that in 1482 the Portuguese built their first permanent trading post on the western coast of present-day Ghana. This fortress, Elmina Castle, constructed to protect Portuguese trade from European competitors and hostile Africans, still stands. -
1502
New World slavery of Africans begins in Hispaniola (now Haiti).
Following the indigenous Tainos' near decimation from forced labor, disease and war, the Spanish, under advisement of the Catholic priest Bartolomeu de las Casas and with the blessing of the Catholic church, began engaging in earnest in the kidnapped and forced labor of enslaved Africans. -
1542
New Laws of 1542
The “New Laws” of 1542 were a series of laws and regulations approved by the King of Spain in November of 1542 to regulate the Spaniards who were enslaving the natives in the Americas, particularly in Peru. The New Laws of 1542 discouraged enslaving natives in the West Indies and the market for importing enslaved Africans begins to grow. -
1562
John Hawkins commands the first English slave-trading expedition.
By carrying slaves from Guinea, in West Africa, to the Spanish West Indies, Hawkins provoked conflict with the Spaniards, who did not allow unauthorized foreigners to trade with their colonies. Hawkins’ first slave-trading voyage, in 1562–63, on behalf of a group of London merchants, was so profitable that a more prestigious group, including Queen Elizabeth I, provided the money for a second expedition (1564–65). -
King Louis XIII authorizes French involvement in the triangular slave trade.
King Louis XIII's actions led to many decades of French involvement in the slave trade. From 1721-30, French ships took 85,000 enslaved Africans to the plantations in the Americas and the Caribbean. In the 1730s, they carried more than 100,000. Altogether, about 1,250,000 enslaved Africans were taken by French ships. Even after France abolished the trade, 500 French ships continued slave trading illegally between 1818 and 1831. -
The Royal African Company is founded.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English mercantile (trading) company set up by the Stuart family and City of London merchants to trade along the west coast of Africa. It allowed exploitation of the gold on the Gold Coast and increased the slave trade. -
Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade formed
This was a British abolitionist group, formed on 22 May 1787, by twelve men who gathered together at a printing shop in London. The Society worked to educate the public about the abuses of the slave trade. This group did all it could to try and put an end to the slave trade. Two key members were Granville Sharp and John Clarkson. -
British Parliament abolishes the transatlantic slave trade.
The Slave Trade Act of 1807,was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not completely abolish the practice of slavery, it did end the slave trade in England and encouraged the British to press other nation states to abolish their own slave trades. -
Coolie trade begins as a response to labor shortage after the worldwide movement to abolish slavery
The "coolie trade" refers to the importation of Asian contract laborers (especially Chinese and Indians) during the 19th century. It emerged during the gradual abolition of slavery in the early 19th century, and coolies were exploited as substitutes for slave labor.
By 1838, some 25,000 East Indians had been exported to the new British East African colony of Mauritius.
