Use of Labor Systems 1750-1914

Cesi Salmeron Change Over Time Essay February 13, 2008

The Spaniard and Portuguese exploration from 1400-1600 led to the arrival in Latin America. However, once the Spaniards arrived, they exploited forced labor used by Native American predecessors. Eventually this leads to African slave labor. Europeans sought economic gain and social mobility. Latin America became part of the world economy as a dependent region. Thus, the use of labor systems in Latin America from the 1750-1914 was a process with tremendous impact on the people and on the world in general.

Slavery was based on using the enforced labor of other people . In the 1750 slavery was prevailing. The Atlantic slave trade predominated in economic affairs after the middle of the 17th century and promoted more slave movements. The forced removal of Africans had a major effect in some African regions and was a primary factor contributing to the nature of New World populations. The slave trade expanded to meet the demand for labor in the new American colonies, and millions were exported in an organized commerce that involved Europeans and Africans. The Africans were being used as the labor source, which benefited the Portuguese, Europeans, as well as others because since the Africans acquired some immunity to such “Old World” diseases as smallpox, mumps, and measles, as well as to such tropical maladies as malaria and yellow fever. Thus, this meant they lived three to five times longer than white laborers under the difficult conditions on plantations, and longer still than Native Americans. A competition for slaves emerged; prices on Africans were favorable in relation to the crops that were being produced. After the 1550, the slave trade grew significantly in complexity and volume. By the 17th century, west central Africa was the major supplier of Africans. In the 1700, the slave trade predominated over all other kinds of commerce on the African commerce. In Latin America, the slaves worked on large pieces of land called encomiendas. The encomiendas produced crops that were worked by the slaves. The Caribbean islands, were dedicated to sugar production, which were the major destination of Africans. Thus, what changed was that slavery was expanding and becoming more popular.

The dimensions of the trade varied over time, which reflected the economic and political situation in the Americas. After 1700 the trade grew much more rapidly to a peak in the 1780s, when an average year saw 80,000 African slaves arrive on American shores. The 18th century was the great age of the Atlantic slave trade; more than 7 million slaves, or more than 80 percent of all those embarked were exported between 1700 and 1800. Then the trade fell off more slowly and after 1850 quickly declined. Debate and controversy surrounded several aspects of slavery. What ended the Atlantic slave trade was a long process that involved changing economic circumstances and rising humanitarian concerns. In the late 18th century, European economies began to shift from agriculture to industry. Plantations remained profitable, but Europeans had promising new areas for investment. The slave-operated American plantations had to compete for capital and preferential laws with textile mills