While, especially at the beginning, some slaves
were taken by force, most of the African slaves acquired by the
Europeans were obtained in the course of a peaceful and regular
bargaining process.
When the Portuguese arrived in West Africa, they found a
thriving economy which had already developed its own bustling
trading centers. Before long, a vigorous trade opened up between
the Portuguese and the West Africans. Slaves were only one of a
great variety of exports, and guns were only one of a large
variety of imports. One of the ways in which the slave trade came
to cripple the West African economy was that slaves became
almost the exclusive African export. The more the Africans sought
to fulfill the Europeans' thirst for slaves, the more they needed
guns with which to procure slaves, and to protect themselves
from being captured and sold into slavery. Therefore, the
Euro-African trade, instead of further stimulating the African
economy, actually limited production of many items and drained
it of much of its most productive manpower.
The rulers, who had voluntarily and unwittingly involved
themselves in this gigantic trade, soon found themselves trapped.
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