While the Portuguese were the first to reach the shores of West
Africa and the first to bring African slaves back to Europe,
neither they nor the Spaniards ever dominated the slave trade
which followed. In 1493, as European exploration of the world
moved into high gear, the Pope published a Bull dividing the
world yet to be explored into two parts. His intention was to
limit competition and conflict between the rulers of Spain and
Portugal and to prevent undue hostility between his two main
supporters.
However, this left the other European powers, officially, with
no room for overseas expansion. While these powers refused to
acknowledge the legality of the Bull and soon became involved in
exploration and colonization in spite of it, they also tended to
become more involved than did Portugal or Spain in some of the
by-products of colonization, such as the slave trade. When the
Spaniards began to use slaves in their American colonies,
the Dutch, French, and British were only too eager to provide
the transportation. Before long, they too had colonies and slaves
of their own.
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