The Impact of African Slave Trading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Impact of African Slave Trading - Essay Example Thornton cites the example of the Ndongo war, which lasted from 1625 until 1655 in countering the traditionally held ideal that wars were strictly economical (Thornton 101). This war was fought over succession to the throne of Ndongo (Thornton 100) and can account for many of the Angolan slaves captured during this time (Thronton 101). â€Å"Such wars, however, may well have been waged solely in order to acquire slaves even without the demands of Atlantic traders† (Thornton 102). Thornton believes war and slavery were an accepted way of life in Africa, and as such would have continued without the European influence. However this is one simple example that does not explain the reasoning behind the multitude of other wars in Africa. He mentions that motives might appear to be economical when indeed they are political, but it seems impossible to believe that the knowledge of demand for slaves would not have affected the leader’s decisions in initiating war with economic ga in in mind. While Thornton does acknowledge that there was a boost in the slavery market due to the European influence, he does not seem to acknowledge the depth of change the demand of the European traders must have had. It seems that with such a large demand for slaves, it would profoundly influence the economics of the African tribes. It would be exhaustive to attempt to catalog the actual number of slaves taken from Africa over such a long time period but we are able to look at isolated instances that illuminate the effects of the slave trade.