Trans-Saharan refers to crossing the Sahara Desert, and trans-Atlantic means crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Both terms are associated with historical trade routes used for commerce, including the tragic trade in enslaved people from Africa to other parts of the world.
The terms trans-Saharan and trans-Atlantic refer to the crossing or spanning of the Sahara desert and the Atlantic Ocean, respectively. In historical contexts, trans-Saharan trade routes denote the commercial networks that connected West Africa with the Mediterranean world, crossing the Sahara Desert, and became prominent from the eighth century onwards. These trade routes facilitated the exchange of commodities such as salt, gold, and textiles, and eventually played a significant role in the slave trade. On the other hand, the term transatlantic slave trade was part of the larger Atlantic Triangle Trade network, where approximately ten million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic to the Americas between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.
The trans-Saharan slave trade was a consequential economic activity where Muslim Arabs expanded commerce by acquiring and transporting black Africans through the Sahara to be sold in North African markets and beyond. Similarly, the transatlantic journey was burdened with the historical atrocity of slavery, signified by the Middle Passage, during which enslaved Africans were shipped to the New World with high mortality rates. These transregional movements dramatically affected the societies involved, prompting changes in economic dynamics, creating new trade routes, and delivering profound human suffering.