Final answer:
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to bring a large number of African slaves to the Americas in 1525. Portugal led the transatlantic slave trade before Britain became the primary slave trader in the 17th century. The Europeans established coastal trading posts in Africa to facilitate the inhumane trade efficiently.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Portuguese were the first European country to bring slaves to the Americas on a large scale. In 1525, the Portuguese transported two hundred Africans to the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, in what is now known as the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. This marked the beginning of a lengthy period during which the Portuguese dominated the transatlantic slave trade until the British overtook them in the 17th century.
The competitive slave trade among European nations, including Portugal, Spain, Britain, France, the Netherlands, and Denmark, was driven by the lucrative plantations in their American colonies. These colonies required an enormous labor force to produce crops such as sugar, tobacco, indigo, and later cotton and coffee. African leaders at the time engaged in raids to capture their own people to sell to the Europeans, contributing to the intensification of the trade.
The process through which slaves were acquired, involved Europeans establishing trading posts, known as feitorias, along the coast of Africa. Africans who controlled the interior trade brought captives to these posts, where they were dehumanized and treated as cargo. The conditions were brutal, and many captives perished during the journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage.