Final answer:
Portugal played a crucial role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, being a major player and facilitator of trade between Europe and Africa. They started the practice of slave trade along the West African coast and set up the plantation economy model in the Americas with their initial sugar plantations.
Step-by-step explanation:
The role of Portugal in the start of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is significant for several reasons. Firstly, Portugal was a major player in the African slave trade, having established trade networks along the coast of West Africa, and by 1441, started trading for slaves. They facilitated their trade by forming relationships with African kingdoms, establishing trading posts, and holding areas for slaves within stone fortresses known as feitorias. Secondly, Portugal was key in facilitating trade between Europe and Africa, exporting slaves to work on sugar plantations on the Atlantic islands before expanding this model to the Americas. The initial step towards a plantation economy using slave labor was taken by the Portuguese, where sugar and other labor-intensive crops like rice and cotton thrived by using enslaved Africans.
The influence of Portugal in this trade lasted for over a century before other European powers, such as the British, took the lead in the slave trade. Portuguese trading methods and the establishment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade pattern were pivotal in shaping the era of European colonization and the widespread establishment of slave labor across the Americas.
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