Final answer:
The Triangular Trade was a trade network between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas that involved three stages: goods from Europe to Africa, enslaved Africans to the Americas, and crops from the Americas back to Europe. This trade expanded the slave trade and had different effects on various regions.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Triangular Trade refers to the trade that took place between Europe, West Africa, and the Americas from the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries. It involved three stages:
- Manufactured goods were taken from Europe to Africa, including items like cloth, spirits, tobacco, beads, metal goods, and guns, which were used to obtain more slaves.
- Enslaved Africans were then shipped to the Americas, a journey known as the Middle Passage.
- The final stage involved the return to Europe with the crops grown using slave labor in the Americas, such as indigo, cotton, sugar, tobacco, molasses, and rum.
This triangular trade expanded the slave trade and had various effects on different regions, including population losses in Africa and the weakening of European dominance over their colonies. However, it did not directly deplete natural resources in South America or encourage manufacturing industries in West Africa.