Final answer:
The rapid growth of the slavery trade in West Africa caused significant social disruption, depopulation, and economic decline. It led to a militarization of states, constant warfare, and the rise of new kingdoms dependent on trade while older societies suffered the loss of population and knowledge.
Step-by-step explanation:
The rapid growth of the slavery trade had a devastating effect on West African society. It resulted in significant social disruption, depopulation, and economic decline.
While it did provide short-term enrichment for local chieftains and merchants engaged in the trade, the long-term impacts were harmful due to the loss of a large portion of the population, including skilled laborers and artisans. This loss had lasting effects on the kinship networks, agricultural productivity, indigenous craftsmanship, and overall stability of West African societies.
The slave trade also led to increased militarization, as African groups and kingdoms conducted large-scale raids to capture individuals to meet the demand for enslaved people set by European traders. This often required a near-constant state of warfare and regional instability.
On the flip side, the transatlantic slave trade also brought in European goods such as textiles, alcohol, guns, and tobacco, which were part of the exchanges made for captives. However, the disruptive effects of the trade far outweighed the short-term benefits.
Moreover, as some West African societies became dependent on the slave trade for their economic prosperity, others saw their populations decimated by slave raids and wars incited by the trade. This led to the rise of new states that thrived on the trade at the expense of historical states and cultures, contributing to a reorientation of the trans-Saharan trade networks toward the Atlantic Slave Trade.