Atlantic slave trade institutional system

Timeline

1. c. 1480–1525Lisbon and Seville trading hubs · PortugalPortuguese and Spanish crown licenses, asientos, and merchant networks linked West African captives to Atlantic islands and early American colonies, establishing legal and financial templates for the trade.
2. 1530–1540West African coast and Caribbean destinations · Atlantic coastDuring the 1530s rising American plantation demand increased chartered slaving voyages; European factors, African intermediaries, and shipboard regimes became more standardized across the Atlantic circuit.
3. c. 1550–1700Triangular Atlantic routes · EuropeDutch, English, and French entrants joined Iberian traders, enlarging volume and diversifying entrepôts while deepening coercive labor regimes in Brazil, the Caribbean, and mainland colonies.