Atlantic Triangular Trade System

Timeline

1. c. 1520–1550Gulf of Guinea–Brazil coast · BrazilPortugal established sugarcane plantations in Brazil and trafficked African laborers from the Gulf of Guinea, forming an early two-leg trade of European goods–African people–American sugar, laying the institutional and practical foundation for the triangular trade.
2. 1551–1560Europe–Africa–Americas triangular route · Atlantic OceanIn the 1550s European textiles, firearms, and metal goods were exchanged along the African coast for slaves, who were then shipped to American plantations; American sugar, tobacco, and silver were partly returned to Europe, and the division of legs and pattern of capital circulation in the triangular trade grew increasingly clear.
3. 1600–1750Caribbean and North American colonies · CaribbeanChartered companies such as the Dutch West India Company and the British Royal African Company institutionalized and scaled up the triangular trade; Caribbean sugar islands and North American tobacco plantations became the main destinations for African laborers, and Atlantic trade became the core channel of European capital accumulation.
4. 1807–1867Atlantic nations · Atlantic OceanBritain's 1807 Slave Trade Act triggered a chain of legislation; nations successively banned the transatlantic slave trade, and the core leg of the triangular trade collapsed, though forced labor and colonial raw-material trade continued in other forms into the 19th century.