Balkans Trade Weapon

Balkans Trade Weapon

Balkans Trade Weapon

During the fifteenth century, Portuguese explorers established a number of proto-colonies along the coast of Africa, chiefly to exploit the growing sugar industry which would soon produce great wealth for European merchants. Eventually, sugar would become the primary export commodity from Portuguese Brazil as well as the many “sugar islands” dotting the Caribbean. Along with sugar came African slavery, transplanted from Sao Tome to the shores of Brazil and eventually all of the Americas.

Sugar and the Rising Plantation Economy

Sugar made its way to Europe from India via Muslim trading routes. Muslim sugar enterprises were established in North Africa in which the first slaves working the labor intensive industry came from Balkan Europe. Portugal, one of the first early modern nation states to venture into the Atlantic in search of new trade opportunities, first attempted a plantation economy in the Azores.

The Portuguese, however, found that sugar production was best suited in warmer regions. Attempts in the Madeira chain, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde provided minimal results. It was not until the Portuguese established sugar enterprises at Sao Tome, on Africa’s Gold Coast, that profits justified the efforts and investments. Additionally, Africa provided an abundant and seemingly limitless source of slave labor.


Posted by Admin on November 25, 2011 - 12:02 am Posted in western balkans
  • Balkans Trade Weapon

    Balkans Trade Weapon

    Balkans Trade Weapon

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