Triangular Trade
circa. 1500 16th-19th Centuries
The Triangular trade was a prominent bundle of trade routes that were used during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. These routes connected Africa, Europe, and North and South America, with the general flow of the routes into each other forming a triangular shape, hence the name. The most used of these routes, and the most taught of which, was the one that traded slave labor across the Atlantic from Africa into Europe, which was called the Middle Passage. These trade routes are important for British history because it was one f the main contributing factors towards turning Britain into a colonial power and created a cycle of economic reliance on each of the participating nations. The conditions of the slaves being traded into Europe was something called into question during the time of the Triangular Trade being active, leading to people realizing the cruelty experienced by the slaves and the larger abolitionist movement to take place.