Spanish (Catalan) map of Western Europe and West Africa: Detail on King of Mali, Mansa Musa, 1375

Ghana Empire, c. 9th-13th Century

Mali Empire, c. 13th – 15th Century

Songhay Empire, c. 14th-17th Century

Portuguese contacts in West Africa

•  Route to Asia •  Pepper and Spices •  Gold •  Prester John •  Expansion of Sugar •  To enslave and buy slaves

Benin Bronze plaques, c. 1500-1550.

Portuguese traveller

Benin Soldiers

Slave Trading from Benin

and Congo to Elmina, São Tomé Island,

Spain and Portugal,

1480s-1640s

Winds (red arrows) and Currents (Blue

Arrows) of the North and South Atlantic

Ocean

Pedro Cabral, 1500, reaches Brazil en-route to Asia (line green and yellow)

“Lançados” Thrown away people,

Brazil, mid 1500s

Brazil

Initial Hereditary Captaincies, c. 1550.

Main division between 1650s-1760s

Cycles of Brazilian Slavery

17th C. Sugar, Bahia (Northeast) 18th C. Gold, Minas Gerais (Center-South) 19th C. Coffee, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, (Center-South)