How Did The Slave Trade Affect Nigeria

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During the seventeenth and the eighteenth century, the demand for sugar was very high so the demand for slaves to work on sugar plantations was also very high. From the fifteenth to eighteenth century, European countries such as Britain, France, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal were fighting for dominance over the Atlantic Slave Trade. Then, finally in the eighteenth century, the British were the ones who succeeded in doing so. Through all the pain and the turmoil the slaves had to suffer through, the British made millions of English pounds.
After this excitement over sugar died down a little, in 1793, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin thus causing an excitement over cotton. This lead to more Africans to be taken from their homelands to America to work on cotton plantations. From 1789 to 1860, the number of slaves working on cotton plantations grew from less than half a million, to almost four million. According to Dr. Alan Rice, in 1860, and even years before, Britain was “the most important international consumer of American cotton.” and over eighty-eight percent of the cotton in Britain came from the labor of the slaves from America. During this slave
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Even after its independence, it would still affect Nigeria, because today, “Nigeria is the fifth biggest source of United States oil imports” which plays a big part in Nigeria’s economy. From 1945-1960, the Nigerians had tried to turn over the power from the British to them. They did this through “constitutional reforms, and growing political parties, and national leadership.” Then, on October 1st, 1960, they finally achieved their goal, and with sixteen other African nations, Nigeria gained its independence as a nation. Although, despite its independence from its colonial rulers, it will continue to face challenges due to the diversity of the people and their