Editing Colonialism (section)

=== Slavery and indentured servitude ===
{{Further|Atlantic slave trade|Indentured servant|Coolie|Blackbirding}}

European nations entered their imperial projects with the goal of enriching the European metropoles. Exploitation of non-Europeans and of other Europeans to support imperial goals was acceptable to the colonisers. Two outgrowths of this imperial agenda were the extension of slavery and indentured servitude. In the 17th century, nearly two-thirds of English settlers came to North America as indentured servants.<ref>Hofstadter, Richard, [http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/whiteser.html "White Servitude"], Montgomery College. {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141009091039/http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/whiteser.html |date= 2014-10-09 }}.</ref>

European slave traders brought large numbers of African slaves to the Americas by sail. Spain and Portugal had [[Atlantic slave trade|brought African slaves]] to work in African colonies such as [[Cape Verde]] and [[São Tomé and Príncipe]], and then in Latin America, by the 16th century. The British, French and Dutch joined in the slave trade in subsequent centuries. The European colonial system took approximately 11&nbsp;million Africans to the Caribbean and to North and South America as slaves.<ref name="King 2010 24">{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/peopleonmoveatla0000unse/page/24 |title= People on the Move: An Atlas of Migration |last= King |first= Russell |publisher= University of California Press |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0-520-26124-2 |location= Berkeley, Los Angeles |page= [https://archive.org/details/peopleonmoveatla0000unse/page/24 24]}}</ref>

[[File:Marchands d'esclaves de Gorée-Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur mg 8526.jpg|thumb|upright|Slave traders in Gorée, [[Senegal]], 18th century]]

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! European empire !! Colonial destination !! Number of slaves imported between 1450 and 1870<ref name="King 2010 24" />
|-
| Portuguese Empire|| Brazil || 3,646,800
|-
| British Empire || British Caribbean || 1,665,000
|-
| French Empire || French Caribbean || 1,600,200
|-
| Spanish Empire || Latin America || 1,552,100
|-
| Dutch Empire || Dutch Caribbean || 500,000
|-
| British Empire || British North America || 399,000
|}

[[abolitionism|Abolitionists]] in Europe and Americas protested the inhumane treatment of African slaves, which led to the elimination of the slave trade (and later, of most forms of slavery) by the late 19th century. One (disputed) school of thought points to the role of abolitionism in the [[American Revolution]]: while the British colonial metropole started to move towards outlawing slavery, slave-owning elites in the [[Thirteen Colonies]] saw this as one of the reasons to fight for their post-colonial independence and for the right to develop and continue a largely slave-based economy.<ref>
{{cite news
| title= Our democracy's founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true
| first= Nikole
| last= Hannah-Jones
| author-link= Nikole Hannah-Jones
| date= 14 August 2019
| magazine= [[The New York Times Magazine]]
| url= https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html
| quote = The wealth and prominence that allowed Jefferson, at just 33, and the other founding fathers to believe they could successfully break off from one of the mightiest empires in the world came from the dizzying profits generated by chattel slavery. In other words, we may never have revolted against Britain if the founders had not understood that slavery empowered them to do so; nor if they had not believed that independence was required in order to ensure that slavery would continue. It is not incidental that 10 of this nation's first 12 presidents were enslavers, and some might argue that this nation was founded not as a democracy but as a slavocracy.
}}
</ref>

British colonising activity in [[New Zealand]] from the early 19th century played a part in ending slave-taking and slave-keeping among the indigenous [[Māori people|Māori]].<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Petrie
 | first1 = Hazel
 | title = Outcasts of the Gods? The Struggle over Slavery in Maori New Zealand
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=1xJzCgAAQBAJ
 | publisher = Auckland University Press
 | date = 2015
 | isbn = 9781775587859
 | access-date = 17 June 2020
| quote = Trade with the early explorers, whalers, sealers, and shore-based traders; interaction with missionaries; the availability of muskets; unprecedented warfare; new methods of dispute resolution; and English law all played their part in influencing the increase or decline of Maori captive-taking.
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Firth
 | first1 = Raymond
 | year = 1929
 | title = Primitive Economics of the New Zealand Maori
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=JNGm14xd1JkC
 | series = Routledge Revivals
 | edition = reprint
 | location = Abingdon
 | publisher = Routledge
 | publication-date = 2011
 | page = 203
 | isbn = 9780415694728
 | access-date = 17 June 2020
| quote = The economic value of the slave to the community was considerable. [...] Slavery among the Maori is certainly not comparable to the system as it existed among the ancient civilized states of Europe, but relative to the culture of this native people, it played an important part [...].
}}
</ref>
On the other hand, British colonial [[History of South Africa (1815–1910)|administration in Southern Africa]], when it officially abolished slavery in the 1830s, caused rifts in society which arguably perpetuated slavery in the [[Boer Republics]] and fed into the philosophy of ''[[apartheid]]''.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Lowe
 | first1 = Joshua
 | title = To what extent was the Great Trek undertaken to preserve Afrikaner Culture?
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=DrlABAAAQBAJ
 | publisher = GRIN
 | date = 2014
 | page = 2
 | isbn = 9783656715245
 | access-date = 17 June 2020
| quote = There were also threats to what the Afrikaner perceived as tradition, and slavery was included in this perception.<br /> The abolition of slavery had an effect on why the Great Trek was undertaken and has links to the Afrikaner cultural preservation theory. Slavery was an integral part of Afrikaner society, and there was a sense of discontent when it was called to an end.
}}
</ref>
[[File:Slaves working on a plantation - Ten Views in the Island of Antigua (1823), plate III - BL.jpg|thumb|Planting the sugar cane, [[Antigua]], 1823]]
The labour shortages that resulted from abolition inspired European colonisers in Queensland, British Guaiana and Fiji (for example) to develop new sources of labour, re-adopting a system of indentured servitude. [[Indentured servant]]s consented to a contract with the European colonisers. Under their contract, the servant would work for an employer for a term of at least a year, while the employer agreed to pay for the servant's voyage to the colony, possibly pay for the return to the country of origin, and pay the employee a wage as well. The employees became "indentured" to the employer because they owed a debt back to the employer for their travel expense to the colony, which they were expected to pay through their wages. In practice, indentured servants were exploited through terrible working conditions and burdensome debts imposed by the employers, with whom the servants had no means of negotiating the debt once they arrived in the colony.

India and China were the largest source of indentured servants during the colonial era. Indentured servants from India travelled to British colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, and also to French and Portuguese colonies, while Chinese servants travelled to British and Dutch colonies. Between 1830 and 1930, around 30&nbsp;million indentured servants migrated from India, and 24&nbsp;million returned to India. China sent more indentured servants to European colonies, and around the same proportion returned to China.<ref>
{{Cite book |url= https://archive.org/details/peopleonmoveatla0000unse/page/26
 |title= People on the Move: An Atlas of Migration |last= King |publisher=  |year= 2010 |isbn= 
 |location= 
 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/peopleonmoveatla0000unse/page/26 26–27]}}
</ref>

Following the [[Scramble for Africa]], an early but secondary focus for most colonial regimes was the suppression of slavery and the slave trade. By the end of the colonial period they were mostly successful in this aim, though slavery persists in Africa and in the world at large with much the same practices of ''de facto'' servility despite legislative prohibition.<ref name="Lovejoy, Paul E. 2012" />