Editing Atlantic slave trade (section)

==European competition==
The trade of enslaved Africans in the Atlantic has its origins in the explorations of Portuguese mariners down the coast of West Africa in the 15th century. Before that, contact with African slave markets was made to ransom Portuguese who had been captured by the intense North African [[Barbary pirate]] attacks on Portuguese ships and coastal villages, frequently leaving them depopulated.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml |title=British History in depth: British Slaves on the Barbary Coast |magazine=[[BBC History]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709140805/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/white_slaves_01.shtml |archive-date=9 July 2024}}</ref> The first Europeans to use enslaved Africans in the New World were the [[Spaniards]], who sought auxiliaries for their conquest expeditions and labourers on islands such as [[Cuba]] and [[Hispaniola]]. The alarming decline in the native population had spurred the first royal laws protecting them ([[Laws of Burgos]], 1512–13). The first enslaved Africans arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ukcouncilhumanrights.co.uk/webbook-chap1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003165601/http://www.ukcouncilhumanrights.co.uk/webbook-chap1.html |title=Webbook Chap1 |archive-date=3 October 2006 |website=www.ukcouncilhumanrights.co.uk}}</ref> After Portugal had succeeded in establishing sugar plantations ({{lang|pt|engenhos}}) in northern Brazil {{Circa|1545}}, Portuguese merchants on the West African coast began to supply enslaved Africans to the sugar planters. While at first these planters had relied almost exclusively on the native [[Tupi people|Tupani]] for slave labour, after 1570 they began importing Africans, as a series of [[epidemics]] had decimated the already destabilized Tupani communities. By 1630, Africans had replaced the Tupani as the largest contingent of labour on Brazilian sugar plantations. This ended the European medieval household tradition of [[medieval slavery|slavery]]<!--Explain-->, resulted in Brazil's receiving the most enslaved Africans, and revealed sugar cultivation and processing as the reason that roughly 84% of these Africans were shipped to the New World.

[[File:Charles II.jpg|thumb|upright|Charles II of Spain]]

On November 7, 1693, [[Charles II of Spain|Charles II]] issued a [[royal decree]], providing sanctuary in [[Spanish Florida]] for [[fugitive slaves]] from the British colony of [[South Carolina]].<ref>Alejandra Dubcovsky, ''Informed Power: Communication in the Early American South'' (Harvard University Press, 2016)</ref>

As Britain rose in naval power and settled continental North America and some islands of the [[West Indies]], they became the leading slave traders.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/europe/index.aspx |title=European traders |publisher=International Slavery Museum |access-date=7 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015011331/http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ism/slavery/europe/index.aspx |archive-date=15 October 2014}}</ref> At one stage the trade was the monopoly of the [[Royal African Company]], operating out of London. But, following the loss of the company's monopoly in 1689,<ref>Elkins, Stanley: ''Slavery''. New York: Universal Library, 1963, p. 48.</ref> [[Bristol]] and [[Liverpool]] merchants became increasingly involved in the trade.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rawley |first=James |title=London: Metropolis of the Slave Trade |date=2003}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}} By the late 18th century, one out of every four ships that left Liverpool harbour was a [[slave ship|slave trading ship]].<ref name="Anstey">{{cite book |last=Anstey |first=Roger |title=The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition, 1760–1810 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |date=1975 |page=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2024}} Much of the wealth on which the city of [[Manchester]], and surrounding towns, was built in the late 18th century, and for much of the 19th century, was based on the processing of slave-picked cotton and manufacture of cloth.<ref>[http://www.revealinghistories.org.uk/how-did-money-from-slavery-help-develop-greater-manchester/articles/slave-grown-cotton-in-greater-manchester-museums.html "Slave-grown cotton in greater Manchester"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112025209/http://www.revealinghistories.org.uk/how-did-money-from-slavery-help-develop-greater-manchester/articles/slave-grown-cotton-in-greater-manchester-museums.html |date=2020-11-12 }}, Revealing Histories.</ref> Other British cities also profited from the slave trade. [[Birmingham]], the largest [[Gun Quarter, Birmingham|gun-producing]] town in Britain at the time, supplied guns to be traded for slaves.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Birmingham Gun Trade and The American System of Manufactures |first=David J. |last=Williams |s2cid=110533082 |url=http://www.pubs-newcomen.com/tfiles/75ap085.pdf |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6cRfwedHS?url=http://www.pubs-newcomen.com/tfiles/75ap085.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2015 |journal=Trans. Newcomen Soc. |volume=75 |pages=85–106 |date=2005 |access-date=3 October 2015 |url-status=usurped |doi=10.1179/tns.2005.004}}</ref> 75% of all sugar produced in the plantations was sent to London, and much of it was consumed in the highly lucrative [[coffee house]]s there.<ref name="Anstey" />