Slavery routes – a short history of human trafficking (2/4) | DW Documentary

How did Africa become a hub for the trade in human beings? Part 2 of this four-part documentary series begins as the Middle Ages comes to an end and Portuguese conquerors head for Africa in search of riches.

At the end of the Middle Ages, European powers realized that the African continent harbored a seemingly inexhaustible wealth of resources. The Portuguese were among the first to set out to conquer the continent. They went in search of gold, but they came back with hundreds of thousands of captives to sell as slaves in Europe.

From the coasts of Africa, the Conquistadores sailed on to Brazil, where they established a trading center. There, the Portuguese set up the first colonies that were populated exclusively by slaves. On the island of São Tomé, off of Gabon, they found their most lucrative commodity: sugar cane, and the sugar plantation became the blueprint for the profitable exploitation of the New World.

Part 1: https://youtu.be/InQvC9c-3K8
Part 2: https://youtu.be/v3ppAebUW54
Part 3: https://youtu.be/XMB7CpjIS9s
Part 4: https://youtu.be/yKwXuRAseIc

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This is the story of a world

whose borders and territories
were drawn by the slave trade.

A world where violence,

subjugation, and profit imposed
their own routes-

and forged empires.

Back then, there was no oil.

Slaves were the driving force
behind these emerging empires.

In the 14th century,

Europe discovered that
it was located temptingly close

to one of the planet’s
most important trading regions.

We tend to forget the riches
that were produced back then in Africa.

The Catalan Atlas, whetted
Europeans’ appetite for conquest.

It mapped the winds,
for the benefit of travelers.

It also provided information

on the military strength
of different nations.

And it provided an economic map,

tracing the trading routes
towards Africa and its resources.

A small kingdom was the first

in the rush to seize control
of the coasts of Africa:

Portugal.

In its wake, a new network
of slavery routes was drawn.

At the very beginning,
this was a Portuguese project.

They were coming out of the crusades,

fighting this bitter war
with Muslims to the south.

So, part of the adventure to Africa

was to basically secure themselves

and perhaps also secure
an advantage against Muslims.

Lisbon.

The largest city in Portugal

and the only European capital
on the Atlantic coast.

At the mouth of the Tagus,

the Discovery Monument evokes nostalgia

for a time when the Portuguese
made the world their home.

Carved in stone, some 52 meters
above the water,

the heroes of Portugal,
pioneers of the Conquest,

look triumphantly towards the ocean
that gave them such wealth and prestige.

They are headed by
Prince Henry “the Navigator,”

the architect of a perilous project:

to open up a new trade route
via the Atlantic Ocean.

His aim was to bypass the Muslim rivals
in the Mediterranean

and gain access to Africa's Gold Coast.

In the 14th century,
the Portuguese succeeded

in ousting the Arabs from their territory.

The Kingdom now had free rein
to begin its campaign of conquest.

Promising gold and power,

Henry the Navigator convinced the nobility
to follow him in this adventure.

Henry the Navigator was the crown prince.

This mythical figure,

this great Christian Portuguese prince
was portrayed as very devout.

He started out commanding
a band of raiders:

pirates who took prisoners.

To brave the Atlantic, an ocean few
European sailors had dared to explore,

Prince Henry had a new
and revolutionary kind of vessel.

Caravels:

high-decked sailing ships
that were capable

of battling storms in the open sea.

The Portuguese established a sea route
taking in the coast of west Africa.

Cap Bojador, the islands
of Arguin and Cape Verde.

Each mile covered was a victory
over the Muslims,

who were present on the entire
Northern part of the continent.

Portugal has traditionally
glorified its great explorers-

forgetting that most of them built
their fortunes on the slave trade.

Today, Lisbon is undergoing a facelift.

After the Discovery Monument,

renovation work extended
to the Alfama district.

As construction progressed,

the riches of the first “world city”
have resurfaced.

By chance,

workers uncovered the foundations
of the former commercial harbor.

In the space of one century,

Lisbon became the richest capital
in Europe,

some distance ahead of Paris,
London, or Amsterdam.

Chinese vases, pots from Indonesia,

ornamental glassware from Macao.

And amid the shards of earthenware
from all over the world,

a woman’s skeleton was also found.

Initial DNA tests revealed
that she was an African slave,

buried without a name or gravestone.

The archaeology of slavery,
a relatively recent field,

is exhuming a long untold history:

the fate of the one million Africans
who were shipped off to Europe

between the 15th and 18th centuries.

This was an extremely brutal,
predatory economy.

The Portuguese would disembark
and, arms in hand,

rush to capture the inhabitants
of these African coasts,

starting with Mauritania and then Senegal,

home to many poor fishermen.

They were captured with nets.

On each mission, dozens would be captured

and loaded on these ships
to be brought back to Europe.

In various locations between
Morocco and Mauritania,

Prince Henry’s mercenaries
kidnapped unarmed civilians.

Deported to Portugal,

these first captives were unloaded
in the first port on the way home:

Lagos.

On this cost line,
one morning in August 1444,

250 men, women, and children

who had been captured
on the Atlantic coasts

were sold to the highest bidder.

It was a major event:

the first spoils brought back
to the country

by the Portuguese Conquistadors.

They had set off on a quest for gold-

but they came back with slaves.

The event was so highly anticipated
that Gomes Eanes de Zurara,

the chief chronicler of the realm,

traveled to the beach in person
to record the event.

The following day,
it was the 8th of August,

early morning because of the heat,

the crews began to work their boats,

unload their captives and take them
ashore as ordered.

Some had their faces down, wet with tears;

some looked at the others
and were groaning with grief;

some looked to high heaven,
fixing their look on it,

shouting aloud up to it,

as if asking the Father
of Nature for help;

others beat their cheeks with their palms,

or threw themselves flat on the ground;

others made lamentation
in a song-like manner

after the custom of their homeland.

And though the words of their language
could not be understood by us,

their sorrow was understood indeed.

A sorrow that increased
when those in charge of dividing them

came and started to split them

one from another to make even groups.

To do this it became necessary
to take children from parents,

wives from husbands,
brothers from sisters.

For kin and kindred no rule was kept,

each captive landed
where luck would have it.

Zurara describes
an extremely brutal scene:

children taken away from their mothers,
screaming, whipping.

Clearly, what he is witnessing
makes him very uncomfortable.

Things changed after that.

They had to justify it.

And he did so
by pointing to this civilization

brought to the savages.

In the early 15th century,

human trafficking was common
throughout the Mediterranean-

in Portugal, but also in the south
of France, Spain, Italy and Sicily.

Most of the slaves came from the Balkans,
in Southern East of Europe

traded via the ports of Cyprus,
Constantinople and Aleppo.

Back then, Africans constituted
a minority within the slave trade.

In Lisbon, these proportions
would soon be inverted.

The first African captives
deported to Portugal

would be followed
by countless thousands more.

The "Street of the Negroes’ well"

one of a few alleys
that are the only reminders

of when this neighborhood,
the Bairro do Mocambo,

included a ghetto reserved for Africans.

1453, the holy war between
Christendom and Islam

resulted in the latter's victory.

Constantinople, the last remnant
of the Byzantine Empire,

fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

The Christian side of the Mediterranean

was now seperated from lands further east

with the movement of slaves from the

Balkans also blocked.

For Christian Europe, the conquest

of the Atlantic was now vital.

Islam, Christendom clash had

reached stalemate. And, the whole area

where they had been acquiring slavs,

or slaves, was now Christianized,

or Islamisized.

There was only one region to head for.

Africa becomes associated with slavery

as a result of these developments.

[Music]

Officialy, Muslim leaders and

the Catholic Church condemned

the enslavement of free people.

But in practice, the demand for slaves

did not diminish and justified

continued raids.

[Music]

[Speaking in French]

In these societies

people were driven by religion.

They weren't fanatics,

that term is probably too modern.

But religious motivations, conquering

Islamic areas to convert them to

Christianity were very important,

Since the Papacy supported

Portuguese expansion by granting rights

to colonise.

[French]

To take revenge on the Muslims,

Pope Nicolas the 5th

gave the Portuguese his moral endorsement

Thank to the Vatican's support, they could

continue raiding Africa with

complete impunity.

[Music]

Portugal's national archives in Lisbon

are home to the Romanus Pontifex,

a bull issued by the pope

that gave the Portuguese carte blanche

and established a legal framework

for the enslavement of Africa.

[Music]

We had formerly by other letters of ours

granted amoung other things free and ample

faculty to the aforesaid King Afonso

to invade, search out, capture,

vanquish, and subdue all

Saracens and pagans,

and other enemies of Christ

and to reduce their persons

to perpetual slavery.

Perpetual slavery. Two words decreed

by the highest Catholic authority that

amounted to a sentencing

of innocent Africans.

Two words that would justify everything

in the name of god.

[Music]

With the Pope's blessing,

the Portuguese ventured

further and further south along the coasts

of Africa.

Their caravels and strategies were

copied by other European nations,

eager to take control of African gold

and slaves.

Flemish, German, English, Genoese,

and Venetian. Merchants from across Europe

invested in the Atlantic adventure.

[Music]

[Speaking in French]

It's not as if

Africans were passive

towards European merchants

entering villages to collect individuals

and put them in captivity.

African societies had their own

power structures.

They had a capacity for initiative.

They negotiated, discussed the terms of

relations with European merchants.

[Speaking in French]

The tipping point was when the

Portuguese entered the South Atlantic

beyond the equator. And thus entered

a new economic space.

There they came into contact with

the Kingdom of Congo, which would play

a big role.

[French]

[Music]

1471.

The Portuguese took possession of

an island off the African coast.

Uninhabited, virgin, and fertile,

São Tomé also provided a secure harbor,

one hundred and fifty nautical miles

from the mainland.

It enabled them to keep an eye

on the region's most powerful state,

the Kingdom of Congo.

Congo is an interesting case of

African history. Very different from

everywhere else. When the Portuguese

got there they discovered that

there was a king and that there was

what they called a kingdom.

And not only that, it was an area where

there was no Islamic influence at all.

Portuguese entered into relations with

the King of Congo on virtually

an equal basis.

And since there weren't Muslims there was

not, there was not, they weren't,

was no hostility on the basis of religion.

And then for reasons I don't think we

fully understand, the King of Congo

decided that he was going to

convert to Christianity.

And he did. Became Afonso the First.