During the Columbian Exchange, millions of Africans were forcefully transported to the Americas, where they labored to produce natural resources to benefit the economics of the European colonizers by increasing imports and limiting colonial trade. What was this economic system?

Question

Mercantilism
Transatlantic slave trade
Globalization
Capitalism

Answer 1

The economic system you are referring to is Mercantilism. This system emphasized the importance of accumulating wealth, primarily gold and silver, through a balance of trade that favored exports over imports. The forced transportation of Africans through the Transatlantic slave trade was integral to the mercantilist policies of European colonial powers, as slave labor was used in the production of valuable natural resources in the Americas that were then exported to Europe, thereby enriching the colonizers.