European demand overwhelmed Africa’s own slaving commerce from an early date

Evidence

By 1650, it is estimated that 500,000 Blacks were living in Spanish America. More than 220,000 Africans had been transported to the ports of Cartagena and Veracruz by Portuguese merchants during the first 45 years (1595–1640) of their Spanish trade. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 560

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines piezas de Indias as ‘captives of just war’, the legal category under which enslaved Africans were traded.
• QUESTION: The Kongo king Affonso cooperated in the trade yet reported nobles and royal family being enslaved — curious dynamic between African ruling-class collaboration and loss of control worth chasing.