Ottoman expansion, sugar cultivation, and Genoese-Iberian alliance made slave labor central to capitalism

Evidence

The use of slave labor in the New World of the sixteenth century by the Spanish Crown (and soon after the Portuguese) and its merchant concessionaires was consequently a most natural step. Slave labor had been a basis for colonial trade in the Mediterranean, Africa, and the Indies; it was already the foundation of colonization in the Canaries, the Azores, and the Madeiran islands. At first, the relationship between capitalism, colonization, and slave labor had appeared almost coincidental. … As Italian capitalism matured, however, this emphasis on trade was to change for three reasons. Briefly, they were the expansion of the power of the Ottoman Turks in the eastern Mediterranean in the fifteenth century, the extension of sugar-cane cultivation from Asia Minor to Cyprus, Sicily, and the Atlantic islands (Madeira, Cape Verde, and the Azores) at the end of that century, and the collaboration of Genoese capitalists with the ruling classes of Iberia. These events transformed the incidental relationship between capitalism and slave labor into the very foundation of New World enterprise. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 556

As Italian capitalism matured, however, this emphasis on trade was to change for three reasons. Briefly, they were the expansion of the power of the Ottoman Turks in the eastern Mediterranean in the fifteenth century, the extension of sugar-cane cultivation from Asia Minor to Cyprus, Sicily, and the Atlantic islands (Madeira, Cape Verde, and the Azores) at the end of that century, and the collaboration of Genoese capitalists with the ruling classes of Iberia. These events transformed the incidental relationship between capitalism and slave labor into the very foundation of New World enterprise. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 556

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: This is the load-bearing causal core of the book’s thesis: it explains precisely how and why slavery became the foundation of modern capitalism rather than being incidental to it, naming the three concrete historical forces.
• XREF: Connects directly to Eric Williams’ ‘Capitalism and Slavery’ thesis and to the reader’s stated goal of understanding the rise of the Black radical tradition as a response to this foundational plantation capitalism. — connects to: Racism and nationalism predate capitalism and shaped its development. — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 122; Du Bois concluded slavery and capitalism were systemically linked and periphery drove revolution; Sugar’s labor demands drove the English to mass importation of African slaves (+24 more)
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 556

Broader Connections

• Slavery was central to capitalism, not a mere primitive precondition #corroborates (0.80)
• Capitalist accumulation was built on colonial conquest and enslavement. #corroborates (0.70) — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 82
• Sugar’s labor demands drove England from Irish to West African slavery #expands (0.60)
• Venice organized the first capitalistic commerce in human beings #expands (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 555
• Plantation slavery combined capitalist and non-capitalist modes in dominance #expands (0.55)
• Abolition of slavery coincided with capitalism’s reorganization toward new labor forms #responds-to (0.50) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1434
• Capitalists extracted Black labor while letting African social formations reproduce the supply #responds-to (0.45)
• European capitalist hegemony reduced African labor to pawning across the world system #expands (0.40)