AP African American Studies Flashcards: Global Africans
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 14 cards to help you master important concepts.
Explain the role of West African kingdoms in the early slave trade with Portugal.
West African kingdoms acted as trading partners who captured and sold other Africans to the Portuguese, using the trade to increase their own societal wealth and power.
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Explain the role of West African kingdoms in the early slave trade with Portugal.
West African kingdoms acted as trading partners who captured and sold other Africans to the Portuguese, using the trade to increase their own societal wealth and power.
How did the Portuguese plantations on Atlantic islands serve as a precedent for the Americas?
These plantations became a direct model for the slave labor-based economies that would later be established in the Americas to produce cash crops.
How did early forms of enslaved labor used by the Portuguese shape future economies in the Americas?
The Portuguese system of using enslaved Africans on cash-crop plantations in the Atlantic became the foundational model for the large-scale, slave-based economies later developed in the Americas.
What was the primary motivation for Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, to establish trade with West Africa in the late 15th century?
The Portuguese sought to trade directly with West African kingdoms for gold, goods, and enslaved people, thereby bypassing the established trans-Saharan trade routes.
What were two demographic consequences of the increased trade between the Portuguese and West Africans?
This trade increased the presence of Europeans in West Africa and also increased the population of sub-Saharan Africans in Iberian port cities like Lisbon and Seville.
What was the Portuguese 'plantation model' developed on Atlantic islands in the mid-15th century?
The Portuguese colonized islands like Cabo Verde and São Tomé, establishing cotton, indigo, and sugar plantations that relied on the labor of enslaved Africans.
Identify two Iberian port cities that became centers for sub-Saharan African populations due to increased trade.
As a result of increased trade with West Africa, the Iberian port cities of Lisbon and Seville saw a growing population of sub-Saharan Africans.
Which two Atlantic island groups did the Portuguese colonize in the mid-15th century to establish plantations?
In the mid-fifteenth century, the Portuguese colonized the Atlantic islands of Cabo Verde and São Tomé to develop their plantation economies.
What major trade network was marginalized by the new maritime trade between Portugal and West Africa?
The growing direct maritime trade between Portugal and West African kingdoms successfully bypassed and diminished the importance of the trans-Saharan trade routes.
For what reasons did African elites travel to European Mediterranean cities before the major onset of the transatlantic slave trade?
African elites, including ambassadors and the children of rulers, traveled to Mediterranean port cities for diplomatic, educational, and religious reasons.
What was the effect of the growing slave trade with Portugal on the power of West African kingdoms?
Participating West African kingdoms increased their wealth and power through the slave trade, which was an existing feature of their hierarchical societies.
By 1500, approximately how many enslaved Africans had been transported to Portuguese-colonized Atlantic islands and Europe?
By the year 1500, about 50,000 enslaved Africans had been removed from the continent to work on these islands and in Europe.
What were the key cash crops grown on the Portuguese Atlantic island plantations?
The Portuguese established plantations on Cabo Verde and São Tomé to cultivate cotton, indigo, and sugar using the labor of enslaved Africans.
Besides enslaved laborers, what diverse roles did other Africans occupy in Mediterranean port cities?
In these cities, free and enslaved Africans served in a wide range of roles, including domestic labor, boatmen, guards, entertainers, vendors, and even knights.