AP European History Flashcards: The Slave Trade
Written by AP Content Team, Verified for 2026 AP Exams, Last updated: May 2026
Review key ideas with interactive flashcards. This set includes 10 cards to help you master important concepts.
Who were the primary actors expanding the slave trade for the American plantation economy?
Europeans were the ones who expanded the trade of enslaved Africans to supply labor to the Americas.
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Who were the primary actors expanding the slave trade for the American plantation economy?
Europeans were the ones who expanded the trade of enslaved Africans to supply labor to the Americas.
Explain the cause-and-effect relationship between the plantation economy and the slave trade.
The cause was the creation of a plantation economy demanding immense labor; the effect was the European expansion of the slave trade to meet that demand.
What were the two primary factors that led Europeans to expand the trade of enslaved Africans?
The expansion was a response to the establishment of a plantation economy in the Americas and the demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples.
A historian argues that the slave trade was solely an internal African development. How does the provided text challenge this?
The text states that Europeans expanded the trade in response to American economic and demographic factors, showing a clear European role in its development.
What was the Middle Passage?
The Middle Passage was the specific route used in the expanded European trade of forcibly transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas.
How did the economy of the Americas influence the development of the slave trade?
The establishment of a plantation economy, which required a large labor force, directly caused Europeans to expand the trade of enslaved Africans.
What is meant by 'demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples' in the context of the slave trade?
This refers to the massive population decline of Native Americans, which created a labor vacuum that Europeans filled with enslaved Africans.
If a Native American population on a Caribbean island was decimated by disease, what labor system would Europeans likely introduce to replace them on sugar plantations?
In response to demographic catastrophes among indigenous peoples, Europeans would expand the trade of enslaved Africans to provide labor for the plantation economy.
What is the connection between the Middle Passage and the American plantation economy?
The labor demands of the American plantation economy fueled the transatlantic slave trade, of which the Middle Passage was the central, brutal transportation route.
What was the European solution to the labor shortage created by the decline of indigenous populations?
Europeans addressed the labor shortage by developing and expanding the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans.