“Between 1450 and 1850, an estimated 12 million Africans crossed the Atlantic” (Stearns et al. 554). Around 1600 CE, the first slaves were traded in Africa. They were not considered “slaves” at this time and their conditions were not as deteriorated as in America. When Europeans began trading in humans, Africans became known as slaves. In 1641, slavery was legally approved in America. It took hundreds of years before Americans legally got rid of slavery. Many of the effects of slavery still persist in America today. Slavery became such a strong institution in the Americas that people had to fight very hard to end this institution. When the Spanish first colonized America, they brought with them diseases that caused a massive decline in the native population. The fertile lands of the Atlantic region, suitable for numerous agricultural productions, seemed to the colonists a great opportunity for economic development. So, they started carrying out different economic tasks to get the most out of the colony. Slavery is one of the processes that influenced the European economy in many ways. Agriculture and cheap labor were two causes of the institutionalization of slavery in America, which inevitably led to the Industrial Revolution. Native Americans had less experience with agricultural knowledge, and mass population destruction caused a labor shortage in this region. Even though America's climate and fertile land were quite suitable for agricultural products, they didn't really know how to properly utilize the land's fertility. Additionally, they were disconnected from the outside world before 1492, which caused the Andeans to lack ... middle of paper ...... unbearable torture the slave trade is considered a curse for the population African and the sufferer in its own right in today's world. Works Cited Eltis, David and Stanley L. Engerman. "The importance of slavery and the slave trade in industrializing Britain". The Journal of Economic History. 60.1, March 2000: 123-144. JSTOR. Web. April 15, 2014. Gupta, Tania Das. “Capitalism and slavery”. Race and racialization. Canadian Scholarly Press, 2007. Web. April 15, 2014.Mitchell, Donald. “Predatory Warfare, Social Status, and the Slave Trade in the North Pacific.” JSTOR. University of Pittsburgh - From the Commonwealth System of Higher Education, 23.1, (January 1984): 39. Internet. April 15, 2014. Stearns, Peter N., Michael Adas, Stuart B. Schwartz, and Marc Jason Gilbert. World Civilizations: The Global Experience. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Longman, 2011. Print.