The Atlantic slave trade, which lasted from the late 16th to early 19th centuries involved European countries such as Britain, Spain and France which all had colonies in the Americas and Africa. The ships were carrying slaves, crops and manufactured goods between West Africa, the Caribbean and American colonies and the colonial powers in Europe. The use of African slaves was very important to growing colonial cash crops, which were exported to Europe. European goods, in turn, were used to buy African slaves, which were then brought west from Africa to the Americas to work on the crops. The middle passage of the triangular trade refers to the transportation of the slaves to America. The Atlantic economy was tied into the idea of mercantilism, which involved European countries to have a lot of colonies that traded only among themselves. Goods that were traded in the Atlantic economy were rum, slaves, sugar, tobacco, gold, spices, fish, lumber and manufactured goods.
