18. As Europe and the United States abolished the trade, some African leaders argued for it to continue
In 1853 Brazil outlawed the transatlantic slave trade, the last slave importing nation to do so. It did so in the face of growing opposition to ending the trade among some rulers in Africa. King Gezo of Dahomey, a nation which exported hundreds of thousands of slaves, called the trade, “…the ruling principle of my people”. Prior to initiating the trade with the Europeans in the early 18th century, Dahomey regularly executed war prisoners in a ritual known as the Annual Customs. The slave trade offered the Kings of Dahomey a profitable means of expanding and strengthening their realms, through the use of the weapons they received in exchange for their slaves. Across Africa, the same changes among the more the 170 kingdoms and tribal organizations altered the face of the continent.
When Britain abolished the trade in 1807 the King of Bonny argued “We think this trade must go on”. He called the practice, “…a trade ordained by God himself”. Some African rulers realized as much as a quarter of a million British pounds per year in the value of goods received, many of which strengthened their rule. Yet they did not realize what their descendants came to learn. The slave trade established footholds for the British, French, Dutch, and Portuguese in Africa. They served the Europeans during the Great Scramble for Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During that period, the European powers carved all of Africa into colonies and protectorates, establishing colonial rule, and destroying the ethnic nations of Africa, and the African empires within.