- From the 15th th century, the Spanish and Portuguese discoveries opened up new economic prospects. Quite quickly, the European metropolises use black slaves to benefit from slave labor in the sugar or tobacco plantations. The other European powers are also embarking on colonial expansion.
- At the beginning of the 18 th century, the "triangular trade" was at its peak:slave traders set off from the European coasts, headed for Africa, loaded ships, resold the slaves in the colonies and reached the cities to sell products from the plantations.
- The abolition of the slave trade took place before that of slavery. The date differs depending on the country, but it was during the Congress of Vienna in 1815 that the European powers reached an agreement to abolish the slave trade. It serves as a step towards the definitive abolition of slavery. Thus, if England put an end to the slave trade in 1807, slavery was only abolished in 1833.
18th century - 19th century
Procedure
Towards the end of the 18 th century, abolitionists gathered data on the working and living conditions of slaves. But this awareness is part of a broader ideological context:the concept of liberalism extends into the intellectual classes, with individual autonomy playing a large part in it. Likewise, the universalism of the human condition and the notions of individual freedom contribute to rethinking the question of slavery.
In colonial Europe, it was first Great Britain that played a driving role:the abolitionists met in organizations from 1787. Multiplying petitions and political mobilizations, the various slave revolts in the British colonies went into meaning of the abolition of slavery. The British will be active internationally to promote abolition:they are the ones who insist that the Congress of Vienna integrate the abolition of the slave trade in 1815. The country receives the first convention against slavery in 1841 , and supports, during the Civil War, the North, anti-slavery.
France was the first country to adopt an abolitionist society, in 1788. The First Republic, under the Montagnard Convention, abolished slavery in February 1794. Napoléon I st reconsidered this decision in 1802, and it was not until the II th Republic is proclaimed so that the abolition of slavery is decreed in April 1848.
France is one of the last European countries to abolish slavery, along with Spain and Portugal (1840), even if Portuguese slave traders continued the slave trade during the 19 th century.
Consequences
- The abolitionist movement grew stronger throughout the 19 th century. The international community will work together to denounce the slave system, from the Berlin Act of February 1885 to certain articles of the League of Nations Pact, which was born after the First World War.
- The practice of slavery has not disappeared, however:in 1992, the International Labor Organization (ILO) mentioned situations of slavery in Mauritania and Sudan.