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In 1482, the Portuguese arrived and established a fort at Elmina. The region became a major gold supplier to Europe.
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1502: Juan de Córdoba of Seville was the first identified merchant to send an African slave to the New World. He is permitted by the Spanish authorities to only send one slave.
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The first record of sugar cane being grown in the New World it was in Santo Domingo (modern Dominican Republic).
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Start of the systematic transportation of African slaves to the New World: King Ferdinand of Spain authorises a shipment of 50 African slaves to be sent to Santo Domingo.
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Significant escalation of the slave trade, Charles V grants his Flemish courtier Lorenzo de Gorrevod permission to import 4000 African slaves into New Spain. From this point onwards thousands of slaves are sent to the New World each year.
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1525 First slave voyage direct from Africa to the Americas
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November 1528: a slave called Esteban (or Estevanico) becomes the first African slave to step foot on what is now the United States of America.
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October 1562: John Hawkins of Plymouth becomes the first English sailor that we know about to have obtained African slaves - approximately 300 of them in Sierra Leone - for sale in the West Indies. Hawkins traded the slaves illegally with Spanish colonies, but the trip was profitable and others followed. These contributed to increasing tensions between England and Spain. (As well as initiating the English slave trade, Hawkins also introduced both the potato and tobacco to England.)
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Europeans gained interest in the Gold Coast beginning in the 17th century because of its rich gold deposits.
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1642, the Dutch had forced out the Portuguese.
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by 1750, the slave trade was booming