THE EXTERMINATION OF HISPANIOLA NATIVES CREATES A DEMAND FOR LABOR
Initial doubts about the value of Portuguese exploration of Africa's west coast under Henry the Navigator,som of John 1,were stilled in 1441,when a caravel returned to Lisbon with gold and a handful of Negro slaves. During the next 5 years 1,000 slaves were imported, and in 1448 Portugal established its first African trading station on Arguin Island ,just off the coast of Mauritania.
Pope Nicholas V sanctioned war on the Moors and the conversion of pagans, in bulls which implicitly legitimized the slave trade.
Slaves were of little economic value to Portugal, though in the 16th century about 10,000 a year were imported as agricultural laborers by Spain. Spain's colonization of Hispaniola after Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492,however,brought the native Arawak Indians near to extermination and craeted the need for fresh labor in the Caribbean.
The first slaves were supplied to the Spanish in Hispaniola and the trade grew so rapidly that by 1513 the Spanish Crown was making a huge profit from the sale of licenses to import negros.
For the next 300 years the maritime European powers competed in the lucrative slave market and carried to the New World ,at a conservative estimate 15 Million slaves.
