What was a major effect of the Triangular Trade?

The Triangular Trade was a complex system of transatlantic exchange that significantly impacted the economies and societies of Europe, Africa, and the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. One of the major effects of this trade system was the expansion of the slave trade.

As European powers established colonies in the Americas, there was a high demand for labor to cultivate cash crops such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton. To meet this demand, millions of Africans were forcibly taken from their homelands and transported across the Atlantic Ocean to work as enslaved people on these plantations. This inhumane system not only increased the scale of the slave trade but also entrenched slavery as an economic institution in the New World, leading to profound social and economic ramifications that resonate to this day.

In contrast, the other options do not accurately reflect the significant consequences of the Triangular Trade. There was no major increase in local farming as the focus was on plantation agriculture reliant on slave labor. Shipbuilding actually thrived during this period, given the growth in maritime trade, which contradicts any notion of decline. Lastly, shipbuilding in American colonies did not decrease, as the maritime demands of trade, including the slave trade, promoted an increase in