1501-1641: During this early era of the trade, Iberian ports in Spain and Portugal were responsible for organizing 97 percent of all slaving voyages departin…

1501-1641: During this early era of the trade, Iberian ports in Spain and Portugal were responsible for organizing 97 percent of all slaving voyages departing from Europe. The first ships to carry enslaved Africans to the Americas in 1501 departed from Spanish ports with captives who had previously arrived in Spain directly from the African coast. By the 1530s, the organizational model shifted as Iberian merchants began coordinating complex voyages that sailed to Africa to force captives aboard before proceeding to Spanish America. This established the foundational triangular trade routes that other European nations would later emulate.