Evaluate the importance of plantation agriculture to the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade.

The question requires candidates to make an appraisal of the role played by plantation agriculture in the expansion of the Atlantic slave trade. Candidates may consider how plantations were set up in the Americas and how these were labour intensive. This led to the search for labour from Africa, especially the west African coast. This led to what was known as the triangular trade with the transportation of slaves forming a major part of the trade. As the plantation economy in tobacco and sugar grew, so did trans-Atlantic trade. Raw materials were exported to industrial countries who in turn transported industrial products. Candidates may therefore consider how plantation agriculture was important for the expansion of the trade, but may consider other factors that played a role, for example the availability of slaves and the growth in industrial development.

The question required candidates to make an appraisal of the role played by plantation agriculture in the rise of the Atlantic slave trade. The responses to this question tended to suffer from a lack of knowledge and a tendency to describe.