What term describes the transatlantic network involving Europe, Africa, and the Americas that moved goods and enslaved people?

• A. Triangular trade
• B. Columbian Exchange
• C. Silk Road
• D. Atlantic System

Answer: (A)

The term describes a three-way pattern in which Europe sent manufactured goods to Africa, Africa supplied enslaved people to the Americas, and the Americas shipped raw materials back to Europe. This loop, known as the Triangular trade, centers on how enslaved labor connected European economies with colonial wealth across the Atlantic during the early modern period, forming a distinctive pattern of exchange across three regions.

While the Columbian Exchange refers to the broad transfer of crops, animals, and diseases between the Old and New Worlds, it does not specifically capture the slave-trade network. The Silk Road is an ancient overland route linking Asia and Europe long before this Atlantic system. The Atlantic System is a broader description of the economic framework tying Atlantic economies together, including slavery, but the three-way trading pattern that directly moved enslaved people and goods between Europe, Africa, and the Americas is best described as Triangular trade.