I believe that the demand for slaves in the Americas was the driving force behind this. While demand for slaves elsewhere would certainly be significant I believe it would be of a lesser importance
The importance of slaves from Ethiopia in the 18th century would probably be in replenishing areas that were being depopulated.
See bellow: The fact that the Swahili slave trade expands at the same time as abolition in west Africa again that it was the European demand for slaves that was the primary (but not the only) force behind the African slave trade.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/9chapter3.shtml
"There were three main reasons why more slaves were required:
1. The clove plantations on Zanzibar and Pemba set up by Sultan Seyyid Said, needed labour.
2. Brazilian traders were finding it difficult to operate in West Africa because the British navy was intercepting slave ships. The Brazilians made the journey round the Cape of Good Hope, taking slaves from the Zambezi valley and Mozambique.
3. The French had started up sugar and coffee plantations in Mauritius and Reunion."
"Wonders of the African World" by Henry Louis Gates page 84
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375709487/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486...
"Gondar enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a thriving urban center of politics, religion, and trade. Goods such as incense, musk, gold, and slaves flowed westward to the Sudan or northward to Massawa"
John Newton:
http://books.google.com/books?id=OjI3AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA245#v=onepage&q=&a...
"But I apprehend, that the neighborhood of our ships, and the desire of our goods, are motives which often push the rigor of the laws to an extreme, which would not be exacted, if they were left to themselves.
But slaves are the staple article of the traffic; and though a considerable number may have been born near the sea, I believe the bulk of them are brought from far. I have reason to think that some travel more than a thousand miles, before they reach the seacoast Whether there may be convicts amongst these likewise, or what proportion they may bear to those who are taken prisoners in war, it is impossible to know.
I verily believe, that the far greater part of the wars, in Africa, would cease, if the Europeans would cease to tempt them, by offering goods for slaves. And though they do not bring legions into the field, their wars are bloody. I believe, the captives reserved for sale are fewer than the slain.
I have not sufficient data to warrant calculation but, I suppose, not less than one hundred thousand slaves are exported, annually, from all parts of Africa, and that more than one-half of these are exported in English bottoms.
If but an equal number are killed in war, and if many of these wars are kindled by the incentive of selling their prisoners ; what an annual accumulation of blood must there be, crying against the nations of Europe concerned in this trade, and particularly against our own!"
"The impact of the slave trade on Africa" by Elikia Mbokolo
http://mondediplo.com/1998/04/02africa
"In the Senegal valley, for example, the attempts by certain monarchs to enslave and sell their own subjects gave rise, at the end of the 17th century, to the Marabout war and the Toubenan movement (from the word tuub, meaning to convert to Islam). Its founder, Nasir al-Din, proclaimed that "God does not permit kings to pillage, kill or enslave their peoples. He appointed them, on the contrary, to preserve their subjects and protect them from their enemies. Peoples were not made for kings, but kings for peoples."
"International Dictionary of Historic Places"
http://books.google.com/books?id=R44VRnNCzAYC&pg=RA1-PA398
"Through contact with the Islamic world to the north and east, Kano and the rest of Hausaland already were influenced indirectly by the wider world, including the western world. Kano had served as a center of the slave trade from long before this time, but served mostly north Africa. The demand for slaves to fill the needs of European colonies in the New World, led Kano more deeply into the slave trade early in the seventeenth century. The Hausa themselves never dealt directly with European slavers. Rather, they would go on raiding expeditions to the south, then trade their captives to other peoples south and west of them, who would trade with Europeans on the coast."
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I'm Ethiopian and I know the father of my grand father had many slaves. I'm not proud of that disgusting history but slave trade in Ethiopia was common and mostly for domestic market. The traders were not some white foreigners but Abyssinian Ethiopians themselves. As I said it was simply common in Ethiopia until recently for a wealthy Abyssinian/Ethiopian to have many slaves that were brought from the southern non-Abyssinian tribes. It is simply a very different history compared to west africa.
TheFhdude 1 month ago
OMG, please read some history. Yes, there was a slave trade in Ethiopia until the time of Haile Selassie, the last Emperor. But Abyssinians were NOT slaves but the traders. All the Emperors were Abyssinians and the slaves were brought from the south of non-Abyssinian tribes. Second, the slave trade in Ethiopia was mostly for domestic market and few were for Arab countries. No evidence is there to suggest that it was for Americas. None! So, don't confuse west africa slave trade with Ethiopia.
TheFhdude 1 month ago
that was helpful
youve just done my history research
judwoodxassasin100 8 months ago