Slavery and European contact

Two slightly differing Okpoko manillas as used by Europeans purchase slaves . Slavery and European contact Following the 1591 destruction of the Songhai capital by Moroccan invaders, a number of smaller states arose across West Africa, including the Bambara Empire of Ségou , the Bambara kingdom of Kaarta , the Fula / Malinké kingdom of Khasso , and the Kénédougou Empire of Sikasso . Portuguese traders began establishing settlements along the coast in 1445 , followed by the French and English; the African slave trade began not long after, which over the following centuries would debilitate the region's economy and population. The slave trade also encouraged the formation of states such as the Asante Empire , Bambara Empire and Dahomey , whose economies largely depended on exchanging slaves for European firearms , which were then used to capture more slaves. The expanding trans-Atlantic slave trade produced significant populations of West Africans living in the New World , recently colonized by Europeans. The oldest known remains of African slaves in the Americas were found in Mexico in early 2006 ; they are thought to date from the late 16 th century and the mid-17 th century. [ 3 ] European and American governments passed legislation prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade in the 19 th century, though slavery in the Americas persisted in some capacity through the century; the last country to abolish the institution was Brazil in 1888. Descendants of West Africans make up large and important segments of the population in Brazil, the Caribbean , Latin America , and the United States .