to more than the entire population of the country in 1400.
The sudden appearance of Europeans all around the
coast of Western and Central Africa eager to buy slaves
could not but have a transformative impact on African
societies. Most slaves who were shipped to the Americas
were war captives subsequently transported to the coast.
The increase in warfare was fueled by huge imports of guns
and ammunition, which the Europeans exchanged for
slaves. By 1730 about 180,000 guns were being imported
every year just along the West African coast, and between
1750 and the early nineteenth century, the British alone sold
between 283,000 and 394,000 guns a year. Between 1750
and 1807, the British sold an extraordinary 22,000 tons of
gunpowder, making an average of about 384,000
kilograms annually, along with 91,000 kilograms of lead per
year. Farther to the south, the trade was just as vigorous.
On the Loango coast, north of the Kingdom of Kongo,
Europeans sold about 50,000 guns a year.