8 European Nations That Hold ‘World Records’ for the Mistreatment of Black People

Most Kidnappings of Africans From the 15th to 19th century, the Portuguese exported 4.7 million enslaved Africans to the Americas, making it Europe’s largest trafficker of human beings. First Death Camps Between 1904 and 1908, before German death camps were used to kill Jews in Nazi Germany, as many as 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the total Herero population) and 10,000 Namaqua (50 percent of the total Namaqua population) either starved, died of thirst or were worked to death in German death camps in Namibia. First Europeans to Steal Africans for Transatlantic Slave Trade The Portuguese first began to kidnap people from the west coast of Africa and to take those they enslaved back to Europe. It is estimated that by the early 16th century as much as 10 percent of Lisbon's population was of African descent. First to Bring Kidnapped Africans from Europe to the Americas The Spanish took the first African captives to the Americas from Europe as early as 1503. First to Bring Kidnapped Africans Directly from Africa to the Americas By 1518, the Spanish were responsible for shipping the first Black captives directly from Africa to America. Largest Occupier of African Land Between 1885 and 1914, Britain took nearly 30 percent of Africa's population under its control; 15 percent for France, 11 percent for Portugal, 9 percent for Germany, 7 percent for Belgium and 1 percent for Italy. Last Country to Stop Trafficking of Africans After Transatlantic Slave Trade Was Determined to Be Illegal It was not until 1867, after widespread abolitionist pressure within the Spanish empire — and in light of emancipation in Cuba’s much larger neighbor, the United States, after a violent civil war — that the Spanish government moved decisively against the illegal transatlantic slave trade, ending the trafficking for good. Last Country to Hold an African Colony South Africa in 1994 became the last African colony to achieve majority rule after dismantling white minority rule established by British and Dutch colonizers.

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