The Atlantic Slave Trade was a transatlantic system that lasted from the 16th to the 19th century, involving the forced transportation of millions of Africans to the Americas. Enslaved individuals were captured, sold, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean to work on plantations, primarily in the Caribbean and South America, where they cultivated crops like sugar and tobacco. This trade was part of a larger triangular trade system, which included Europe, Africa, and the Americas. European traders exchanged goods for enslaved people in Africa, who were then sold in the Americas, generating immense profits and contributing to the economic development of European colonies.