page_title: Africa
section_title: Slavery
hierarchical_section_title: Africa / History / Slavery
caption_attribution_description: English: Map showing European claims on Africa in 1914
context_page_description: Africa is the second largest continent in the world. It makes up about a fifth of the world's land. It is surrounded by large areas of water. There are 54 fully recognised and independent countries in Africa, and 14.7% of the world's population lives there. It is thought to be the continent where the first humans evolved.
context_section_description: Slavery has long been practised in Africa. Between the seventh and twentieth centuries, the Arab slave trade took 18 million slaves from Africa via trans-Saharan and Indian Ocean routes.
  Between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries (500 years), the Atlantic slave trade took an estimated 7–12 million slaves to the New World.
  Between 1808 and 1860, the British Navy captured approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard.
caption: Areas of Africa under the control or influence of European nations in 1914 (at outbreak of World War I).
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