At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the British public pressured its government to use the Congress to push the nations of Europe to abolish slavery. Britain’s ambassador Castlereagh found significant pushback from all nations involved, mostly Spain and Portugal, who maintained large colonial empires in South America.
While Spain eventually agreed to abolish the slave trade in “eight-years”, Portugal only agreed to abolish the slave-trade north of the equator. This was very convenient for Portugal as most if not all of Portugal’s slave-holding colonies were south of the equator. In essence Portugal’s agreement to abolish the slave-trade only north of the equator was a giant “FU” to the British.
dziobak112 on
How dare the British abolish slave trade only in some parts of the world they didn’t control! Shame on them, really. Poor Portugal, the British should have done better!
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At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the British public pressured its government to use the Congress to push the nations of Europe to abolish slavery. Britain’s ambassador Castlereagh found significant pushback from all nations involved, mostly Spain and Portugal, who maintained large colonial empires in South America.
While Spain eventually agreed to abolish the slave trade in “eight-years”, Portugal only agreed to abolish the slave-trade north of the equator. This was very convenient for Portugal as most if not all of Portugal’s slave-holding colonies were south of the equator. In essence Portugal’s agreement to abolish the slave-trade only north of the equator was a giant “FU” to the British.
How dare the British abolish slave trade only in some parts of the world they didn’t control! Shame on them, really. Poor Portugal, the British should have done better!