Movement.



Although not much is known about how the Kongo communicated with other kingdoms and tribes, but they did do a lot of trade. They paid for goods with local products like raffia cloth, pottery, salt, copper, iron, ivory, and seashells which were considered money.

When the Portugese arrived, there seemed to be very friendly relations, and the trade was prosperous. Portugese exchanged goods like silk,linen velvet, glass, and other European and Asian goods for sugar, copper, and hides. However they started demanding a heavier price for their goods and asked for human slaves as the payment. As the pressure and demand of slaves increased, the more the Kongo kingdom weakend. There was an estimate that almost one million Africans had been taken as slaves from the Kongo region by 1680.

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