Figure 3.12: Spanish and Portuguese trade routes and territories in the Americas, circa 1600. The major trade routes from Spain to its colonies led to the two main centers of its empire, Mexico and Peru. The Spanish colonies could trade only with Spain, not directly with one another. By contrast, there were direct trade routes from Portuguese colonies in Brazil to Portuguese outposts in Africa. Many millions of Africans were enslaved and traded to Brazilian plantation and mine owners (as well as to Spanish, British, French, and Dutch colonies in Middle and South America).
[Source consulted: Hammond Times Concise Atlas of World History (Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1994), pp. 66–