History: The Earliest Forms Of Human Trafficking

4. Historical Βackground

4.1. Earliest Forms of Human Trafficking

The practices of physical and mental exploitation of human beings exist since the beginning of civilization and actually follow the evolution of the human species.

The earliest form of global human trafficking appeared with the African slave trade.

Although forms of slavery existed before the 1400s, this decade stigmatized the start of European slave trading in Africa with the Portuguese transferring people from Africa to Portugal and exploiting them as slaves. The development of colonization intensified the slave trade. Throughout the 1600s, more countries were involved in the European slave trade, including Spain, North America, Holland, France, Sweden, and Denmark.

After the cessation of the African slave trade, occurred the phenomenon of “white slavery”, which constitutes the “procurement—by use of force, deceit, or drugs— of a white woman or girl against her will for prostitution.”

4.1.2. Human Trafficking in the 1900s

The main purpose of this agreement was to protect women from being involved in "white slave traffic." White slavery concerned forcing a white woman or girl into prostitution by commercial sex acts. The criminalization of white slavery occurred with the signing of the International Convention for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade in 1910. Whilst the 1904 Agreement was addressing the migration side of the problem, the 1910 Convention emphasized on the criminalization of