The period between 1550 and 1580 saw a rapid expansion in the trade in slaves from Africa to the Americas. The conquest of the two major imperial powers in the Americas, the Incas and the Mexica, had seen similar demographic realities to those which had already devastated the Caribbean islands. However, the vast territorial expanse and the riches offered by the silver and gold mines of Mexico and Peru meant that the expense of buying African slaves could be offset by the wealth of the colonies. As new mines were discovered in the Nuevo Reino de Granada in the 1580s, the demand for slaves continued to grow. The Spanish imperial economy became characterised by the mines of the mainland; the prosperous sugar plantations of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico fell into decline in the late sixteenth century as these islands were displaced from official trading routes and the carrerra deÍndias took shape via Havana, Cuba.

Throughout this period, Western Africa remained the dominant source of American-bound slaves. There was a steady trickle of slaves from Angola and Kongo to the New World, but the clear majority still came from the region that traded via Cabo Verde to America, and only with the Portuguese conquest of Luanda in 1575 did this begin to change. The expanding cycle of demand in the Americas therefore initially had most impact among the peoples of Upper Guinea, as new strategies were developed both to procure slaves in this region and for defence against predatory attacks by slave raiders.