Students can use this worksheet to map out the three stages of the triangular trade route and identify the goods transported at each leg.

Let me work through this step by step to fill in the triangular trade route stages correctly.

The triangular trade was a three-part trading system between Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the 16th-19th centuries. Let me identify each stage:

Stage 1:
- Route: Europe → Africa
- What was transported: European manufactured goods (guns, cloth, iron goods, rum) were taken to Africa to trade for enslaved people

Stage 2:
- Route: Africa → Americas (the "Middle Passage")
- What was transported: Enslaved Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas to be sold into slavery

Stage 3:
- Route: Americas → Europe
- What was transported: Raw materials and products from plantations worked by enslaved people (sugar, tobacco, cotton, rum, molasses) were shipped back to Europe

Now, which stage was most profitable for European merchants?

The third stage (Americas → Europe) was generally the most profitable because:
- The raw materials (especially sugar, tobacco, and cotton) had high value in Europe
- These goods could be processed and sold for significant profit
- The entire system depended on free labor from enslaved people, making production costs very low while selling prices remained high

However, some historians argue that Stage 1 was also very profitable because merchants could buy manufactured goods cheaply in Europe and sell them at much higher prices in Africa, then use those profits to purchase enslaved people. But the consistent, large-scale profits came from the plantation products brought back to Europe.

The most commonly accepted answer is Stage 3 (the return voyage from the Americas to Europe) because the cash crops produced by enslaved labor generated enormous wealth for European merchants and their home countries.

Final Answer:

STAGE 1
- Route: Europe to Africa
- Transported: Manufactured goods (guns, cloth, iron tools, rum)

STAGE 2
- Route: Africa to the Americas (Middle Passage)
- Transported: Enslaved Africans

STAGE 3
- Route: Americas to Europe
- Transported: Raw materials (sugar, tobacco, cotton, rum, molasses)

Which stage was most profitable? Stage 3 (Americas to Europe) - This stage was most profitable because European merchants could sell valuable raw materials like sugar, tobacco, and cotton produced by enslaved labor for high prices in Europe.