This was the height of the Spanish Empire.  King Phillip worked closely with the Portuguese Empire to pay for exploration voyages to the Americas. In 1580, Spain just won a war to succeed Portugal as part of the Spanish empire. During the War of Portuguese Succession- this formed the Iberian Union and established further control over their colonial holdings in the Americans and Africa. (Park) (Schneider).

In early 1586, Juan Martinez and his crew departed for Portuguese Guinea, which is modern day Guinea-Bissau. 

As of 2021, the GDP per capita in Spain is 30,103.51 USD. Although Spain's position of power in the slave trade declined in the mid 17th century, much of their wealth was gained from the Slave Trade.

Prior to the slave trade, the Mali empire ruled with military force, which was used later to control the slave trade in this region. The ruling class of the Mali empire were warriors known as Nyancho, who believed they gained their strength from a mythical folklore named "Baleba". ("Kaabu Oral History") Africans in the Mali empire are ethnically Mandinka, which is one of the largest ethnic-inguistic groups in Africa and are predominantly Muslim. 

Portuguese explorers first came into contact with the Mali Empire in the mid-1400s, and trade between these regions began in 1440 (Rodney 151). 

Juan Martinez and his crew left Senegambia with 325 enslaved Africans aboard his ship and set sail for the Caribbean and New Spain. 

According to Our World in Data, the 2020 GDP per

While it is unclear precisely where this ship sailed in New Spain based on the data on Slave Voyages, a common port of destination for slave ships in New Spain was in Veracruz, Mexico and in Cartagena, Colombia. 

Jesuits were mainly responsible and in charge of day to day slave operations in New Spain. They used Christianity to justify their actions- that they were making both indigenous and African enslaved people more "civilized." Indigenous population was hard to enslave due to their lack of immunity. African enslaved people worked on vast plantations or ranches (Treviño). Men often worked in the fields, while women worked as domestic help in the house such as cooking or nursing. ("African women and descendents")  Slavery operated very differently in New Spain than in other European territories. According to the  La Casta painting from the 18th century, Spain allowed for indigenous, Africans, and Spaniards to mingle together, marry and have children. Additionally,  enslaved Africans, despite the arduous labor and difficult treatment they endured, received judicial protection from the Holy Office to prevent abuse, and provide witness statements to punish masters, although this was rare. (Palmer)

Jamaica was a Spanish colony until 1655, and the Dutch supplied African slave labor for Spanish colonies under the Dutch West India company which made the Netherlands incredibly rich. In return, the Dutch received Iberian agricultural products such as olive oil and fruit. The Spanish Empire and the Dutch developed a mutually symbiotic trading relationship until the British took control of the island. (Antunes and Negrón).  

Under the British, slaves endured harsh treatment and less civil liberties compared to generations of enslaved people that lived under Spanish rule. Prior to the Spanish relinquishing control in 1655, many enslaved people were freed by their Spanish masters and established free "Maroon" living communities, a term used to describe free formerly enslaved Afro-Caribbeans in New Spain ("Jamaica"). 

Under British colonial rule enslaved people mainly worked on sugar plantations, which were cultivated and harvested in Jamaica, and then shipped to England to be consumed by the masses of society. (Burnard)