What is the Atlantic triangular trade?

The answer

The Atlantic triangular trade is a shorthand for the connected trade among Europe, Africa and the Americas, in which manufactured goods went to Africa, enslaved people were forced across the Atlantic, and goods produced by their labour returned to Europe. Historians treat it as a useful simplification, not an exact map of every voyage, because many routes, such as direct sailings between Brazil and Africa, did not follow a triangle. Behind every arrow on the diagram were human beings.