The profit of French ports from slave trade shows which wider relation?

Correct answer: Relation between maritime trade and colonial exploitation

The governing concept is the Atlantic commercial system that connected French ports, overseas colonies, plantations and enslaved labour. Ports such as Nantes and Bordeaux earned wealth through shipping, insurance, re-export and trade in enslaved people or plantation goods. Their prosperity was therefore not separate from colonial exploitation; it depended on a wider maritime network that transferred wealth from colonies to European commercial centres. Option A is correct because it identifies this direct economic relationship. Option B concerns political participation and education, not the slave trade. Option C refers to separate events within the French Revolution and does not explain port profits. Option D concerns political institutions and women’s activism. The port evidence shows how colonial exploitation supported metropolitan commercial growth.