One of the largest diasporas of modern times is that of
Sub-Saharan Africans, which dates back several centuries. During the
Atlantic slave trade, 9.4 to 12 million people from
West Africa survived transportation to the
Americas and arrived there as
slaves.
[34] This population and their descendants were major influences on the culture of
British,
French,
Portuguese, and
Spanish New World colonies. Prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade, millions of Africans had moved and settled as merchants, seamen and slaves in different parts of
Europe and
Asia. From the 8th through the 19th centuries, an Arab-controlled
slave trade dispersed millions of Africans to Asia and the islands of the
Indian Ocean.
The earliest known Asian diaspora of note is the
Jewish diaspora. With roots in the
Babylonian Captivity and later migration under
Hellenism, the majority of the diaspora can be attributed to the Roman conquest, expulsion, and enslavement of the Jewish population of
Judea,
[41] whose descendants became the
Ashkenazim,
Sephardim, and
Mizrahim of today,
[42][43][44] roughly numbering 15 million of which 8 million still live in the diaspora,
[45] though the number was much higher before
Zionist immigration to what is now Israel and the murder of 6 million Jews in the
Holocaust.