History[edit]

Main article: History of Madeira

Exploration[edit]
Plutarch in his Parallel Lives (Sertorius, 75 AD) referring to the military
commander Quintus Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cádiz, he
met sailors who spoke of idyllic Atlantic islands: "The islands are said to be two in
number separated by a very narrow strait and lie 10,000 furlongs [2,000 km] from
Africa. They are called the Isles of the Blessed."[15]
Archaeological evidence suggests that the islands may have been visited by
the Vikings sometime between 900 and 1030.[16]
Legend[edit]
During the reign of King Edward III of England, lovers Robert Machim and Anna
d'Arfet were said to have fled from England to France in 1346. Driven off course by a
violent storm, their ship ran aground along the coast of an island that may have been
Madeira. Later this legend was the basis of the naming of the city of Machico on the
island, in memory of the young lovers.[17]
Discovery[edit]
Knowledge of some Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before their formal
discovery and settlement, as the islands were shown on maps as early as 1339.[18]

Statue of João Gonçalves Zarco

In 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves

Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven off course by a storm to an island they
named Porto Santo (English: holy harbour) in gratitude for divine deliverance from a
shipwreck. The following year, an organised expedition, under the captaincy of
Zarco, Vaz Teixeira, and Bartolomeu Perestrello, traveled to the island to claim it on
behalf of the Portuguese Crown. Subsequently, the new settlers observed "a heavy
black cloud suspended to the southwest."[19] Their investigation revealed it to be the
larger island they called Madeira.[20]
Settlement[edit]
The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425.[21]
Grain production began to fall and the ensuing crisis forced Henry the Navigator to
order other commercial crops to be planted so that the islands could be profitable.[citation
needed]
 These specialised plants, and their associated industrial technology, created one
of the major revolutions on the islands and fuelled Portuguese industry. Following the
introduction of the first water-driven sugar mill on Madeira, sugar production
increased to over 6,000 arrobas (an arroba was equal to 11 to 12 kilograms) by
1455,[22] using advisers from Sicily and financed by Genoese capital. (Genoa acted as
an integral part of the island economy until the 17th century.) The accessibility of
Madeira attracted Genoese and Flemish traders, who were keen to
bypass Venetian monopolies.
"By 1480 Antwerp had some seventy ships engaged in the Madeira sugar trade, with
the refining and distribution concentrated in Antwerp. By the 1490s Madeira had
overtaken Cyprus as a producer of sugar."[23]
Sugarcane production was the primary engine of the island's economy, increasing
the demand for labour. Enslaved Africans were used during portions of the island's
history to cultivate sugar cane, and the proportion of enslaved people brought from
Africa reached 10% of the total population of Madeira by the 16th century.[24][full citation needed]

Cathedral of Funchal with its tower of 15th-century Gothic style in the background

Barbary corsairs from North Africa, who enslaved Europeans from ships and coastal
communities throughout the Mediterranean region, captured 1,200 people in Porto
Santo in 1617.[25][26] After the 17th century, as Portuguese sugar production was shifted
to Brazil, São Tomé and Príncipe and elsewhere, Madeira's most important
commodity product became its wine.[citation needed]
The British first amicably occupied the island in 1801 whereafter Colonel William
Henry Clinton became governor.[27] A detachment of the 85th Regiment of Foot under
Lieutenant-colonel James Willoughby Gordon garrisoned the island.[28] After
the Peace of Amiens, British troops withdrew in 1802, only to reoccupy Madeira in
1807 until the end of the Peninsular War in 1814.[29] In 1856, British troops recovering
from cholera, and widows and orphans of soldiers fallen in the Crimean War, were
stationed in Funchal, Madeira.
World War I[edit]
On 31 December 1916, during the Great War, a German U-boat, SM  U-38, captained
by Max Valentiner, entered Funchal harbour on Madeira. U-38 torpedoed and sank
three ships, bringing the war to Portugal by extension. The ships sunk were:

 CS Dacia (1,856 tons), a British cable-laying vessel.[30] Dacia had previously

undertaken war work off the coast of Casablanca and Dakar. It was in the
process of diverting the German South American cable into Brest, France.[31]
 SS  Kanguroo (2,493 tons), a French specialized "heavy-lift" transport.[32]
 Surprise (680 tons), a French gunboat. Her commander and 34 crewmen
(including 7 Portuguese) were killed.[33]
After attacking the ships, U-38 bombarded Funchal for two hours from a range of
about 3 kilometres (2 mi). Batteries on Madeira returned fire and eventually forced U-
38 to withdraw.[34]
On 12 December 1917, two German U-boats, SM U-156 and SM U-157 (captained
by Max Valentiner), again bombarded Funchal.[35] This time the attack lasted around
30 minutes. The U-boats fired 40 120 and 150 mm (4.7 and 5.9 in) shells. There
were three fatalities and 17 wounded; a number of houses and Santa Clara church
were hit.[36]
Charles I (Karl I), the last Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was exiled to
Madeira after the war. Determined to prevent an attempt to restore Charles to the
throne, the Council of Allied Powers agreed he could go into exile on Madeira
because it was isolated in the Atlantic and easily guarded.[37] He died there on 1 April
1922 and his coffin lies in a chapel of the Church of Our Lady of Monte.

Geography[edit]

Distribution of the islands of the archipelago (not including the Savage Islands)

Sights from Bica da Cana showing Madeira's high orography

The archipelago of Madeira is located 520 km (280 nmi) from the African coast and
1,000 km (540 nmi) from the European continent (approximately a one-and-a-half-
hour flight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon).[38] Madeira is on the same parallel
as Bermuda a few time zones further west in the Atlantic. The two archipelagos are
the only land in the Atlantic on the 32nd parallel north. Madeira is found in the
extreme south of the Tore-Madeira Ridge, a bathymetric structure of great
dimensions oriented along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis that extends for
1,000 kilometres (540 nmi). This submarine structure consists of long
geomorphological relief that extends from the abyssal plain to 3500 metres; its
highest submersed point is at a depth of about 150 metres (around latitude 36ºN).
The origins of the Tore-Madeira Ridge are not clearly established, but may have
resulted from a morphological buckling of the lithosphere.[39][40]
Islands and islets[edit]

 Madeira (740.7 km²), including Ilhéu de Agostinho, Ilhéu de São Lourenço,

Ilhéu Mole (northwest); Total population: 262,456 (2011 Census).
 Porto Santo (42.5 km²), including Ilhéu de Baixo ou da Cal, Ilhéu de Ferro,
Ilhéu das Cenouras, Ilhéu de Fora, Ilhéu de Cima; Total population: 5,483 (2011
Census).
 Desertas Islands (14.2 km²), including the three uninhabited islands: Deserta
Grande Island, Bugio Island and Ilhéu de Chão.
 Savage Islands (3.6 km²), archipelago 280 km south-southeast of Madeira
Island including three main islands and 16 uninhabited islets in two groups: the
Northwest Group (Selvagem Grande Island, Ilhéu de Palheiro da Terra, Ilhéu de
Palheiro do Mar) and the Southeast Group (Selvagem Pequena Island, Ilhéu
Grande, Ilhéu Sul, Ilhéu Pequeno, Ilhéu Fora, Ilhéu Alto, Ilhéu Comprido, Ilhéu
Redondo, Ilhéu Norte).
Madeira Island[edit]
Main article: Madeira Island

Detailed, true-colour image of Madeira. The image shows that deep green laurel forest (laurissilva) survives
intact on the steep northern slopes of the island, but in the south, where terrain is gentler,
the terracotta colour of towns and the light green colour of agriculture are more dominant

The island of Madeira is at the top of a massive shield volcano that rises about 6 km
(20,000 ft) from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, on the Tore underwater mountain
range. The volcano formed atop an east-west rift[41][42] in the oceanic crust along
the African Plate, beginning during the Miocene epoch over 5 million years ago,
continuing into the Pleistocene until about 700,000 years ago.[43] This was followed by
extensive erosion, producing two large amphitheatres open to south in the central
part of the island. Volcanic activity later resumed, producing scoria cones and lava
flows atop the older eroded shield. The most recent volcanic eruptions were on the
west-central part of the island only 6,500 years ago, creating more cinder cones and
lava flows.[43]
It is the largest island of the group with an area of 741 km2 (286 sq mi), a length of
57 km (35 mi) (from Ponte de São Lourenço to Ponte do Pargo), while approximately
22 km (14 mi) at its widest point (from Ponte da Cruz to Ponte São Jorge), with a
coastline of 150 km (90 mi). It has a mountain ridge that extends along the centre of
the island, reaching 1,862 metres (6,109 feet) at its highest point (Pico Ruivo), while
much lower (below 200 metres) along its eastern extent. The primitive volcanic foci
responsible for the central mountainous area, consisted of the peaks: Ruivo (1,862
m), Torres (1,851 m), Arieiro (1,818 m), Cidrão (1,802 m), Cedro (1,759 m), Casado
(1,725 m), Grande (1,657 m), Ferreiro (1,582 m). At the end of this eruptive phase,
an island circled by reefs was formed, its marine vestiges are evident in a calcareous
layer in the area of Lameiros, in São Vicente (which was later explored for calcium
oxide production). Sea cliffs, such as Cabo Girão, valleys and ravines extend from
this central spine, making the interior generally inaccessible.[44] Daily life is
concentrated in the many villages at the mouths of the ravines, through which the
heavy rains of autumn and winter usually travel to the sea.[45]