History of Cape Verde

The recorded history of Cape Verde begins with Portuguese discovery in 1456. Possible early references
go back around 2000 years.

Contents
Prehistory
Possible classical references
Portuguese discovery and colonisation
15th and 16th century
17th and 18th century
19th century
20th century
Independence movement
Post-Independence (1975)
One Party Rule
Post One Party Rule
See also
Footnotes
External links

Prehistory
Its first seamount that came above the water was about 20 million
years ago, and the sea level was about 200 to 400 meters, higher
than the present day. The first islands formed were present day Sal,
and the eastern part, 50-40 million years ago. The western part,
were formed later, including, São Nicolau, as early as 11.8 million
years ago, São Vicente, 9 million years ago, present day Santiago
and Fogo 4 million years ago, and Brava, 3-2 million years ago.
Canary Islands and Capo Verde in
Some millions of years after the seamounts were raised above the the 1534 Isolario by Benedetto
ocean, its first geckos, lizards and insects as well as plants came to Bordone
the archipelago, one possible clue was that were rafted from the
African mainland when the salinity of the ocean was lower.

The archipelago had a couple of large volcanic eruptions recorded through geology including Praia Grande
4.5 million years ago, São Vicente possibly modern day Porto Grande 300,000 years ago,[1] Topo da
Coroa 200,000 years ago and the last one east of modern-day Fogo 73,000 years ago that inundated coastal
Santiago Island and possibly Brava and a part of Barlavento Islands.[2]
During the Last Ice Age, the sea level dropped to about 130 meters
below its current level, its islands were slightly larger with the
Northwest Island, present day Santo Antão was a kilometer
northwest of the island, Boa Vista and Maio were one single island,
and there was another island named Nola (Ilha da Nola) northwest
of Santo Antão that was about 80–90 metres tall. Before the end of
the Ice Age, the Eastern Island (Ilha Occidental) split into three
islands, one became submerged and is now the João Valente Reef,
the Canal de São Vicente were widened to 12  km distant from
Santo Antão, Nola Island submerged and again became a seamount Insulae Capitis Viridis (1598),
and the east of the Northwest Island were broken up into São showing Cape Verde.
Vicente, the smaller Santa Luzia and the two islets of Branco and
Raso.

Possible classical references

Cape Verde may be referred to in the works De choreographia by Pomponius Mela and Historia naturalis
by Pliny the Elder. They called the islands "Gorgades", in reference to the home of the mythical Gorgons
killed by Perseus. They also suggested (in typical ancient euhemerism) the islands as the place where the
Carthaginian Hanno the Navigator slew two female "Gorillai", whose skins Hanno brought back to
Carthage.

Pliny, citing the Greek writer Xenophon of Lampsacus, placed the Gorgades two days travel from
"Hesperu Ceras" (the westernmost part of the African continent, today called Cap-Vert). Pliny (as quoted
by Gaius Julius Solinus) also stated that the voyage from the Gorgades to the Hesperides is around 40
days.[3]

The Isles of the Blessed written of by Marinus of Tyre and referenced by Ptolemy in his Geographia may
have been the Cape Verde islands.[4]

Portuguese discovery and colonisation

15th and 16th century

In 1456, at the service of prince Henry the Navigator, Alvise

Cadamosto, Antoniotto Usodimare (a Venetian and a Genoese
captain, respectively) and an unnamed Portuguese captain, jointly
discovered some of the islands. In the next decade, Diogo Gomes
and António de Noli, also captains in the service of prince Henry,
discovered the remaining islands of the archipelago. When these
mariners first landed in Cape Verde, the islands were barren of
people but not of vegetation. The Portuguese returned six years
later to the island of São Tiago to found Ribeira Grande (now
Cidade Velha), in 1462—the first permanent European settlement
city in the tropics.
The coat of arms of colonial Cape
In Spain the Reconquista was growing in its mission to conquer Verde.
Iberia and later expel the Muslims and Jews. In 1492 the Spanish
Inquisition also emerged in its fullest expression of anti-Semitism. It
spread to neighboring Portugal (as the Portuguese Inquisition)
where King João II and especially Manuel I in 1496, decided to
exile thousands of Jews to São Tomé, Príncipe, and Cape Verde.

The Portuguese soon brought slaves from the West African coast.
Positioned on the great trade routes between Africa, Europe, and
the New World, the archipelago prospered from the transatlantic
slave trade, in the 16th century. Settlements started to appear on
other islands, São Filipe was founded in 1500, Ponta do Sol,
Ribeira Grande was founded in the mid 16th century, its first
Sir Francis Drake at Santiago, Cape
settlers also arrived in Madeira, Ribeira Brava on São Nicolau,
Verde, 1589 hand-colored engraving,
Povoação Velha on Boa Vista was later founded, Furna, Nova
by Baptista Boazio, 1589
Sintra on Brava and Palmeira on Sal.

The islands' prosperity brought them unwanted attention in the

form of a sacking at the hands of pirates. After the Philippine Dynasty began, Sir Francis Drake first sacked
Ribeira Grande in 1582 and then captured the island in 1585 and raided Cidade Velha, Praia and São
Domingos, soon after they left. A year later in 1586, Cape Verde became a unified crown colony of
Portugal.

17th and 18th century

Praia was later founded in 1613 on the plateau of the previous

settlement. Pico do Fogo erupted in 1680, which resulted in the
move of the population to Brava and other parts including Brazil.
For a few years, the volcano was a natural lighthouse that sailors
used.
During the 17th century Algerian corsairs established a base
in the Cape Verde islands. In 1617 they raided Madeira, stealing the
church bells and taking 1,200 people captive.[5] As a result of the
French Cassard expedition in 1712 in which Ribeira Grande was
destroyed, the capital was partly moved to Praia in the east, which
later became the capital in 1770. By 1740, the island was a supply A 1646 watercolour of Cidade Velha
point for American slave ships and whalers. This started a stream of by Caspar Schmalkalden
immigration to the American colonies (now the United States), but
only of men.

In 1747 the islands were hit with the first of several droughts and famines that have plagued them ever
since, with an average interval of five years. The situation was made worse by deforestation and
overgrazing, which destroyed the ground vegetation that provided moisture. Three major droughts in the
18th and 19th centuries resulted in well over 100,000 people starving to death. The Portuguese government
sent almost no relief during any of the droughts.[6][7][8]

Given the scarcity of capital for the region's development, the Portuguese Finance and Overseas Councils
authorized the foundation of the Guinea Coast Company (1664), aimed at the slave trade, putting an end to
the period of individual tenants and opening that of slave companies. Among these, there is the Company
of Cacheu and Rivers and Commerce of Guinea, which operated between 1676 and 1682, being
succeeded, in 1690, by the Company of Cacheu and Cape Verde.

Textiles were smuggled and sold into black market, since its values were high and its origins were difficult
to prove, between 1766 and 1776, 95,000 "barafulas" (Cape Verdean textiles) were imported to the
Guinean coast.
Pico do Fogo again erupted in 1769. This was the last time it erupted from the top; further eruptions
occurred in 1785 and 1799. Another famine started in 1774 in which 20,000 people starved, as Brava and
Fogo were affected. Fogo's population dropped from 5,700 to 4,200 in around 1777. The first wave of
emigration began from the islands of Brava and Fogo as American whaling ships visited these islands and
took some residents for better life in the United States. In 1770, Praia became the colonial capital, and so
remained up to Cape Verdean independence.

Though Portugal was neutral throughout the Anglo-French War and American Revolutionary War, British
and French squadrons fought the Battle of Porto Praya off modern day Praia on 16 April 1781.

Map of the Cape 1747 French/Dutch A depiction of Praia

Verde Islands, 1683 map of Cape Verde during the Battle of
with its geographical by Jacques Nicolas Porto Praya, 1781,
features in Middle Bellin by Marquis de
French Rossel

19th century

The 19th-century decline of the lucrative slave trade was another

blow to the country's economy. The fragile prosperity slowly
vanished. Cape Verde's colonial heyday was over.
It was around
this time that Cape Verdeans started emigrating to New England.
This was a popular destination because of the whales that
abounded in the waters around Cape Verde, and as early as 1810
whaling ships from Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the United
States (U.S.) recruited crews from the islands of Brava and Fogo.

The last pirate raids including one in Sal Rei in 1815 led to building Porto Praya (now Praia) in 1806
a couple of more forts across Cape Verde. Other settlements on
some islands were founded later including Mindelo (first as Nossa
Senhora da Luz) in 1795, Pedra de Lume on Sal in 1799 and Santa Maria at the start of 1830 on the same
island. The colonial capital Praia underwent modernization in 1822 which expanded the plateau towards
the north.

After Portugal lost Brazil, the British used Mindelo for coal refueling for ships and the city flourished in
1838. An attempt for moving the colonial capital from Praia was made, first a plan to move to Picos in
1831 at the time another famine struck Cape Verde, then in 1838, Mindelo was decided on. Many people
did not want to move the colonial capital, thus the capital stayed in Praia. Fogo erupted for the last few
times in the 19th century in 1847, 1852 and 1857. Mindelo grew as a result of ship refueling, two
submarine telegraph cables were linked in 1874 to Pernambuco, Brazil, as well as Cory Brothers later
opened, another connected to Cameroon via Bathurst (now Banjul), the Gambia in 1885. Mindelo became
the most used Transatlantic telegraph station for some time in 1912. A total of 669 ships were refueled each
year at the port, and it reached to 1,927 ships a decade later. Then when gasoline fuel was starting to be
used especially on boats, Mindelo could never rival the ports of Las Palmas on Grand Canary or nearby
Dakar in Senegal. The usage of coal dropped which lead to a coal strike in 1912 due to insufficient work,
when the Great Depression began in 1930, ship activity ended.

Slavery was disappearing in Cape Verde, the first was São Vicente, then São Nicolau, Santo Antão, Boa
Vista in 1867, the same time slave trade ended, later slavery ended throughout Cape Verde.

Capo Verdians in Port of Praia, 1899 Market of Praia, Maize mill, Praia,
1885 1899 1899

Square in Praia, Praia, 1899

1899

20th century

At the end of the 19th century, with the advent of the ocean
liner, the island's position astride Atlantic shipping lanes made
Cape Verde an ideal location for resupplying ships with fuel
(imported coal), water and other supplies. Because of its
excellent harbour, Mindelo (on the island of São Vicente)
became an important commercial centre during the 19th
century, mainly because British companies used Cape Verde as
a storage depot for coal which was bound for the Americas.
The harbour area at Mindelo was developed by British A postcard of Mindelo, produced
merchants for this purpose. The island was transformed into a sometime around the early 20th century
coaling and submarine cable station, and there soon became
plenty of work available for local labourers. This was the
golden period of the city, where it gained the cultural characteristics that made it the current cultural capital
of the country.
During World War II, Royal Navy ships were stationed in Mindelo,
later with Winston Churchill's interest in Cape Verde, in April
1941, thousands of Allied troops were stationed on the island. After
the Second World War, the economy collapsed as the shipping
traffic was drastically reduced. As the British coal industry went
into decline in the 1980s, this source of income dried up, and
British merchants had to abandon their Cape Verdean interests —
which ended up being the final strike to the highly dependent local Praia and the locality of Gamboa or
economy. Cha das Aldeias in 1936

Espargos in the middle of the island was founded in the mid 20th
century, it was founded in the late 1940s as an airport town, the last in the Portuguese era, in 1950, a
number of flights rose, first Alitalia, then the Portuguese-Brazilian Friendship flight and South Africa
Airways (SAA) in 1967 with the flights in London, the airline had to use the airport due to the international
boycott of apartheid at the time. The last eruption in the colonial era was at Pico do Fogo in 1951 and was
a small one.

In 1952, the Portuguese government planned to transfer over 10,000 settlers to the island of São Tomé in
São Tomé and Príncipe, another Portuguese colony, to work in plantations instead of the Forros. Africans
would come mainly from the islands of São Nicolau, Santiago, Santo Antão, Fogo and Brava. During the
time that the two colonies became independent, many left to Europe and the United States, a few returned
to Cape Verde, after, the Cape Verdean population would be moved to the nearby island of Príncipe, many
Cape Verdean descendants, some with another descendant became elemented into the Príncipe Creole
society.

During this period, several famines occurred in the country, worsened by poor harvests, the Second World
War, and a poor response from the Portuguese colonial administration. These famines led to emigration of
tens of thousands to Europe, some left to Senegal and São Tomé and Príncipe.

In the lead-up to and during the Portuguese Colonial War, those planning and fighting in the armed conflict
in Portuguese Guinea often linked the goal of liberation of Guinea-Bissau to the goal of liberation in Cape
Verde. (For instance, in 1956, Amílcar and Luís Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of
Guinea and Cape Verde.)

Independence movement

Although the Cape Verdeans were treated badly by their colonial masters, Portuguese treatment of Cape
Verdeans was distinct from their treatment of other colonized regions,[9] and the people of Cape Verde
fared slightly better than Africans in other Portuguese colonies because of their lighter skin. A small
minority received an education and Cape Verde was the first African-Portuguese colony to have a school
for higher education. By the time of independence, a quarter of the population could read, compared to 5%
in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau).

This largesse ultimately backfired on the Portuguese, however, as literate Cape Verdeans became aware of
the pressures for independence building on the mainland, while the islands continued suffering from
frequent drought and famine, at times from epidemic diseases and volcanic eruptions, and the Portuguese
government did nothing. Thousands of people died of starvation during the first half of the 20th century.
Although the nationalist movement appeared less fervent in Cape Verde than in Portugal's other African
holdings, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC, acronym for the
Portuguese Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde) was founded in 1956 by Amílcar
Cabral and other pan-Africanists, and many Cape Verdeans fought for independence in Guinea-Bissau.[10]
In 1926 Portugal had become a rightist dictatorship which regarded
the colonies as an economic frontier, to be developed in the interest
of Portugal and the Portuguese. Frequent famine, unemployment,
poverty and the failure of the Portuguese government to address
these issues caused resentment. The Portuguese dictator António de
Oliveira Salazar wasn't about to give up his colonies as easily as
other European colonial powers had given up theirs.

After World War II, Portugal was intent to hold on to its former
colonies, since 1951 called overseas territories. When most former
African colonies gained independence in 1957/1964, the
Portuguese still held on. Consequently, following the Pijiguiti
Massacre, the people of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau fought one
of the longest African liberation wars.
Amílcar Cabral on a stamp of East
As with other colonies in 1972, autonomy was granted and
Germany
Portuguese Cape Verde held its only parliamentary elections in
1973, in which only those that were Portuguese citizens could vote.
Out of a total population of 272,071, only 25,521 people registered to vote. A total of 20,942 people voted,
giving a voter turnout of 82.1%. As the Portuguese constitution banned political parties at the time, the
majority of candidates were put forward by the ruling People's National Action movement, although some
civic associations were allowed to nominate candidates

After the Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974, Cape Verde became more autonomous but continued to
have a governor from overseas, later that post became High Commissioner. Widespread unrest forced the
government to negotiate with the PAIGC, and agreements for an independent Cape Verde were on the
table. Pedro Pires returned to Praia on October 13 after being exiled for over a decade. After his return,
Portugal signed the 1975 Algiers Agreement. On July 5, at Praia, Portugal's Prime Minister Vasco
Gonçalves turned over power to National Assembly President Abilio Duarte, thus the colonial history of
Cape Verde ended when Cape Verde become independent. However, there was no armed conflict in Cape
Verde and ultimately independence for Cape Verde resulted from negotiation with Portugal.[11] However,
the catalyst for the independence of Cape Verde was the PAIGC branch in Guinea-Bissau, which launched
an ultimately successful war against the Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau, who eventually compelled Portugal
to accept independence for Cape Verde.

Post-Independence (1975)

One Party Rule

Immediately following a November 1980 coup in

Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guinea declared
independence in 1973 and was granted de jure
independence in 1974), relations between the two
countries became strained. Cape Verde abandoned its
hope for unity with Guinea-Bissau and formed the
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde
(PAICV). Problems have since been resolved, and
The first national flag of Cape Verde.
relations between the countries are good. The PAICV
and its predecessor established a one-party state and
ruled Cape Verde from independence until 1990.
Responding to growing pressure for a political opening, the PAICV called an emergency congress in
February 1990 to discuss proposed constitutional changes to end one-party rule. Opposition groups came
together to form the Movement for Democracy (MpD) in Praia in April 1990. Together, they campaigned
for the right to contest the presidential election scheduled for December 1990. The one-party state was
abolished September 28, 1990, and the first multi-party elections were held in January 1991.

Post One Party Rule

The MpD won a majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and the MpD presidential candidate
António Mascarenhas Monteiro defeated the PAICV's candidate by 73.5% of the votes cast to 26.5%. He
succeeded the country's first President, Aristides Pereira, who had served since 1975.

Legislative elections in December 1995 increased the MpD majority in the National Assembly. The party
held 50 of the National Assembly's 72 seats. A February 1996 presidential election returned President
António Mascarenhas Monteiro to office. The December 1995 and February 1996 elections were judged
free and fair by domestic and international observers.

In the presidential election campaign of 2000 and 2001, two former prime ministers, Pedro Pires and Carlos
Veiga were the main candidates. Pires was the prime minister during the PAICV regime, while Veiga
served as prime minister during most of Monteiro's presidency, stepping aside only when it came time for
campaigning. In what might have been one of the closest races in electoral history, Pires won by 12 votes,
he and Veiga each receiving nearly half the votes. President Pedro Pires was narrowly re-elected in 2006
elections.[12]

Jorge Carlos Almeida Fonseca was the President of Cape Verde since 2011 elections and he was re-elected
in October 2016. President Fonseca was supported by Movement for Democracy (MPD). Leader of MPD
Ulisses Correia e Silva has been prime minister since 2016 elections after his party ousted the ruling
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) for the first time in 15 years.[13]

In October 2021, opposition candidate and former prime minister, Jose Maria Neves of PAICV, won Cape
Verde's presidential election.[14]On 9 November 2021, Jose Maria Neves was sworn in as the new
president of Cape Verde.[15]

See also
History of Africa
History of Guinea-Bissau
History of West Africa
List of heads of government of Cape Verde
List of heads of state of Cape Verde
Politics of Cape Verde

Footnotes
1. Ramalho, R (2010). "Traces of uplift and subsidence in the Cape Verde Archipelago" (http://
oceanrep.geomar.de/32040/2/18390SupPub.pdf) (PDF). Journal of the Geological Society.
167 (3): 519–538. Bibcode:2010JGSoc.167..519R (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010J
GSoc.167..519R). doi:10.1144/0016-76492009-056 (https://doi.org/10.1144%2F0016-76492
009-056). S2CID 140566236 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:140566236).
 2. Brown, Emma (2 October 2015). "Island Boulders Reveal Ancient Megatsunami" (http://ww
w.nature.com/news/island-boulders-reveal-ancient-mega-tsunami-1.18485). Nature.
doi:10.1038/nature.2015.18485 (https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature.2015.18485).
S2CID 182938906 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:182938906). Retrieved
2015-10-06.
3. Collins, Andrew (2016-09-15). Atlantis in the Caribbean: And the Comet That Changed the
World (https://books.google.com/books?id=KFkoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129). Simon and
Schuster. ISBN 978-1-59143-266-1.
4. Analysis of Ptolemy's Geographia (http://www.dioi.org/gad.htm#blsl)
5. Clark, G.N. (1944). "The Barbary Corsairs in the Seventeenth Century". The Cambridge
Historical Journal. 8 (1): 23. doi:10.1017/S1474691300000561 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2FS
1474691300000561). JSTOR 3020800 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3020800).
6. Patterson, K. David (1988). "Epidemics, Famines, and Population in the Cape Verde
Islands, 1580-1900" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/219938). The International Journal of
African Historical Studies. 21 (2): 291–313. doi:10.2307/219938 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F
219938). ISSN 0361-7882 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0361-7882).
7. Christiano José, de Senna Barcellos (1900). Subsidios para a historia de Cabo Verde e
Guiné (http://worldcat.org/oclc/504707074). pp. 395–397, 401. OCLC 504707074 (https://ww
w.worldcat.org/oclc/504707074).
8. José Conrado Carlos, de Chelmicki. Corografía cabo-verdiana, ou, Descripção
geographico-historica da provincia das Ilhas de Cabo-Verde e Guiné (http://worldcat.org/ocl
c/956405163). p. 316. OCLC 956405163 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/956405163).
9. Chabal, Patrick (1993). "Some reflections on the postcolonial state in Portuguese-speaking
Africa". Africa Insight. 23: 129–135.
10. See, for instance, Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1989, p. 399.
11. António Costa Pinto, "The transition to democracy and Portugal's decolonization", in Stewart
Lloyd-Jones and António Costa Pinto (eds., 2003). The Last Empire: Thirty Years of
Portuguese Decolonization (Intellect Books, ISBN 978-1-84150-109-3) pp. 22–24.
12. "Cape Verde profile - Timeline" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13150037). BBC
News. 8 May 2018.
13. "Cape Verde country profile" (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13148486). BBC
News. 5 December 2018.
14. Rodrigues, Julio (18 October 2021). "Opposition candidate Neves wins Cape Verde
election" (https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/opposition-candidate-neves-wins-cape-verde
-election-2021-10-18/). Reuters.
15. "Jose Maria Neves sworn in as new Cape Verde president" (https://www.africanews.com/20
21/11/09/jose-maria-neves-sworn-in-as-new-cape-verde-president/). 9 November 2021.

External links
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "São Thiago de Cabo Verde"  (https://en.wikisource.org/wi
ki/Catholic_Encyclopedia_(1913)/S%C3%A3o_Thiago_de_Cabo_Verde). Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Cape Verde Historical Timeline (https://web.archive.org/web/20060219231912/http://virtualc
apeverde.net/news2/modules/Downloads/docs/cv_chronological_references.htm) by
Raymond Almeida. alternative site (https://web.archive.org/web/20060220140024/http://ww
w.umassd.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/cvchrono.html)

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