History

History marks 1460 as the year of the discovery of the Cape Verde islands by the Portuguese Diogo Gomes and the Genoese António da Noli, at the command of Infante D. Henrique, a figure in Portuguese expansionism, who served the King of Portugal, D. Afonso V.

The first islands discovered were:

• São Cristóvão (Boa Vista),
• Lhana (Sal),
• São Jacob (Santiago),
• São Filipe (Fogo), and
• Maias (Maio)

Discovered between 1461 and 1462, the islands were:

• Santo Antão,
• S. Vicente,
• S. Nicolau,
• Santa Luzia, and
• S. João (Brava)

Despite some writings mentioning the presence of Phoenicians, Moors, and Africans, Cape Verde was an uninhabited archipelago until the arrival of the Portuguese, with "only pigeons and birds of strange sorts, and a great abundance of fish."

In 1462, the settlement of Santiago began, with Ribeira Grande - currently known as Cidade Velha - as the capital at the time, and it became the first European city founded in West Africa.

Boa Vista, Maio, and Fogo were settled in 1490. São Nicolau and Brava were inhabited in the 17th century, São Vicente in the 18th century, and Sal in the 19th century.

The islands were colonized by Portuguese and slaves from the West African coast, from regions that are now Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, the Republic of Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

The archipelago quickly became a strategic supply point for routes connecting Europe to Africa, America, and Brazil. In the following two centuries, it became an important commercial outpost, particularly prominent in the slave trade.

Cape Verde's importance and wealth has grown.

The Portuguese Crown received taxes for each vessel that docked on the African coast, a commission on the sale of each slave in Cape Verde and sold the rights to exploit slavery to private entrepreneurs.

Products made in Europe were exchanged for slaves, and tens of thousands of men, women and children were sold to New World plantations in exchange for the raw materials produced there.

The archipelago prospered as a center for trade in firearms, rum, fabrics and other products, in exchange for slaves, gold and ivory.

It was not long before the Portuguese monopoly was threatened by other Europeans interested in maritime expansion and the weakening of the Portuguese economy.

The attacks on Ribeira Grande became frequent, forcing the transfer of the capital to the city of Praia.

From the 17th century, France, Holland and England gained weight in world trade, expelling Portugal from the African continent.

With the loss of dominance in the region and the abolition of slavery, the fragility of the archipelago became evident, revealing a poor and subsistence economy.

Later, in 1800, the archipelago suffered from severe droughts, hunger, corruption and maladministration.

The first migratory movements of the poorest Cape Verdeans began to the south, fleeing drought and hunger, to work as agricultural workers harvesting bananas and cocoa beans in São Tomé and Príncipe, or engaged in maritime work on whaling ships towards the United States of America.