History of Cape Verde

The Cape Verde Islands are all volcanic and it is believed that the oldest of these erupted 15 minute million years ago forming the island of Sal.

The youngest island, Fogo, was formed only 100,000 years ago, but it is still reasonably active with the most recent eruption taking place in 1995.

The islands were discovered by Europeans between 1455 and 1461 and the first settlers arrived in 1461 from Portugal, Spain and Italy.

They were not named the Cape Verde Islands because of the green landscape-far from it-but simply because of the green coast of Senegal that lies across the ocean.

When the first settlers arrived their first royalty was to cultivate the land-but they didn’t want to do it themselves and within 20 years they were over 13,000 slaves brought over from Africa, to work on the islands of Santiago and Fogo.

The islands’ geographical situation made it an ideal place to sailors to stop on their voyages from Europe to South America. They were able to trade in fresh water, maize, goatmeat and one commodity that it had in plentiful supply-salt.

Sadly the islands also became an ideal trading place for trading human cargo-providing labour for the new colonies in South America.

The important islands in those first years of Santiago, Fogo and the salt island of Maio.

Ribeira Grande, on Santiago was the first city built on the islands and it became one of the most profitable cities in the Portuguese empire.

The slave trade continued throughout the 1600s and 1700s but most of the wealth was passed back to the Portuguese crown, and severe restrictions were placed on Cape Verde’s ability to trade.

Sadly, the goats that had been imported to feed the early settlers were eating their way through the fragile vegetation and this resulted in the islands becoming susceptible to famine, and in 1774, 22,000 people died as a result of drought and hunger.

With America achieving independence in 1783 it became a land of promise that led to millions of emigrants fleeing starvation and unemployment in other parts of the world.

The Portuguese government abandoned slavery as a business in 1854 in this period also saw the dominance of the sailing ship come to an end. This affected Cape Verde’s business as a resupplier.

The 19th century had a dramatic effect therefore on the Cape Verde Islands fortunes.

But, as Santiago’s fortunes suffered other islands were the ones to be exploited.

Sao Vicente’s natural, deep harbour, was ideal for the new steamships and the British flocked to Sao Vicente to set up coaling stations and Mindelo became its capital.

As slavery was abolished the structure of the Cape Verde and society became ever more varied. And by what seems appalling in today’s society Portugal was ruled by skin colour and a census in 1856 listed 17 different distinctions ranging from “very dark” to “almost white”.

Sadly the droughts and starvation continued with some 17,000 people dying in 1921, and with the onset of World War II the problems for the islands became worse.

In 1945 the worst drought in history resulted in the death of 30,000 inhabitants.

But just as steam had replaced the sailing ship oil soon replaced coal and Cape Verde’s last reigning international use as a coaling station ended.

Portugal became a republic in 1910 but was overthrown by its military in 1926 which began 50 years of fascist dictatorship.

During the 1950s group of men formed a small national movement. They had been teenagers at the time of the droughts 10 years before, and were so angered by them they believed Cape Verde would be better off it was indeed if it is independent from Portugal.

Sentiments such as this were felt throughout the Portuguese colonies in fighting lasted throughout the 1960s and early 70s.

Democracy return to Portugal in 1974 and with it came independence for the Cape Verde Islands on 5 July 1975.

The islands now have good relations with many countries. In 2007 they were granted European Union Special Partner status with its currency the Cape Verdean Escudo pegged to the Euro

Tourism is seen as crucial to Cape Verde’s future development and is now attracting huge amounts of foreign investment.