History History

At the crossroads of the great navigators' routes, everything leads us to believe that the Phoenicians, accustomed to skirting the African coasts, could have landed in Cape Verde as early as Antiquity. In the myth of the Hesperides, the Greeks mention uninhabited islands which could refer to the Canaries. The story of an exploratory voyage in 425 B.C., known as Hannon's Journey, mentions a large number of stopovers beyond the mysterious island of Cerné, one of which could be Cape Verde. The giant flame mentioned in the story could be the erupting volcano of Fogo. True text or legend? No other element corroborates the facts. The potential presence of Senegalese Lebous fishermen and Arab merchants is still being studied. There is no archaeological evidence to support the idea that there was human occupation prior to the arrival of the Portuguese.

History tells us that Cape Verde was discovered in the 15th century, but the dates remain uncertain. Several names are attributed to its discovery. The first is a noble Venetian navigator, Alvise Ca' Da Mosto, known for his remarkable qualities as a trader, whom the infant Henry the Navigator hired to explore (and exploit) the coasts of West Africa. The prince put caravels at his disposal and promised him half of the profits. Da Mosto travelled in 1455 for 2 years and evoked, in his travel diaries, wild lands that had been unexplored until then. He will depict, with great detail, the coasts of Guinea, Senegal and the customs of its people. Pushed from the coast by an impetuous wind, he sees unknown islands. "For we were not yet informed that there was no land there, so to be better acerténés, made go up two men in the gabie, which discovered two large islands" (Relation of the voyages to the Western coast of Africa of Alvise of Ca' da Mosto). Da Mosto baptized the island Boa Vista to be the first land to have been spotted, and Santiago to have landed there on the day of the patron saint.

The official version designates Antonio Noli as the discoverer, a Genoese navigator that King Alfonso V will appoint governor. Other names of navigators such as Diogo Gomes and Diogo Dias are also associated with the discovery of the islands but historians, for lack of documents, have not yet decided and the controversy is still ongoing.

Portuguese colonization was not long in coming, and the first settlement was in the islands of Santiago and Fogo, and later Maio and Boa Vista. The Portuguese found islands covered with vegetation with not much to offer, except great landscapes and beaches. Arriving nobles set up a port of call for Portuguese ships at Ribeira Grande on the island of Santiago. This tropical colonial city will play a significant role in the development of the archipelago and will be renamed Cidade Velha, a name it still bears today but whose change is under discussion

The famous Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Spain and Portugal. The island of São Antão, the most western, was used as a marker to delimit the zones of influence and conquest between these two great powers. The demarcation line, which goes from the North Pole to the South Pole, is 370 leagues from the island.

Devoid of valuable natural or mineral resources and with a dry and arid climate, conventional agriculture is complicated. The geostrategic position of the islands was of paramount importance, being able to serve as a starting point for the exploration of the continent or as a transit port to America or Asia, but Portugal intended Cape Verde to be a prosperous colony, which would generate wealth for the metropolis. A difficult vision to realize on islands with so few advantages, but the Crown quickly saw the solution. To encourage occupation, it would grant a "royal charter of privileges" to the colonists, granting them permission to trade in slaves, an activity that would soon become the main economic driver.

The cotton of Fogo, the sugar cane of Santiago, the salt and the wood, will be the most coveted goods which will attract European traders. But the most profitable trade was of a completely different nature. The capital Ribeira Grande became the hub of the transatlantic slave trade, of which the Portuguese had a monopoly. Slave ships would unload hundreds of slaves from the coasts of Guinea, Senegal and Sierra Leone, who would be sold to colonists in open-air slave markets, which reached their peak in the period between the 17th century and the abolition of slavery in 1876. For several centuries, Cape Verde will have the sad vocation of being the nerve center of human trafficking and the obligatory stopover of the triangular trade between Europe and Africa and the New World.
The archipelago does not have an original people because it was discovered uninhabited, the first signs of the Cape Verdean collective memory are found among the slaves who remained on the spot. It was then that the Cape Verdean Creole appeared as a form of communication between slaves of different origins, a language that they would take with them to the Americas and that would give rise to the other Creole languages in the French and English Antilles.

As a major port of call, Ribeira Grande was granted the status of a royal city, as well as the very first bishopric. It was finally possible to baptize the slaves known as ladinos, who were evangelized before being transported to Brazil

During this century of major economic development for the archipelago, the islands were constantly attacked and plundered by French, English and Dutch pirates and privateers who were operating off the African continent. Forts were built to repel them

The island colony entered a phase of large economic losses, under the combined effect of foreign competition in the slave trade (in favor of the Spaniards, who traced new routes), as well as the decline in the production of cotton cloth. Added to this were the problems associated with the monopoly of the colonial companies. Farmers and merchants began to leave the area. What remained were their Métis heirs who developed, as best they could, a local trade

This is an important date in the history of the country, marked by the attack of the Vendean privateer, Jacques Cassard, under the orders of Louis XIV. He seized the fort of Ribeira Grande and set the city on fire for a month. The notables abandoned the city for good, in favor of Praia, 15 km away, and settled on what became the "plateau" district, out of reach of cannonballs. It became the new capital in 1770

With the abolition of slavery, the country lost some of its activity. Many ships continued to call at its ports, including the British, who were particularly interested in São Vicente and its coal supply function. Despite this, the situation of the Cape Verdeans remained terrible. The colonists appropriated the wealth of the archipelago while thousands of unemployed peasants and the rest of the population lived in misery or joined the ranks of those who wanted to leave permanently. Between the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, several conspiracies, revolts and even an aborted civil war took place. And for good reason, during this dark period, no less than 7 major famines decimated 300,000 people and drove thousands into exile. In particular, there were uprisings between sharecroppers and landowners, due to the unfair distribution of land

The most famous revolt in history books is called the Ribeirão Manuel revolt. It took place in the interior of the island of Santiago, in a locality where women harvested castor beans and urzela for export. With the decline of this production, the famine rages, at the same time as an umpteenth drought which falls on the islands this year. Desperate, some women decide to invade the land of a rich landowner. Immediately alerted, the police on horseback intervene brutally and chase away the intruders. But, hearing their cries, the whole population, armed with knives, rushes to their aid. The police had to retreat and Arthur Marinha de Campos, the new governor, was forced to listen to the peasants' grievances. This revolt remains a symbol of social resistance against the rich and the brutality of the power in place.

The dictatorship is established in Portugal and many of those who remain see only one way out: to fight. In the following years, popular revolts and violent confrontations took place, which greatly upset the government. Salazar's regime intensified the repression against the rebels and thousands of Cape Verdeans who were anarchist or communist opponents were condemned to forced labor in São Tomé and Príncipe or in the concentration camps built there, such as the one in Tarrafal

Another important episode in Cape Verdean history is marked by the intervention of the so-called Capitão da Fome (Captain of Hunger). At that time, Mindelo's commerce was in decline and the population was expressing its distress. Captain Ambrosio was at the head of this demand, and he and his companions were arrested and deported to Angola to perform forced labor. This revolt is now a milestone, and its hero will be invoked not only in school books, but will also become a source of inspiration for poets such as Gabriel Mariano or Corsino Fortes.

This is the date of the creation in Bissau of an independence movement, the PAIGC, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and the Cape Verde Islands. The leader was Amilcar Cabral, an agricultural engineer, assisted by five patriotic Cape Verdean and Guinean companions, including his brother Luis and Aristides Pereira. The latter played a major political role and became the very first President of the Republic.

Intellectuals and students joined the anti-colonial struggle and proclaimed their demands loud and clear. But in defiance of the UN resolutions condemning the exactions of Portugal, isolated on the international scene, Antonio Salazar refuses any dialogue with a view to the independence of his colonies. A fierce armed struggle, punctuated by various massacres, pitted the Portuguese government against the rebels, who, supported by the international community, intensified their actions on the ground

After five centuries of colonization, Cape Verde was finally able to gain independence. The political movements for independence were in line with other colonial emancipation movements in Africa. In 1965, part of the Guinean territory was already liberated by the PAIGC forces, but on January 20, 1973, the movement lost its leader: Amílcar Cabral was assassinated in Conakry. This did not prevent the proclamation of Guinea-Bissau's independence in September of the same year. The Carnation Revolution in Portugal changed the situation and marked the beginning of decolonization.

In a country like Cape Verde, where there were colonists and colonized, masters and slaves, whites and blacks, achieving this unity was simply impossible. Inspired by communists like Alvaro Cunhal, Cabral made the concept of peoplehood one of his main political and ideological weapons; by analyzing the roots of domination, he eventually found the basis of Cape Verdean identity and succeeded in uniting the majority of the population.

The independence of Cape Verde was effective and proclaimed under an immense popular jubilation; people celebrated freedom with a big L under the young flag. The country was then under the aegis of the PAIGC. The idea was perhaps utopian: to see Cape Verde and Guinea merge and unite into a single country. A coup d'état in Guinea in 1980 provoked a division between the two sister countries and also between the two branches. From the PAIGC, the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) was born, with Aristides Pereira at its head, limiting its field of action to this country alone

At independence, Cape Verde was a country totally devoid of any resources and industry. International aid was put in place to avoid disaster. During the first fifteen years of independence, the regime was Marxist-inspired and the leaders nationalized sectors of the economy, such as fishing and banking. The objective was also to carry out various agrarian reforms that succeeded in improving food production, despite the limited amount of cultivable land (10% of the territory). However, the new country lacked almost everything (infrastructure, qualified personnel, industry, roads) and the PAICV could not satisfy these needs with the urgency demanded by the street. The arrival of the Liberal Movement for Democracy (MpD) eliminated all traces of cabralism in the state: it meant the privatization of many public enterprises and the opening of Cape Verde to international markets, a fundamental requirement of organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund.

Since independence, the PAICV has governed as a single party, but its ineffective policies and the fall of the Soviet bloc will force it to accept democratic openness. Without any tension, Cape Verde established a multiparty system, thus constituting an exemplary model in Africa. Free legislative elections were held: the right-wing MpD (Movement for Democracy) won 56 of the 79 seats in the National Assembly, becoming the majority party. The PAICV, with 23 deputies, became an opposition party. Deputies are elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term

Supported by the MpD, António Mascarenhas became the new President of the Republic (he was re-elected in 1996). A year later, the constitution was revised to give the National Assembly more power

Since then, the MpD and the PAICV have alternated in power, without either of them managing to significantly improve the country's situation. The PAICV has abandoned the Marxist ideas of its founder and turned to social democracy, the market economy, foreign investment and the tourism industry, while maintaining its political stability.

Cape Verdeans were called to vote for a new head of state. Socialist José Maria Neves won the election with 51.5 per cent of the vote. During his tenure as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2016, he had established relations with China and in 2008 presented a government with a majority of women. It should be noted that the legislative vote carries more weight, as the President acts mainly as an arbitrator and appoints a Prime Minister based on the results of the legislative elections

Since the last elections, the country has maintained a stable democratic system and continues to commit to promised social and economic programs. The International Monetary Fund is participating in this effort, and has granted the country an extended credit facility to support economic recovery. On the political front, 2023 was marked by a disagreement between the government and the President of the Republic over the vote on a UN resolution on the Israel-Hamas conflict, on which Cape Verde abstained.