Editing Mindelo (section)

==History==
[[File:Old postcard SaoVicente1.jpg|thumb|left|Old postcard of Mindelo from the early 20th century]]
A settlement at Mindelo was founded in 1793 by the Portuguese.<ref name=delgado>[https://dspace.uevora.pt/rdpc/bitstream/10174/21556/1/Mestrado-%20Fred%20Delgado%20-%20G%c3%a9nese%20e%20desenvolvimento%20da%20cidade%20do%20Mindelo....pdf Génese e desenvolvimento da cidade do Mindelo: a preservação de uma identidade], Fred Yanick Fonseca Delgado, 2016</ref>{{rp|34}} It was initially named ''Nossa Senhora da Luz'', renamed ''Leopoldina'' around 1820 after the [[Maria Leopoldina of Austria|Queen consort]]. In 1838 it was renamed ''Mindelo'' after the 1832 [[Landing at Mindelo]], north of [[Porto]].<ref name=delgado/>{{rp|42–48}} It became a coal deposit for ships of the [[British East India Company]] in 1838, followed by the [[Royal Mail Steam Packet Company]] in 1850. The settlement became a town (''vila'') in 1858, and had 1,400 inhabitants then.<ref name=delgado/>{{rp|55}} It became a city (''cidade'') in 1879, and had 3,717 inhabitants then.<ref name=delgado/>{{rp|61–63}} In 1884 a [[submarine communications cable]] was laid between Europe, Africa, India and North America, making Mindelo an important communications centre for the British Empire.

From the beginning of the 20th century the port of Mindelo lost its importance for transatlantic navigation. Causes for this were the shift from coal to oil as fuel for ships, the rise of competing ports like Dakar and the Canary Islands and the lack of investment in port infrastructure.<ref name=delgado/>{{rp|76–80}} Between 1910 and 1940 there were several strikes in Mindelo, and on 7 June 1934 there were riots in the streets of Mindelo, caused by unemployment and poverty. One man was killed; several were injured.<ref>[http://www.buala.org/pt/cidade/mindelo-entre-a-ficcao-e-a-realidade Mindelo: entre a Ficção e a Realidade], buala.org</ref>

Between 1940 and 1958 three prolonged periods of severe drought, combined with soil erosion and [[overgrazing]], brought [[famine in Cape Verde]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/bitstream/handle/18452/14232/22gDqzLZTTGk.pdf?sequence=1 |title=Managing the Prospect of Famine. Cape Verdean Officials, Subsistence Emergencies, and the Change of Elite Attitudes During Portugal’s Late Colonial Phase, 1939-1961|first=Alexander|last=Keese|journal=[[Itinerario]]|volume=XXXVI|issue=1|year=2012|pages=49–69|doi=10.1017/S0165115312000368}}</ref> In the whole archipelago, about 45,000 people died and 20,000 people emigrated. Mindelo attracted immigrants, notably from nearby [[Santo Antão, Cape Verde|Santo Antão]], and continued to grow.<ref name=delgado/>{{rp|86}}

Mindelo was the cultural capital of the Portuguese-speaking world from November 2002 until November 2003.<ref>[http://www.noticiaslusofonas.com/view.php?load=arcview&article=353&catogory=news Capital Lusófona 2003] (in Portuguese)</ref>