Editing History of Cape Verde (section)

=== {{anchor|15th and 16th century}}15th and 16th centuries ===
In 1456, [[Alvise Cadamosto]], [[Antoniotto Usodimare]] ([[Venice|Venetian]] and [[Genoa|Genoese]] captains, respectively, in the service of [[Prince Henry the Navigator]]) and an unnamed Portuguese captain discovered some of the islands. During the next decade, [[Diogo Gomes]] and [[António de Noli]] (also captains in the service of Prince Henry) discovered the remaining islands of the archipelago.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}} When they first landed in Cape Verde, the islands were barren of people but not of vegetation.

[[Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu|Prince Fernando]], King [[Afonso V of Portugal]]'s brother, was granted the archipelago as a fiefdom.
The Portuguese established Ribeira Grande (present-day [[Cidade Velha]]) in 1462 on the island of [[Santiago, Cape Verde|São Tiago]]. This was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics. The first settlers included Portuguese, Genoese, and Flemish adventurers; reprieved convicts; and Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution. In 1466, with the settlement failing to attract enough settlers, Afonso gave the population trading rights in all of West Africa except [[Arguim]]. He rescinded this a few years later, when the monarchy began selling lucrative trade monopolies instead, but enterprising Cape Verdeans and Luso-Africans would still play a prominent role in the first centuries of European trade in the region, often in defiance of the Portuguese crown.<ref name = Brooks>{{cite journal |last1=Brooks |first1=George E. |title=Cabo Verde: Gulag of the South Atlantic: Racism, Fishing Prohibitions, and Famines |journal=History in Africa |date=2006 |volume=33 |pages=101–135 |doi=10.1353/hia.2006.0008 |jstor=20065767 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20065767 |access-date=28 December 2023|hdl=2022/3269 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|104}}

In Spain, the [[Reconquista]] was growing in its mission to conquer Iberia and 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 [[John II of Portugal|King João II]] and [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]] [[Jews of Bilad el-Sudan#Cape Verde|exiled thousands of Jews]] to [[São Tomé]], [[Príncipe]], and Cape Verde in 1496.

The Portuguese soon brought slaves from the [[West African]] coast. Positioned on trade routes between Africa, Europe, and the [[New World]], the archipelago prospered from the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]] during the 16th century. Sao Tiago and [[Fogo, Cape Verde|Fogo]] hosted slave plantations growing sugar and cotton for shipment to Portugal, and producing ''panos'' (cotton cloth) for export to West Africa.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|106}} Massive amounts of salt were produced on [[Maio, Cape Verde|Maio]], [[Boa Vista, Cape Verde|Boa Vista]], and [[Sal, Cape Verde|Sal]], sold to [[cod]] fishermen.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|113}} Horses were reared on Santiago and shipped to the African coast as well.<ref name = WHE/>

Settlements began to appear on other islands. [[São Filipe, Cape Verde|São Filipe]] was founded in 1500; [[Ponta do Sol, Cape Verde|Ponta do Sol]] and [[Ribeira Grande, Cape Verde|Ribeira Grande]] were founded in the mid-16th century (when its first settlers also arrived in Madeira and [[Ribeira Brava, Cape Verde|Ribeira Brava]] on São Nicolau). [[Povoação Velha]] on Boa Vista, [[Achada Furna|Furna]], [[Nova Sintra]] on Brava, and [[Palmeira, Cape Verde|Palmeira]] on Sal were later founded.

Cabo Verdean society at this period was deeply segregated and hierarchical. At the top were the peninsula-born Portuguese whites, mostly government officials, soldiers, and the upper clergy. The next group were the ''brancos da terra'', the local whites, with the earliest settlers and their descendants, the ''morgados'', chief among them. Free ''pardos'' (mulattos) and ''pretos'' (blacks) came next, and the ''escravos'' (slaves) were at the bottom.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|108}}

The islands' prosperity encouraged sacking by pirates, particularly during the period of the [[Iberian Union]] 1580–1640, when [[Spain]]'s enemies, the British, French, and Dutch, raided Portuguese colonies. Sir [[Francis Drake]] sacked Ribeira Grande in 1582, [[Capture of Santiago (1585)|captured the island]] in 1585 and raided Cidade Velha, Praia and [[São Domingos, Cape Verde|São Domingos]].<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|113}}<ref name = WHE/>