Editing History of Cape Verde (section)

=== {{anchor|17th and 18th century}}17th and 18th centuries ===
[[File:Sanct Jago, auf derselben Insel - Caspar Schmalkalden.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Painting of three ships in a harbor|A 1646 watercolour of [[Cidade Velha]] by Caspar Schmalkalden]]

During the 17th century, [[Ottoman Algeria|Algerian]] [[Barbary pirates|corsairs]] established a base on the Cape Verde islands. They raided [[Madeira]] in 1617, stealing the church bells and taking 1,200 people captive.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Clark |first1=G.N. |title=The Barbary Corsairs in the Seventeenth Century |journal=The Cambridge Historical Journal |date=1944 |volume=8 |issue=1 |page=23 |doi=10.1017/S1474691300000561 |jstor=3020800 }}</ref>

Given the scarcity of capital for the region's development, the Portuguese Finance and Overseas Councils authorized the 1664 foundation of the [[Guinea Coast Company]]. The company aimed at the slave trade, ending individual tenancy and encouraging slave companies. The [[Company of Cacheu and Rivers and Commerce of Guinea]], which operated between 1676 and 1682, was succeeded by the [[Company of Cacheu and Cape Verde]] in 1690.

[[Pico do Fogo]] erupted in 1680, which resulted in the movement of the population to Brava and other regions (including Brazil). For a few years, the volcano was a natural lighthouse for sailors. The latter decades of the 17th century also saw the first emigration flows from the islands to [[North America]].{{rp|75}} Whales abounded in the waters around Cape Verde, and whaling ships from [[Massachusetts]] and [[Rhode Island]] recruited local crewmen who knew the currents and weather from the islands of [[Brava, Cape Verde|Brava]] and [[Fogo, Cape Verde|Fogo]].<ref name = Moran>{{cite journal |last1=Moran |first1=Emilio |title=The Evolution of Cape Verde's Agriculture |journal=African Economic History |date=1982 |volume=11 |issue=11 |pages=63–86 |doi=10.2307/3601217 |jstor=3601217 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3601217 |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref> These outflows would continue for centuries.

As a result of the 1712 French [[Cassard expedition]] in which Ribeira Grande was destroyed, the capital was partially moved to [[Praia]].<ref name = WHE/> With the Portuguese increasingly sidelined in Atlantic trade, Cape Verde became a poor backwater.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|115–6}} By 1740, the island was a supply point for American [[slave ship]]s and [[whaler]]s. This began a stream of male immigration to the American colonies. Praia, with its natural harbor, became the permanent capital in 1770 as the plantation economy diminished in importance relative to trade and naval supply.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|121}}

In 1747, the islands were hit with the first of [[Famine in Cape Verde|several droughts and famines]] which have plagued them ever since at average five-year intervals. The situation was made worse by [[deforestation]] and [[overgrazing]], which destroyed the ground vegetation that provided moisture. Three major droughts during the 18th and 19th centuries resulted in well over 100,000 people starving to death. The Portuguese government sent little relief during the droughts.<ref name = Patterson>{{Cite journal|last=Patterson|first=K. David|date=1988|title=Epidemics, Famines, and Population in the Cape Verde Islands, 1580-1900|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/219938|journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies|volume=21|issue=2|pages=291–313|doi=10.2307/219938|jstor=219938 |pmid=11617208 |issn=0361-7882}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Christiano José|first=de Senna Barcellos|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/504707074|title=Subsidios para a historia de Cabo Verde e Guiné.|date=1900|pages=395–397, 401|oclc=504707074}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=José Conrado Carlos|first=de Chelmicki|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/956405163|title=Corografía cabo-verdiana, ou, Descripção geographico-historica da provincia das Ilhas de Cabo-Verde e Guiné|pages=316|oclc=956405163}}</ref>

In 1758 the [[Grão Pará and Maranhão Company]] was granted a 20-year monopoly on all trade in Cape Verde and the West African coast.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|120}} Its agents ruthlessly exploited the islands' inhabitants, commandeering panos, liquor, food, and other supplies regardless of droughts and famines. Many were recruited for service in Guinea.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|121}} Construction of the [[Fortaleza de São José da Amura]] in Bissau cost more than 2,600 lives, most of them Cabo Verdean laborers.<ref>Walter Rodney, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast, 1545-1800 (Oxford, 1970), 246-47</ref> Textiles were smuggled and sold on the black market. Between 1766 and 1776, 95,000 "barafulas" (Cape Verdean textiles) were imported to the Guinean coast.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

Pico do Fogo again erupted in 1769. This was the last time it erupted from the top, although it also erupted in 1785 and 1799. Another famine, affecting Brava and Fogo, began in 1774; 20,000 people starved. Fogo's population dropped from 5,700 to 4,200 around 1777. The company's mismanagement made the situation worse, as they sold desperately needed food and raised the prices of what little was available. In 1778 the monopoly ended, and the Portuguese created the province of Cabo Verde e Guine.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|122}}<ref name = Patterson/>

Although Portugal was neutral in the [[Fourth Anglo-Dutch War|Anglo-French War]] and [[American Revolutionary War]], [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] and [[Kingdom of France|French]] squadrons fought the [[Battle of Porto Praya]] off Praia on 16 April 1781.

<gallery mode=packed heights=160px>
File:Map of the Cape Verde Islands, 1683.jpg|alt=See caption|1683 map of the Cape Verde islands
File:Carte des Isles du Cap Verd = Kaart van de Eilanden van Kabo Verde, geschikt volgens de Daghregisters, en Aanmerkingen, der ervaarendste Zeelieden (3120220951).jpg |1747 French-Dutch map of Cape Verde by [[Jacques Nicolas Bellin]]|alt=See caption
File:Combat de la Praya 16 04 1781.jpg|alt=Painting of a naval battle with many ships|The 1781 battle of Porto Praya by Marquis de Rossel
</gallery>