Editing History of Cape Verde

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
{{More citations needed|date=August 2022}}
{{History of Cape Verde}}
{{Culture of Cape Verde}}
The recorded '''history of [[Cape Verde]]''' begins with the Portuguese discovery of the island in 1458. Possible early references to Cape Verde date back at least 2,000 years.

==Prehistory==
[[File:1534 - Isolario di Benedetto Bordone - Canarias y Cabo Verde.jpg|thumb|alt=Old map|The [[Canary Islands]] and [[Cape Verde]] in the 1534 ''Isolario'' by [[Benedetto Bordone]]]]
[[File:Insulae Capitis viridis-1598.jpg|thumb|alt=A larger old map|''Insulae Capitis Viridis'' (1598), showing Cape Verde]]
	
The first islands formed, around 40&ndash;50 million years ago, were present-day [[Sal, Cape Verde|Sal]] and its eastern neighbors. The western islands were formed later, including [[São Nicolau, Cape Verde|São Nicolau]] (as early as 11.8 million years ago), [[São Vicente, Cape Verde|São Vicente]] (nine million years ago), present-day [[Santiago, Cape Verde|Santiago]] and [[Fogo, Cape Verde|Fogo]] (four million years ago), and [[Brava, Cape Verde|Brava]] (two to three million years ago).<ref name = Brown>{{cite journal | url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18485 | doi=10.1038/nature.2015.18485 | title=Island boulders reveal ancient mega-tsunami | year=2015 | last1=Brown | first1=Emma | journal=Nature | s2cid=182938906 }}</ref><ref name = SeaLevel/> Millions of years after the seamounts rose above the Atlantic, the first lizards, insects and plants came to the archipelago, possibly on ocean currents from the African mainland when the ocean's [[salinity]] was lower.<ref name = SeaLevel>{{cite web | url=https://ocean.si.edu/through-time/ancient-seas/sea-level-rise | title=Sea Level Rise &#124; Smithsonian Ocean | date=30 April 2018 }}</ref>

The archipelago experienced several large volcanic eruptions, including [[Praia Grande, Cape Verde|Praia Grande]] 4.5 million years ago, São Vicente (and, possibly, present-day Porto Grande) 300,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Ramalho|first=R|title=Traces of uplift and subsidence in the Cape Verde Archipelago|journal=Journal of the Geological Society|year=2010|volume=167|issue=3|pages=519–538|doi=10.1144/0016-76492009-056|bibcode=2010JGSoc.167..519R|s2cid=140566236|url=http://oceanrep.geomar.de/32040/2/18390SupPub.pdf}}</ref> [[Topo da Coroa]] 200,000 years ago, and east of present-day [[Fogo, Cape Verde|Fogo]] 73,000 years ago which inundated coastal Santiago Island and possibly Brava and part of the Barlavento Islands.<ref name = Brown/>

During the [[Last glacial period|last Ice Age]], the sea level dropped to about {{convert|130|m}} below its current level. Cape Verde's islands were slightly larger, and there was a large island known as Northwest Island. [[Santo Antão, Cape Verde|Santo Antão]] was one kilometer northwest of the island; [[Boa Vista, Cape Verde|Boa Vista]] and [[Maio, Cape Verde|Maio]] were one island, and another island known as Nola (Ilha da Nola, northwest of Santo Antão) was about {{convert|80|to|90|m}} meters above sea level. Before the end of the Ice Age, the Eastern Island (Ilha Occidental) split into three islands; one became submerged and is now the [[João Valente (reef)|João Valente Reef]], the [[Canal de São Vicente]] widened to provide {{convert|12|km}} separation from Santo Antão, Nola Island was submerged and again became a seamount, and eastern Northwest Island broke up into São Vicente, the smaller [[Santa Luzia, Cape Verde|Santa Luzia]], and the two islets of [[Ilhéu Branco|Branco]] and [[Ilhéu Raso|Raso]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.addisherald.com/africa/cape-verde/#gmedia9767 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809201925/https://www.addisherald.com/africa/cape-verde/#gmedia9767 | url-status=usurped | archive-date=August 9, 2020 | title=Cape Verde – Addis Herald }}</ref>

== Possible classical references ==
Cape Verde may have been referenced in ''De choreographia'' by [[Pomponius Mela]] and ''Historia naturalis'' by [[Pliny the Elder]]. Mela and Pliny called the islands "Gorgades", referring to the home of the mythical [[Gorgon]]s killed by [[Perseus]]. In typical ancient [[euhemerism]], they suggested the islands as the place where the Carthaginian [[Hanno the Navigator]] slew two female "[[Gorilla]]i".
	
Pliny, citing the Greek writer Xenophon of Lampsacus, placed the Gorgades at two days' travel from "Hesperu Ceras" (the westernmost part of the African continent, today called [[Cap-Vert]]). As quoted by [[Gaius Julius Solinus]], he also said that the voyage from the Gorgades to the [[Hesperides]] took around 40 days.<ref>{{Cite book |url={{GBurl|KFkoDwAAQBAJ|p=129}} |title=Atlantis in the Caribbean: And the Comet That Changed the World |last=Collins |first=Andrew |date=2016-09-15 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-59143-266-1 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.iranchamber.com/geography/articles/iranian_navigation_persian_gulf.php|title=Iran Chamber Society: Iranians, Pioneers of Navigation in the Persian Gulf|website=www.iranchamber.com}}</ref> The [[Isles of the Blessed]], written about by [[Marinus of Tyre]] and referenced by [[Ptolemy]] in his ''[[Geographia (Ptolemy)|Geographia]]'', may have been the Cape Verde islands.<ref>[http://www.dioi.org/gad.htm#blsl Analysis of Ptolemy's ''Geographia'']</ref>

== Portuguese discovery and colonisation ==
[[Image:Coat of arms of Cape Verde (1935–1975, lesser).svg|thumb|alt=Coat of arms with ocean waves and a ship|Coat of arms of colonial Cape Verde]]
[[File:Santiago, Cape Verde, 1589.jpg|thumb|alt=Many ships making landfall, seen from above|Sir [[Francis Drake]] at Santiago, Cape Verde; 1589 hand-colored engraving by [[Baptista Boazio]]]]
{{See also|Portuguese Cape Verde}}

=== {{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/>

=== {{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>

=== 19th century ===
[[File:BARROW(1806) p098 PORTO PRAYA, ISLAND OF ST.JAGO.jpg|thumb|alt=A peaceful harbor, with many boats|Porto Praya (now Praia) in 1806]]
{{Main|Cape Verdean Americans}}
[[Mindelo]] (originally Nossa Senhora da Luz) was founded in 1795, [[Pedra de Lume]] on Sal in 1799, and [[Santa Maria, Cape Verde|Santa Maria]] in early 1830 on the same island. Praia (the colonial capital) was modernized in 1822, expanding northward.

In the aftermarth of the [[Liberal Revolution of 1820]], slave trader [[Manuel António Martins]] used the unrest to form a junta with other leading civilians, driving the governor out and ruling the islands until 1823.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|130}} Martins was officially appointed prefect of the province in 1833. Soon after he took office, he disbanded the ''branco''-dominated militias. When, in 1835, some conservative officers in the local garrison mutinied, the disaffected ''brancos'' accused Martins of abetting the plot and arrested him. A new governor, Joaquim Pereira Marinho, arrived in September to restore order. He attempted to start local fishing companies, where previously Cape Verdean had been banned from owning boats for fear of slaves escaping, but his successor cancelled the project.<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|131–2}}

The British established a station in [[Mindelo]] to refuel ships with coal, water, and other supplies beginning in 1839, and the city flourished.<ref name = Moran/>{{rp|75}} Two attempts to move the colonial capital from Praia were made: a plan to move to Picos in 1831 when another famine struck Cape Verde, and Mindelo was proposed in 1838. Many people did not want to move the colonial capital, and it remained in Praia. Two submarine telegraph cables were linked in 1874 to [[Pernambuco]], Brazil and to [[Cameroon]] via [[Banjul|Bathurst]] in [[the Gambia]] in 1885.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

The system of ''morgados'' was abolished in 1863, and slavery in 1864, but much of the population remained dependent on their former masters, renting or sharecropping land.<ref name = Moran/>{{rp|67}}<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|111}} The decline of the slave trade dealt a blow to Cape Verde's economy.<ref name = WHE>{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=The Portuguese Colonization of Cape Verde |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1762/the-portuguese-colonization-of-cape-verde/ |website=World History Encyclopedia |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref> The shipping traffic at Mindelo, however, served as an important engine of economic activity. Ships plying the South Atlantic to and from Africa and Asia stopped at Mindelo for coal, salt, meat, water, and wine imported from [[Madeira]] and the [[Azores]]. In 1890 a total of 156 ships unloaded 657,633,588 metric tons of coal there, and the port was visited by 2,264 ships carrying 344,907 persons.<ref name = Moran/>{{rp|75}}

<gallery mode=packed>
File:Femmes et Enfants de Porto Grande (Cap-Vert) - 1885.jpg|Cape Verdeans in 1885|alt=1885 engraving of two women and two children
File:231 L'estacade de Praya.jpg|Port of Praia, 1899|alt=Structure of the port
File:237 Au marché de Praya.jpg|Praia market, 1899|alt=Photo of many people at a market
File:232 Praya. - Un moulin à maïs.jpg|Praia maize mill, 1899|alt=An outdoor maize mill, with people working
File:235 Praya. - Sur la place.jpg|Square in Praia, 1899|alt=Photo of three people and a baby under a tree
File:234 Praya. - Types du peuple.jpg|Praia in 1899|alt=Photo of four people and a baby in front of a building, looking at the camera
</gallery>

=== 20th century ===
{{See also|Cape Verde in World War II}}
[[File:Old postcard SaoVicente1.jpg|thumb|alt=Old photo of Mindelo, seen from above|upright=1.1|Postcard photo of Mindelo]]
[[File:Praia 1936.jpg|thumb|alt=Green-tinted photo of water, boats, buildings and mountains|Praia in 1936]]

Throughout much of the 20th century, the colonial government organized forced emigration to supply "contract" labor for Portugal's tropical colonies. Between 1900 and 1970, particularly during periods of famine when people were desperate, some 80,000 Cabo Verdeans were shipped to the plantations of [[Sao Tome e Principe]], and more than 7,000 to [[Angola]] and [[Mozambique]].<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|134}}

Mindelo became the most-used transatlantic telegraph station in 1912. A total of 669 ships were refueled each year at the port, reaching 1,927 ships a decade later. When gasoline began to be used as fuel, however, Mindelo could not rival the improved port facilities of [[Las Palmas]] on Grand Canary or nearby [[Autonomous Port of Dakar|Dakar]] in [[Senegal]]. The [[Suez Canal]] had also rerouted much of the maritime traffic out of the south Atlantic.<ref name = Moran/>{{rp|75}} The use of coal declined, leading to a coal strike in 1912 due to insufficient work. When the Great Depression began in 1930, ship activity ended.<ref>{{Cite web |date=27 October 2023 |title=The Coal Strike in 1912 |url=https://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/pmag/the-coal-strike-in-1912/ |access-date=16 October 2024 |website=stokemuseuems.org.uk}}</ref>

Two of Cabo Verde's worst-ever famines occurred in 1941-43 and 1947–48, killing an estimated 45,000 people. The massive disaster was not reported in the Portuguese press, and no food aid was sent, due to World War II. Half the population of Fogo perished. Portuguese authorities forbade reporting on the deaths or even the use of the word "famine."<ref name = Brooks/>{{rp|134}}

[[Espargos]], in the centre of the island of [[Sal, Cape Verde|Sal]] was founded in the late 1940s as the last Portuguese airport town. From 1950 to 1970, the number of flights increased. Espargos became an important stop for [[Alitalia]]'s Portuguese-Brazilian flights and [[South African Airways]]' (SAA) 1967 flights between London and Johannesburg. The airline had to use the airport because to the international boycott of South Africa due to its [[apartheid]] policy.{{citation needed|date=December 2023}}

In 1952, the Portuguese government planned to transfer over 10,000 settlers to the island of São Tomé in São Tomé and Príncipe (another Portuguese colony) to work on plantations. Africans came primarily from the islands of São Nicolau, Santiago, Santo Antão, Fogo, and Brava. When the two colonies became independent, many people left for Europe and the United States, and few returned to Cape Verde. [[Famine in Cape Verde|Several famines]] occurred at this time due to poor harvests, the Second World War, and a poor response from the Portuguese colonial administration. Until and during the [[Portuguese Colonial War]], those planning and fighting in the [[Guinea-Bissau War of Independence|armed conflict]] in [[Portuguese Guinea]] often linked the liberation of [[Guinea-Bissau]] to liberation in Cape Verde; in 1956, [[Amílcar Cabral|Amílcar]] and [[Luís Cabral]] founded the [[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/cabo-verde | title=Cabo Verde &#124; South African History Online }}</ref>

=== Independence movement ===
Although Cape Verde was neglected by Portugal, Portuguese treatment of Cape Verdeans was differed from their treatment of other colonized peoples;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chabal|first=Patrick|date=1993|title=Some reflections on the postcolonial state in Portuguese-speaking Africa|journal=Africa Insight|volume=23|pages=129–135}}</ref> the people of Cape Verde fared slightly better than Africans in other [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese colonies]] because of their lighter skin. A small minority received an education, and Cape Verde was the first African-Portuguese colony to have an institution of higher education. By the time of independence, one-quarter of the population could read (compared to five percent in Portuguese Guinea, present-day [[Guinea-Bissau]]).

Literate Cape Verdeans became aware of the pressures for independence which were building on the mainland. The islands continued experiencing droughts, famines, epidemics and volcanic eruptions amid Portuguese government indifference. Thousands of people died of starvation during the first half of the 20th century. Although the nationalist movement appeared less fervent in Cape Verde than in Portugal's other African holdings, the [[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde]] (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde, or PAIGC) was founded in 1956 by [[Amílcar Cabral]] and other [[pan-African]]ists. Many Cape Verdeans fought for independence in Guinea-Bissau.<ref>See, for instance, Kevin Shillington, ''History of Africa'', St. Martin's Press, Inc., 1989, p. 399.</ref>

In 1926, Portugal had become a rightist dictatorship which regarded the colonies as an economic frontier to be developed in the interest of Portugal and the Portuguese. Famines, unemployment, poverty, and the failure of the Portuguese government to address those issues caused resentment, but Portuguese dictator [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] did not want to give up his colonies as easily as other European colonial powers had given up theirs.

After World War II, Portugal was intent on holding onto its former colonies (known since 1951 as overseas territories). When most former African colonies gained independence between 1957 and 1964, the Portuguese still held on. After the [[Pijiguiti Massacre]], however, the people of Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau fought one of the longest African liberation wars.

Like other colonies, autonomy was granted in 1972 and Portuguese Cape Verde held its only [[1973 Portuguese Cape Verdean Legislative Assembly election|parliamentary elections in 1973]] in which only Portuguese citizens could vote. Only 25,521 people registered to vote out of a total population of 272,071, and a total of 20,942 people voted. The Portuguese constitution banned political parties at the time, and most of the candidates were put forward by the ruling [[National Union (Portugal)|People's National Action]] movement; some civic associations, however, were allowed to nominate candidates.{{clarify|reason=did any?|date=February 2024}}

After the 25 April 1974 [[Carnation Revolution]], Cape Verde became more autonomous but continued to have an overseas governor until that post became a high commissioner. Widespread unrest forced the government to negotiate with the PAIGC, and agreements for an independent Cape Verde were on the table. [[Pedro Pires]] (at the time still in Algeria) signed an agreement at the end of August that year to give Portuguese Guinea and Cape Verde both paths to independence, with the islands planned to hold a referendum on such in the near future.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1974-08-27 |title=Portuguese Guinea Wins Independence |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/27/archives/portuguese-guinea-wins-independence.html |access-date=2020-09-05 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> However, such referendum never ended up being scheduled, with the PAIGC renouncing the agreement by the next February as they established their government on the islands, asking for immediate independence without a referendum instead.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Amado |first=Abel Djassi |date= |title=Whose Independence? Cabo Verdean-Americans and the Politics Of National Independence Of Cabo Verde (1972-1976) |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/jcvs/vol5/iss1/5/ |access-date=2020-09-05 |website=Virtual Commons, Bridgewater State University}}</ref> On 5 July in Praia, Portuguese Prime Minister [[Vasco Gonçalves]] transferred power to National Assembly President [[Abilio Duarte]]. The colonial history of Cape Verde ended when Cape Verde become independent, a negotiated transfer, and one of the few [[Portuguese Africa (disambiguation)|Portuguese African colonies]] to achieve independence without guerilla fighting within its borders.<ref>António Costa Pinto, "The transition to democracy and Portugal's decolonization", in Stewart Lloyd-Jones and António Costa Pinto (eds., 2003). ''The Last Empire: Thirty Years of Portuguese Decolonization'' (Intellect Books, {{ISBN|978-1-84150-109-3}}) pp. 22–24.</ref>

== After independence (1975)==
{{anchor|Post-Independence (1975)}}

=== One-party rule ===
Immediately after a November 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese Guinea declared independence in 1973 and was granted ''de jure'' independence in 1974), relations between the two countries became strained. Cape Verde abandoned its hope for unity with Guinea-Bissau, and formed the [[African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde]] (PAICV).

Responding to growing pressure for a political opening, the PAICV called an emergency congress in February 1990 to discuss proposed constitutional changes to end one-party rule. Opposition groups came together to form the [[Movement for Democracy (Cape Verde)|Movement for Democracy]] (MpD) in Praia in April of that year, and campaigned for the right to contest the presidential election scheduled for December 1990. The one-party state was abolished on 28 September of that year, and the [[1991 Cape Verdean parliamentary election|first multi-party elections were held in January 1991]].

=== {{anchor|Post-one-party rule}}End of one-party rule ===
The MpD won a majority of the seats in the National Assembly. MpD presidential candidate [[António Mascarenhas Monteiro]] defeated the PAICV candidate, 73.5 percent to 26.5 percent.
Legislative elections in December 1995 increased the MpD majority in the National Assembly, where the party held 50 of its 72 seats. [[1996 Cape Verdean presidential election|A February 1996 presidential election]] returned Monteiro to office.
[[File:CaboVerde128462.jpeg|thumb|President of Cape Verde [[Pedro Pires]] and President of Brazil [[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva]], October 2005]]
In the presidential election campaign of 2000 and 2001, two former prime ministers ([[Pedro Pires]] and [[Carlos Veiga]]) were the main candidates. Pires was [[prime minister]] during the PAICV regime; Veiga was prime minister during most of Monteiro's presidency, stepping aside to campaign. In what might have been one of the closest races in electoral history, Pires won by 12 votes; he and Veiga each received nearly half the votes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Pedro Pires wins Cape Verde runoff |url=https://eu.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/2001/03/09/pedro-pires-wins-cape-verde/50302563007/ |website=New Bedford Standard-Times}}</ref> Pires was narrowly re-elected in the [[2006 Cape Verdean presidential election|2006 elections]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13150037|title = Cape Verde profile - Timeline|work = BBC News|date = 8 May 2018}}</ref>

[[Jorge Carlos Fonseca|Jorge Carlos Almeida Fonseca]], President of Cape Verde since [[2011 Cape Verdean presidential election|2011]], was [[2016 Cape Verdean presidential election|re-elected]] in October 2016. Fonseca was supported by the [[Movement for Democracy (Cape Verde)|Movement for Democracy]] (MpD). MpD leader [[Ulisses Correia e Silva]] has been prime minister since the [[2016 Cape Verdean parliamentary election|2016 elections]], when his party ousted the ruling PAICV for the first time in 15 years.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13148486|title = Cape Verde country profile|work = BBC News|date = 5 December 2018}}</ref> In April 2021, the  ruling party, led by Prime Minister Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva, maintained its parliamentary majority in the [[2021 Cape Verdean parliamentary election|election]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Cape Verde's ruling party maintains majority in parliamentary elections |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/cape-verdes-ruling-party-maintains-majority-parliamentary-elections-2021-04-19/ |work=Reuters |date=19 April 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

In October 2021, opposition candidate and former prime minister [[José Maria Neves|Jose Maria Neves]] of PAICV won Cape Verde's presidential [[2021 Cape Verdean presidential election|election]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rodrigues |first1=Julio |title=Opposition candidate Neves wins Cape Verde election |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/opposition-candidate-neves-wins-cape-verde-election-2021-10-18/ |work=Reuters |date=18 October 2021 |language=en}}</ref> On 9 November of that year, Neves was sworn in as [[List of presidents of Cape Verde|president]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.africanews.com/2021/11/09/jose-maria-neves-sworn-in-as-new-cape-verde-president/|title = Jose Maria Neves sworn in as new Cape Verde president|date = 9 November 2021}}</ref>

On 2 February 2024, Cape Verde became the third African country to be free of [[malaria]].<ref>{{cite web |title=WHO certifies Cabo Verde as malaria-free, marking a historic milestone in the fight against malaria |url=https://www.who.int/news/item/12-01-2024-who-certifies-cabo-verde-as-malaria-free--marking-a-historic-milestone-in-the-fight-against-malaria |website=www.who.int |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[History of Africa]]
*[[History of Guinea-Bissau]]
*[[History of West Africa]]
*[[List of prime ministers of Cape Verde]]
*[[List of presidents of Cape Verde]]
*[[Politics of Cape Verde]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*{{CathEncy|wstitle=São Thiago de Cabo Verde}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060219231912/http://virtualcapeverde.net/news2/modules/Downloads/docs/cv_chronological_references.htm Cape Verde Historical Timeline] by Raymond Almeida. [https://web.archive.org/web/20060220140024/http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/cvchrono.html alternative site]
{{Cape Verde topics}}
{{History of Africa}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cape Verde (history)}}
[[Category:History of Cape Verde| ]]