The Whole History of Cape Verde in Four Minutes
Cape Verde is a country built by people leaving it. Ten dry volcanic islands, empty when Portuguese sailors reached them, became a slave-trade warehouse, then a provisioning stop for whalers, then a democracy whose largest export is its own people. Independence came in 1975. The nation was never really a territory.
The islands were empty. The country was not.
Ten islands sit some 350 nautical miles off the West African coast (Sørensen et al. 2011). They had no indigenous population and almost no rain. Portuguese navigators reached them in the 1460s. António da Noli was made the first governor, established himself at Ribeira Grande on Santiago, and set about populating a colony that had nobody in it (Bussotti 2020). In 1466 the crown gave the islands the right to trade in slaves along the Guinea coast, which turned out to be the founding charter of the economy (Bussotti 2020).
Ribeira Grande, now Cidade Velha, became the archipelago's capital and Europe's first colony in the tropics (Hall 1993). The name was always a small lie. The islands are brown and rocky, and the green is seasonal.
A warehouse for the Atlantic
Ribeira Grande was the chief entrepôt for captives brought from West Africa for four centuries (Brooks 2006). The town's early waterfront was, in the archaeologists' description, a slavery-based infrastructure: cathedral, bishop's palace, harbour batteries and two-storey houses, all of it paid for by the trade (Sørensen et al. 2011).
The volume was industrial. The Companhia Geral do Grão-Pará e Maranhão shipped more than 28,000 captives between 1757 and 1777, most of them from Cacheu and Bissau (Brooks 2006). The wealth attracted predators: Ribeira Grande was pillaged in 1582, 1595 and 1598 by French, English and Dutch forces (Brooks 2006). In 1770 the administration moved to Praia, because the plantation economy had declined and the colony now lived off passing ships (Brooks 2006).
The drought machine
The islands' central mechanism is a prohibition. For centuries, officials refused to let islanders own fishing boats, on the reasoning that boats let slaves escape (Brooks 2006). An archipelago surrounded by rich water was therefore unable to feed itself when the rain failed. Brooks calls Portuguese-ruled Cabo Verde a gulag, and the mortality figures are the argument.
| Famine years | Estimated deaths | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1773-1775 | more than 20,000 | Brooks (2006) |
| 1830-1833 | about 30,000 | Brooks (2006) |
| 1863-1866 | 20,000 to 30,000 | Brooks (2006) |
| 1941-1943 and 1947-1948 | about 45,000 | Brooks (2006) |
Those four episodes alone account for roughly 115,000 to 125,000 deaths. That is what "more than a hundred thousand" means in practice: not one catastrophe but a recurring one, arriving every generation or two.
Departure was the other response. American whalers began hunting in the archipelago in the late 1760s or early 1770s and hired men from Brava, who then brought their wives to Nantucket and New Bedford (Brooks 2006). More than 18,000 Cape Verdeans entered the United States between 1900 and 1920; some 80,000 were shipped to the plantations of São Tomé and Príncipe between 1900 and 1970; and more than 130,000 left the archipelago between 1950 and 1973 (Brooks 2006).
Independence in 1975, democracy in 1991
The anti-colonial war belonged to the PAIGC, which fought for Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde as one binational project under Amílcar Cabral (Fonseca 2025). Cape Verde became independent in 1975, and the fragility that outsiders expected did not take the predicted form. After the one-party years, the transition of 1991 produced an electoral process, a party system, an assembly and a judiciary that made the country the strongest performer in Africa on political rights and civil liberties, though the same assessment found that democracy had not ended dependence on the diaspora or poverty (Baker 2006).
A nation that lives abroad
The diaspora is estimated at about twice the resident population (Resende-Santos 2016). Money follows the people: personal remittances were 12.3 percent of GDP in 2024 (World Bank 2026). The islands have also pushed into energy, with renewables supplying 16 percent of the 483 GWh generated in 2023, almost all of it wind (IRENA 2025).
| Measure | Figure | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Distance from the West African coast | 350 nautical miles | n/a |
| Diaspora relative to the resident population | about twice | 2016 |
| Personal remittances as a share of GDP | 12.3 percent | 2024 |
| Renewable share of electricity generated | 16 percent | 2023 |
Kriolu holds the culture together. It is a creole formed in the archipelago's first encounters, and Cape Verdean identity is organised around it as much as around any territory (Pardue 2012). The country's most reliable export is not a product. It is people who can live in two places at once.
The misconception: Portugal discovered Cape Verde and built it
The standard version is that a small European country found empty islands and made a colony of them. Two things are wrong with it.
The discovery itself is contested. Noli, the Venetian Alvise da Ca' da Mosto and the Portuguese Diogo Gomes have all been credited, and Italian, Portuguese and Cape Verdean historiography each claim the episode for different political purposes (Bussotti 2020).
And the colony was never mainly European. In 1807 the population of São Tiago was estimated at 14,200: 200 brancos, 6,000 pardos, 6,000 pretos livres and 2,000 escravos (Brooks 2006). The Portuguese contribution was a language, a religion and a state apparatus. The population was African, and it made Kriolu out of the collision (Pardue 2012). Cape Verde was not a settlement that grew into a nation. It was a labour system that grew a culture.
Frequently asked questions
When was Cape Verde settled, and by whom?
The islands had no indigenous population when Portuguese navigators reached them in the 1460s. António da Noli was appointed governor and settled at Ribeira Grande on Santiago, and in 1466 the crown granted the islands the right to trade in slaves along the Guinea coast.
How many people died in Cape Verde's famines?
Brooks (2006) gives more than 20,000 deaths in 1773-75, about 30,000 in 1830-33, 20,000 to 30,000 in 1863-66, and about 45,000 across the famines of 1941-43 and 1947-48. Those four episodes alone come to roughly 115,000 to 125,000 deaths.
Why are there more Cape Verdeans abroad than at home?
Drought and famine pushed people out, and whaling, shipping and contract labour pulled them towards New England, Portugal and São Tomé. The diaspora is estimated at about twice the resident population, and remittances were 12.3 percent of GDP in 2024.
Sources
- Brooks, G. E. (2006). Cabo Verde: Gulag of the South Atlantic: Racism, Fishing Prohibitions, and Famines. History in Africa 33, 101-135. https://doi.org/10.1353/hia.2006.0008
- Sørensen, M. L. S., Evans, C., & Richter, K. (2011). A Place of History: Archaeology and Heritage at Cidade Velha, Cape Verde. In Slavery in Africa. British Academy. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0018
- Hall, T. P. (1993). Portuguese Archival Documentation of Europe's First Colony in the Tropics. Primary Sources & Original Works 2(3-4), 375-398. https://doi.org/10.1300/j269v02n03_04
- Bussotti, L. (2020). Antonio da Noli and the Discovery of Cape Verde: A Legacy in Dispute: Italy, Portugal and Cape Verde. Advances in Historical Studies 9, 153-173. https://doi.org/10.4236/ahs.2020.94014
- Pardue, D. (2012). Cape Verdean Kriolu as an Epistemology of Contact. Cadernos de Estudos Africanos 24, 73-94. https://doi.org/10.4000/cea.696
- Fonseca, D. (2025). Underground Revolutionaries: The PAIGC, Leninism, and the Decolonization of Cabo Verde. African Studies Review 68(3), 557-578. https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2025.10052
- Baker, B. (2006). Cape Verde: the most democratic nation in Africa? The Journal of Modern African Studies 44(4), 493-511. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X06002060
- Resende-Santos, J. (2016). Cape Verde: Rethinking Diaspora in Development Policy. International Migration 54(2), 82-97. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12212
- IRENA (2025). Energy Profile: Cabo Verde. International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi. https://www.irena.org/-/media/Files/IRENA/Agency/Statistics/Statistical_Profiles/Africa/Cabo-Verde_Africa_RE_SP.pdf
- World Bank (2026). Personal remittances, received (percent of GDP) - Cabo Verde. World Bank Open Data. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS?locations=CV
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