Perfil de cabo verde ate 2011

Chapter 1
The country’s profile

1.1 History The Portuguese found these islands when they are attempting to find a route to India through the South of Africa. They gave the name Cape Verde to the archipelago because it was near to a cape in the continent which previously they gave the same name. The island was discovered in 1460 by the sailors Antonio da Noli, a sailor from Genève on the service oh Portuguese ships belonged to Infant D. Fernando (Andrade, Elisa). In 1462 the king D, Afonso V offered the islands to is brother, the Prince d. Fernando (Almeida). In 1466, settlers from Algarve (a Portuguese meridian region) came to the islands. They beg to the crown the licence to start the importation of African people from the coast to the islands to work in the land exploration. So far they started the importation of slaves. However, some scholars defend that in Santiago there were a few number of fishermen’s that often come to the Island of Santiago searching for fish and to the island of Santiago searching for salt and them return to Africa to change them for gold (Andrade, Martine). From 1460 the Portuguese started the settlement and the royal decree that reclaimed the islands as Portuguese possession was just promulgated in 1994 (Martine). Merchants from the Canary Islands, France and Italy often came to the islands to make trade. The city of Ribeira Grande in Santiago Island acquired a great importance. Because this French and English pirates often started to plunder the islands. Cassard, a French pirate in 1712 ran an attack that came to end the Portuguese rule on the west coast. His fleet ruined completely Ribeira Grande. Thus, they moved the capital to the village of Praia Maria (Andrade, Almeida). In the XVIII century Cape Verde was a land of seafarers recruited for whale fishing and a port of call for Portuguese vessels bound for Brazil. It was a hub of the slave trade between West Africa and the new World. This because the islands