History

Recent History

By the late 1980s there were increasing calls for multi-party democracy, and in 1990 the PAICV acquiesced, allowing lawyer Carlos Veigo to found the Movimento para a Democracia (MPD). With a centre-right policy of political and economic liberalisation, the MPD swept to power in the 1991 elections. However, privatisation and foreign investment - especially in tourism - brought only slow results, and the PAICV retook power in 2001. This time, it promised to adhere to a more centrist policy of prudent fiscal and economic management, in line with the wishes of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Tourism is the nation's main growth industry, and the country remains prosperous by West African standards. Famine is certainly no longer an imminent threat, yet improvements in the lives of the average Cape Verdean remain incremental, and for those without family abroad conditions remain difficult.

Modern Day History

Because much of Cape Verde's population was mixed race, they tended to fare better than fellow Africans in other Portuguese colonies. Beginning in the mid-19th century, a privileged few even received educations, many going on to help administrate mainland colonies. By independence, 25% of the population could read (compared with 5% in Guinea-Bissau). To the alarm of the Portuguese, literate Cape Verdeans gradually became aware of nationalist sentiment simmering on the African mainland. Soon, together with leaders from Guinea-Bissau, they had established a joint independence movement. In 1956 Cape Verdean intellectual Amilcar Cabral (born in Guinea-Bissau) founded the Marxist-inspired Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), later renamed the Partido Africano da Indepêndencia de Cabo Verde (PAICV).

As other European powers were relinquishing their colonies, Portugal's right-wing dictator António de Salazar propped up his regime with dreams of colonial greatness; one of Africa's longest wars of independence ensued. However, most of the fighting took place in Guinea-Bissau, and indeed many middle-class Cape Verdeans remained lukewarm toward independence.

Eventually, Portugal's war became an international scandal and led to the non-violent demise of its dictatorship in 1974. Cape Verde finally gained full independence a year later. Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau seriously considered uniting their two countries, but a 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau ended talks.

The PAICV nationalised most industries and created a one-party state, somehow managing to limit corruption whilst instituting remarkably successful health and education programs. Still, independence did not solve the problem of drought, and in 1985 disaster struck again. This time the USA and Portugal contributed 85% of the food deficit; their aid continues to bolster a country that produces only about 20% of its own food supply.

Pre 20th Century History

When Portuguese mariners discovered the Cape Verde islands in 1456, they were uninhabited but fertile enough to attract the first group of settlers, who arrived six years later. They founded Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha) on São Vicente - the first European town in the tropics. Settlers almost immediately began to import slaves from the West African coast to work the land. Plans by Genoese investors to create large sugar plantations never paid off, especially after the Caribbean proved so productive. However, the islands' remote-yet-strategic position made them the perfect clearing-house and victualling station for the transatlantic slave trade. Within a century they had grown wealthy enough to attract pirates, suffering a raid by England's Sir Francis Drake in 1585.

In 1747 changing weather patterns, aggravated by deforestation and overgrazing, resulted in Cape Verde's first recorded drought. In the 100 years from 1773, three separate droughts killed some 100,000 people - more than 40% of the population each time; it was only the beginning of a cycle that lasted until well into the 20th century. Around the same time, the island's economy took a hit as Britain, France and the Netherlands challenged Portugal's control over the slave trade. As a result, Lisbon invested little in good times and offered almost no help during bad times. To escape hunger, many men left the islands, principally to work as hired hands on American whaling ships. Even today, Cape Verdean communities along the New England coast rival the population of Cape Verde itself, and foreign remittances account for as much as 20% of GDP.