History in Cabo Verde

Cabo Verde is a volcanic archipelago whose recorded history begins with Portuguese maritime expansion. Official Portuguese sources date the arrival of Portuguese navigators to May 1460. The reviewed sources contain no verified evidence of earlier human presence, which remains a source gap rather than proof that no earlier visitors existed. Settlement on Santiago began in 1462, and Ribeira Grande, later known as Cidade Velha, was founded in the late fifteenth century. It became the first European colonial town in the tropics and an Atlantic entrepôt linking Europe, West Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. Its growth depended on colonial agriculture, plant acclimatisation, the trafficking and enslavement of African people, and the formation of a Creole society. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Ribeira Grande served as a Portuguese colonial port and administrative centre. Its position supported slave-trade logistics and intercultural exchange. Praia expanded as Ribeira Grande declined during the eighteenth century. Praia became the capital in 1770 because its harbour, defensive position and health conditions were more favourable. Piracy and corsair attacks also affected the islands. Ribeira Grande was renamed Cidade Velha late in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century brought the transition away from slavery. Records held by the Instituto do Arquivo Nacional de Cabo Verde, also called the Arquivo Nacional de Cabo Verde, include files from 1842 to 1869, Letters of Freedom and records of the Luso-British Joint Commission on Boa Vista established in 1842. A Portuguese slave-census decree followed in 1854, and abolition took place in the Portuguese domain in 1869. Climate deterioration, drought and famine placed pressure on subsistence livelihoods, increased movement between islands and encouraged emigration. The histories of Fogo and Brava also include migration connected with the United States whaling economy and the wider Cabo Verdean diaspora. Under twentieth-century Portuguese rule, nativist and nationalist currents grew. Amílcar Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, known as PAIGC, in 1956. An agreement between PAIGC and Portugal on 19 December 1974 prepared the transfer of power. Cabo Verde became independent on 5 July 1975, and sovereignty passed to the Assembleia Constituinte. From 1975 to 1990, PAIGC and later the African Party for the Independence of Cabo Verde, or PAICV, governed within a single-party constitutional system. The first Constitution was adopted in 1980. A proposed political union with Guinea-Bissau ended after the 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau. Constitutional pluralism replaced the single-party constitutional basis in 1990. The first multiparty legislative election took place on 13 January 1991, and the Movement for Democracy, known as MpD, won it. A presidential election followed in February 1991. A new Constitution was approved on 5 August 1992 and entered into force on 25 September 1992. PAICV returned to government in 2001, creating a second democratic alternation. Cidade Velha was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2009. Historical research in Cabo Verde has no single responsible authority. The Instituto do Arquivo Nacional de Cabo Verde, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Universidade de Cabo Verde, heritage authorities and UNESCO each contribute different forms of evidence or interpretation. The national archive provides a digital catalogue through its ATOM system, together with reading and research access subject to archival rules. Evidence records free public visits on 18 April, 18 May and 18 October; other fees and waiting times depend on the institution and current arrangements. Interpretation depends on the source and the memory community. Colonial administrative records tend to foreground Portuguese rule, slavery and commerce. UNESCO presents Cidade Velha as a colonial, slavery-related and Creole Atlantic site. National liberation narratives centre Cabral, PAIGC and independence in 1975. Research at the Universidade de Cabo Verde shows that the period from 1975 to 1990 is remembered both as the country's national birth and through later anti-colonial, critical and plural interpretations. Colonial records therefore require source criticism, while diaspora testimony and oral memory can add perspectives that written archives do not preserve. Researchers should record the archive, date, author, purpose and limits of each source.