The islands of Cabo Verde had no evidence of previous human presence before the Portuguese navigators in May 1460. Santiago was the most favorable island for the occupation and thus the settlement began there in 1462.
Given its strategic position, on the routes linking Europe, Africa and Brazil, the islands served as a commercial and supply warehouse, with particular emphasis on the trafficking of enslaved Africans. Soon, the archipelago became a center of concentration and dispersion of men, plants and animals.
With the abolition of the slavery and the constant deterioration of climatic conditions, Cabo Verde fell into decay and began to live on the basis of a poor, subsistence economy.
The descendants of the Europeans and the enslaved people from the African coast merged into one people, the Cabo Verdean, with a way of being and living very much of its own, and Creole emerged as the language of the largely mestizo community.
In 1956 Amílcar Cabral created the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde (PAIGC), fighting against colonialism and initiating a march for independence. On December 19, 1974 an agreement was signed between PAIGC and Portugal, establishing a transitional government in Cabo Verde. This same Government prepared the elections for a Popular National Assembly that on July 5, 1975 proclaimed independence. Cultural demarcation with Portugal and the spread of nationalist ideas led to the independence of the archipelago in July 1975.
In 1991, following the first multiparty elections held in the country, a parliamentary democracy was instituted with all the institutions of a modern democracy. Today, Cabo Verde is a country with social stability and peace, so it enjoys credit with governments, companies and international financial institutions.
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