According to Portuguese official records, the first discoveries were made by Genoa-born António de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by the Portuguese king Afonso V. They were discovered by Genoese and Portuguese navigators around 1456. The archipelago of modern-day Cape Verde was formed approximately 40–50 million years ago during the Eocene era.īefore the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. Insulae Capitis Viridis (1598), showing Cape Verde In 2013, the Cape Verdean government determined that it would thenceforth use the Portuguese name Cabo Verde for official purposes, including at the United Nations, even when speaking or writing in English. Speakers of English have used the name Cape Verde for the archipelago and, since independence in 1975, for the country.
On 24 October 2013, the country's delegation to the United Nations informed it that other countries should no longer use Cape Verde or any other translations of Cabo Verde as part of its official name: all countries should use Republic of Cabo Verde as the country's official name. The name Cap-Vert, in turn, comes from the Portuguese language Cabo Verde ('green cape'), the name that Portuguese explorers gave the cape in 1444, a few years before they discovered the islands. The country is named after the Cap-Vert peninsula, on the Senegalese coast. The recognized national language is Cape Verdean Creole, which is spoken by the vast majority of the population. It is also used in newspapers, television, and radio. It is the language of instruction and government. Cape Verde is a member state of the African Union.Ĭape Verde's official language is Portuguese. A sizeable Cape Verdean diaspora community exists across the world, especially in the United States and Portugal, considerably outnumbering the inhabitants on the islands. Its population of around 483,628 (as of the 2021 Census ) is mostly of mixed African and European heritage, and predominantly Roman Catholic, reflecting the legacy of Portuguese rule. Lacking natural resources, its developing economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism and foreign investment. Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a stable representative democracy, and has remained one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. In 1951, Cape Verde was incorporated as an overseas department of Portugal, but its inhabitants continued to campaign for independence, which they achieved in 1975. However, Cape Verde gradually recovered economically by becoming an important commercial center and useful stopover point along major shipping routes. It declined economically in the 19th century due to the suppression of the Atlantic slave trade, and many of its inhabitants emigrated during that period.
Because the Cape Verde islands were located in a convenient location to play a role in the Atlantic slave trade, Cape Verde became economically prosperous during the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates.
The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, thus establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. The Cape Verde islands form part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Savage Isles. These islands lie between 600 to 850 kilometres (320 to 460 nautical miles) west of Cap-Vert, the westernmost point of continental Africa. Cape Verde ( / ˈ v ɜːr d( i)/ ( listen)) or Cabo Verde ( / ˌ k ɑː b oʊ ˈ v ɜːr d eɪ/ ( listen), / ˌ k æ b-/ Portuguese: ), officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi).