Cape Verde – A paradise for windsurfers
Around 520,000 people live on Cape Verde, while around 700,000 live abroad. The economic conditions in the Cape Verde Islands are poor. There are no significant natural raw materials and hardly any precipitation.
The limited cultivation area on the islands is insufficient to feed the population. About 20 percent of the gross domestic product is provided by the Cape Verdeans living abroad, who transfer money to their relatives.
Before the Portuguese began to settle the archipelago in western Africa in 1460, Cape Verde was not yet populated. But the largest area of the Cape Verde Islands, Santiago, quickly revived. Initially a contact point for further expeditions to Africa, the island soon became a significant “transshipment point” for African slaves. The “natives” of European descent mixed with their house slaves over the years. Today about 70 percent of Cape Verdean’s population are mulattos.
With the end of slavery in America in 1875, the heyday of the Cape Verde Islands came to an end. Only 100 years later did the archipelago gain independence. Today the democratically elected government is trying to bring about an economic upswing through the targeted expansion of tourism. It should not be forgotten that Cape Verde is a paradise for windsurfers.
| Name of the country | República de Cabo Verde |
| Name in German | Republic of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) |
| Form of government | Parliamentary democracy |
| Geographical location | Cape Verde consists of 15 islands in the Atlantic about 600 km from the West African coast (Senegal),nine of which are inhabited. |
| National anthem | Cântico da Liberdade |
| Population | 550,000 on the nine islands and around 700,000 abroad (Credit: Countryaah: Cape Verde Population) |
| Ethnicities | around 70% mulattos, around 28% blacks, the rest white and others. |
| Religions | around 94% of the population are catholic, the rest are protestants, witnesses to jehovah and various natural religions |
| Languages | PortugueseCreole |
| Capital | Praia |
| Surface | 4,033 km² |
| Highest mountain | “Pico do Fogo” volcano 2,829 m |
| International license plate | CV |
| National currency | Cape Verde Escudo |
| Time difference to CET | -2 h |
| Internet TLD (Top Level Domain) | .cv |
Cape Verde: history
By the end of the 19th century
The islands were discovered by Portuguese seafarers in 1456, before Columbus sailed on America. There is no evidence that any human life existed on the islands prior to that time. The first people settled there in 1460 and in 1532 the islands received their own diocese. Over the centuries that followed, the Portuguese who later settled there imported African slaves. At that time they wanted to build Africa’s first “white city” on the island of Santiago. It was today’s Cidade Velher. After the final abolition of slavery in America in 1875, Santiago’s heyday ended as a hub for slaves from Africa to America.
20th and 21st centuries
According to Abbreviationfinder website, in 1963 an eleven-year guerrilla war began against the Portuguese colonial power, which was mainly supported by the former Soviet Union, the GDR and Cuba and was only waged in what is now Guinea-Bissau.
After the Portuguese Salazar dictatorship collapsed in 1974, Cape Verde gained independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975. Initially, an authoritarian one-party state was established. However, in 1990 the constitution was amended to set up a multi-party system as a parliamentary democracy.
