History

Cape Verde was uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived in 1460 and made the islands part of the Portuguese empire. Due to its location off the coast of Africa, Cape Verde became an important watering station, then sugar cane plantation site, and later a major hub of the trans-atlantic slave trade, that would later form the contemporary African Diaspora.

In 1975, Cape Verde achieved independence from Portugal after the PAIGC long armed struggle in the jungles of neighboring Guinea-Bissau and a military coup at Lisbon in April 1974, which overthrew the Estado Novo regime. Although there was no armed struggle in Cape Verde, some Cape Verdeans (number not known but likely to be some hundreds) who fought in Guinea-Bissau asked for independence of Cape Verde. The African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) was the main entity responsible for the independence of Cape Verde. Moreover, the people's revolutionary armed forces of Cuba, though consisting of less than 50 guerrilleros, also played a role in the Cape Verdean independence armed struggle in Guinea-Bissau. In 1974, the PAIGC refused to hold a referendum (proposed by Portugal) to ask whether the Capeverdeans wanted to stay part of Portugal or to become an independent state. After independence, the PAIGC attempted to unite Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau into one nation, the PAIGC controlling both governments, but a coup in the latter nation in 1980 ended these plans. As a result, the G, standing for Guinea-Bissau, in PAIGC was dropped, and the PAICV (African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde) was formed. In Cape Verde the PAICV (affiliated with the PAIGC) governed until democratic elections, held in 1991, resulted in a change of government. The Movimento para a Democracia (MPD) won that election. The MPD was re-elected in 1996. The PAICV returned to power in 2001, and was re-elected in 2006.

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