The First Cycle of Population (15th and 16th Centuries - Santiago and Fogo)
- Demography
Portuguese people sent by Don Afonso V from Alentejo, from the Algarve and from Madeira, as well as some nobles, a few convicts, and some Genoans brought by Antonio da Noli, were the first settlers of Cape Verde, having established themselves in Ribeira Grande and Alcatrazes.
The slave trade was a burgeoning business, launched with a logistical base in Ribeira Grande, contributing to its development from 1462 on, peaking between 1475 and 1575.
If, using current geopolitics, we trace a line from S. Luis in Senegal, to Bamako in Mali, and on to Monrovia in Liberia, the area we enlimit was the slave collection zone that would, for centuries, feed this trade of African slaves, passing through Cape Verde until the end of the 19th Century.
The peoples that fed the slave trade were, among others, those known as Fulas, Jalofos, Azenegues, Mouros, Tucurores, Mandingas, Felupes, Sereres, Lebus, Cassangas, Pajadincas, Bajarancas, Brames, Bassaris, Bambarãs, Bolotas, Jacancas, Baiotes, Balantas, Papéis, Beafadas, Caboianas, Landumas, Sapes, Bagas, Banhuns, Jaloncas, Saracolés, Sacalates, Uassoloncas, Nalás, Sossos, Suruás, Limbas, Temenés, Tiliboncas, Quissis and Bolões. The multiplicity of tribes, linked to the climate of hostility between them, must have contributed to the mutual capture and subsequent traffic. At the same time, this real Babel of languages, traditions and beliefs paradoxically created conditions at the destination for the emergence of common patterns of religion, traditions and language.
During these two centuries, the city of Ribeira Grande, now known as Cidade Velha, was a staging point for trading in slaves, who became a cause for some humanitarian concern from the church, which attempted to convert them to the Christian faith, baptised them and made an effort to communicate with them bring them the gospel and teach them. The most notable result of this education was the formation of Creole, which became the touchstone of the new culture of this country and those to which they were being taken, not just to work, but also to populate, as was the case in some islands of the Caribbean, Brazil and the Spanish Indies. It was the creole, present already at the end of the 15th Century in the communities that were developing in Cape Verde, that became the channel for the wide variety of peoples which gave origin to the people of Cape Verde.
As can easily be seen from the fact that we are looking at a business where people were sold as merchandise, albeit a very special type, the people of Cape Verde are the result of a minority of slaves that were being brought from West Africa. The majority of them went to other destinations, first Portugal (continental and Madeira) and Spain (Canaries, Seville, Cadiz); then Cuba, Santo Domingo, Barbados, Brazil, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Honduras.
The drop in trade in African slaves in the large city of Ribeira Grande from the end of the 16th Century led to the mass desertion of the population to the inland areas of the island, where by the most fertile streams and in the central plateau, they established the new motors of the economy, the ranches, the chapels and the houses of nobility and their heirs. Between 1530 and 1560 the population of the capital grew to the point of spreading from the banks of the stream to the surrounding small plateaus, and in 1582 6,208 inhabitants were registered, although in 1731 there were just 1,733 in the city. Meanwhile Vila da Praia in Santa Maria, which was growing from 1615, benefited from the progressive passage of the remains of the Atlantic trade, and made strides towards the statute of capital city in 1769.
Portuguese people sent by Don Afonso V from Alentejo, from the Algarve and from Madeira, as well as some nobles, a few convicts, and some Genoans brought by Antonio da Noli, were the first settlers of Cape Verde, having established themselves in Ribeira Grande and Alcatrazes.
The slave trade was a burgeoning business, launched with a logistical base in Ribeira Grande, contributing to its development from 1462 on, peaking between 1475 and 1575.
If, using current geopolitics, we trace a line from S. Luis in Senegal, to Bamako in Mali, and on to Monrovia in Liberia, the area we enlimit was the slave collection zone that would, for centuries, feed this trade of African slaves, passing through Cape Verde until the end of the 19th Century.
The peoples that fed the slave trade were, among others, those known as Fulas, Jalofos, Azenegues, Mouros, Tucurores, Mandingas, Felupes, Sereres, Lebus, Cassangas, Pajadincas, Bajarancas, Brames, Bassaris, Bambarãs, Bolotas, Jacancas, Baiotes, Balantas, Papéis, Beafadas, Caboianas, Landumas, Sapes, Bagas, Banhuns, Jaloncas, Saracolés, Sacalates, Uassoloncas, Nalás, Sossos, Suruás, Limbas, Temenés, Tiliboncas, Quissis and Bolões. The multiplicity of tribes, linked to the climate of hostility between them, must have contributed to the mutual capture and subsequent traffic. At the same time, this real Babel of languages, traditions and beliefs paradoxically created conditions at the destination for the emergence of common patterns of religion, traditions and language.
During these two centuries, the city of Ribeira Grande, now known as Cidade Velha, was a staging point for trading in slaves, who became a cause for some humanitarian concern from the church, which attempted to convert them to the Christian faith, baptised them and made an effort to communicate with them bring them the gospel and teach them. The most notable result of this education was the formation of Creole, which became the touchstone of the new culture of this country and those to which they were being taken, not just to work, but also to populate, as was the case in some islands of the Caribbean, Brazil and the Spanish Indies. It was the creole, present already at the end of the 15th Century in the communities that were developing in Cape Verde, that became the channel for the wide variety of peoples which gave origin to the people of Cape Verde.
As can easily be seen from the fact that we are looking at a business where people were sold as merchandise, albeit a very special type, the people of Cape Verde are the result of a minority of slaves that were being brought from West Africa. The majority of them went to other destinations, first Portugal (continental and Madeira) and Spain (Canaries, Seville, Cadiz); then Cuba, Santo Domingo, Barbados, Brazil, Curaçao, Aruba, Bonaire, Honduras.
The drop in trade in African slaves in the large city of Ribeira Grande from the end of the 16th Century led to the mass desertion of the population to the inland areas of the island, where by the most fertile streams and in the central plateau, they established the new motors of the economy, the ranches, the chapels and the houses of nobility and their heirs. Between 1530 and 1560 the population of the capital grew to the point of spreading from the banks of the stream to the surrounding small plateaus, and in 1582 6,208 inhabitants were registered, although in 1731 there were just 1,733 in the city. Meanwhile Vila da Praia in Santa Maria, which was growing from 1615, benefited from the progressive passage of the remains of the Atlantic trade, and made strides towards the statute of capital city in 1769.
