POPULATION 408,760
ROMAN CATHOLIC 95 percent
PROTESTANT 5 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Republic of Cape Verde (in Portuguese, República de Cabo Verde) comprises a group of nine inhabited islands that lie 385 miles off West Africa's coast. The Portuguese reached the islands (which were uninhabited) by 1455, and a plan of active colonization and settlement was launched in 1462. As settlers arrived in São Tiago island, they founded Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha), the oldest European city in sub-Saharan Africa. Cape Verde prospered as an offshore common post, particularly for the trade of slaves, ivory, and gold. The Portuguese had reluctantly abandoned the lucrative slave trade by the late 1870s.

In 1879 the colonial administration of Cape Verde was separated from that of Guinea-Bissau on the mainland. In 1956 a group of Cape Verdean and African nationalists formed an independence movement. They launched an armed struggle in Guinea in 1963 that led...