Cape Verde, also referred to in English by its Portuguese name Cabo Verde, and known officially as the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an archipelagic country in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of West Africa. It consists of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about 4,033 square kilometres (1,557 sq mi). These islands lie between 600 and 850 kilometres (370 and 530 miles) west of Cap-Vert (i.e., Dakar), the westernmost point of continental Africa, after which they are named. Cape Verde forms part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira and the Savage Islands.
The archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers settled the islands, establishing one of the first European settlements in the tropics. Its strategic position gave it a significant role in the transatlantic slave trade during the 16th and 17th centuries; the islands saw rapid economic growth driven by the trade of manufactured goods, rum, cloth for African slaves, ivory, and gold. By the mid 19th century, increased foreign competition, persistent drought, and the decline of the slave trade led to economic decline and emigration; Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial centre and stopping point for major shipping routes.
Cape Verde became independent in 1975. Since the early 1990s, it has been a stable representative democracy and has remained one of the most developed and democratic countries in Africa. Lacking natural resources, its developing economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism and foreign investment. With a population of around 530,000 (), Cape Verde is among the least populous countries in Africa. The Cape Verdean people trace their ancestry primarily to West African populations, with additional contributions from early Portuguese settlers and other groups who came to the islands. A sizeable diaspora exists across the world, especially in the United States and Portugal, considerably outnumbering the inhabitants on the islands. Cape Verde is a member state of the African Union.
The official language is Portuguese, while the recognized national language is Cape Verdean Creole (Crioulo), which is spoken by the vast majority of the population. As of the 2021 census, the most populous islands were Santiago (269,370) – which hosts the country's capital and largest city, Praia – São Vicente (74,016), Santo Antão (36,632), Fogo (33,519) and Sal (33,347). The largest cities are Praia (137,868), Mindelo (69,013), Espargos (24,500) and Assomada (21,297).
Etymology The country is named after the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Senegalese coast.Lobban, p. 4 The name Cap-Vert, in turn, comes from the Portuguese language ('green cape'), the name given to it by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before they came across the islands. Historically, the name has been anglicised as Cape Verde. In 2013, the country's delegation informed the United Nations that only Cabo Verde ( ) and not other translations should be used for official purposes.
History
The archipelago was formed approximately 40–50 million years ago during the Eocene epoch. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. They were discovered by Genoese and Portuguese navigators around 1456. According to Portuguese official records,Carta regia (royal letter) of 19 September 1462 the first discoveries were made by Genoa-born António de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing to discoveries on the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso, Alvise Cadamosto and Diogo Gomes (who had accompanied António de Noli on his voyage of discovery, and who claimed to have been the first to land on Santiago and the first to name that island).
In 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande. Today it is called Cidade Velha ("Old City"), to distinguish it from Ribeira Grande. The original Ribeira Grande was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics.Cape Verde background note . United States Department of State (July 2008).
In the 16th century, the archipelago prospered from the Atlantic slave trade. Pirates occasionally attacked the Portuguese settlements. Francis Drake, an English privateer, twice sacked Ribeira Grande in 1585 when it was a part of the Iberian Union. After a French attack in 1712, the town declined in importance relative to nearby Praia, which became the capital in 1770.
The decline in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis. Cape Verde's early prosperity slowly evaporated. However, the islands' position astride mid-Atlantic shipping lanes made Cape Verde an ideal location for re-supplying ships. Because of its excellent harbour Mindelo, located on the island of São Vicente, the country became an important commercial centre. Diplomat Edmund Roberts visited Cape Verde in 1832. Cape Verde was the first stop on Charles Darwin's voyage with in 1832.Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle round the world – Chapter 1 at Wikisource, top part
With few natural resources and inadequate sustainable investment from the Portuguese, citizens grew increasingly dissatisfied with their colonial masters, who refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. In 1951, Portugal changed Cape Verde's status from a colony to an overseas province in an attempt to blunt growing nationalism.
In 1956, Amílcar Cabral and a group of fellow Cape Verdeans and Guineans organized (in Portuguese Guinea) the clandestine African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). It demanded improvement in economic, social, and political conditions in Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea and formed the basis of the two nations' independence movement. Its objective was to achieve independence through nonviolent protest. However, in 1959, the Portuguese authorities reacted with repression, marked by violence and mass arrests, persuading the PAIGC that armed struggle was the only viable means to overthrow the colonial regime. Moving its headquarters to Conakry, Guinea, in 1960, the PAIGC began an armed rebellion against Portugal in 1961. Acts of sabotage eventually grew into a war in Portuguese Guinea that pitted 10,000 PAIGC soldiers against 35,000 Portuguese and African troops.
By 1972, the PAIGC controlled much of Portuguese Guinea despite the presence of the Portuguese troops, but the organization did not attempt to disrupt Portuguese control in Cape Verde. Portuguese Guinea declared independence in 1973 and was granted de jure independence in 1974. A budding independence movement originally led by Amílcar Cabral, who was assassinated in 1973, passed on to his half-brother Luís Cabral and culminated in independence for the archipelago in 1975.
Following the April 1974 revolution in Portugal, the PAIGC became an active political movement in Cape Verde. In December 1974, the PAIGC and Portugal signed an agreement providing for a transitional government composed of Portuguese and Cape Verdeans. On 30 June 1975, Cape Verdeans elected a National Assembly which received instruments of independence from Portugal on 5 July 1975.
On 2 February 2024, Cape Verde became the third African country to be free of malaria.
Government and politics
Government Cape Verde is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic. In 2026, it was a joint second most democratic nation in Africa (alongside Mauritius and South Africa), ranking 40th in the world, according to the electoral democracy score of the V-Dem Democracy indices.
The constitution – adopted in 1980 and revised in 1992, 1995 and 1999 – defines the basic principles of its government. The president is the head of state and is elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The prime minister is the head of government and proposes other ministers and secretaries of state. The prime minister is nominated by the National Assembly and appointed by the president. Members of the National Assembly are elected by popular vote for five-year terms. In 2016, three parties held seats in the National Assembly – MpD (36), PAICV (25), and the Cape Verdean Independent Democratic Union (UCID) (3). The two main political parties are PAICV and MpD.
The judicial system consists of a Supreme Court of Justice – whose members are appointed by the president, the National Assembly, and the Board of the Judiciary – and regional courts. Separate courts hear civil, constitutional, and criminal cases. Appeals are to the Supreme Court.
International recognition In 2013, United States President Barack Obama said that Cape Verde was "a real success story." Among other achievements, it has been recognized with the following assessments: Index Score PALOP rank CPLP rank African rank World rank Year Human Development Index 0.654 2017 Ibrahim Index of African Governance 71.1 2018 Freedom of the Press 27 (Free) 2014 Freedom in the World 1/1 2016 Press Freedom Index 18.02 2017 Democracy Index 7.88 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index 62 2024 e-Government Readiness Index 0.62 2024 Fragile States Index 57.2 2024 Networked Readiness Index 3.8 2015
Foreign relations
Cape Verde follows a policy of nonalignment and seeks cooperative relations with all friendly states. Angola, Brazil, China, Libya, Cuba, France, Guinea-Bissau, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Russia, Luxembourg, and the United States maintain embassies in Praia. Cape Verde maintains a vigorously active foreign policy especially in Africa.
Cape Verde is a founding member state of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth, an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations across four continents, where Portuguese is an official language. Cape Verde has bilateral relations with some Lusophone nations and holds membership in a number of international organizations. It also participates in most international conferences on economic and political issues. Since 2007, Cape Verde has a special partnership status with the EU, under the Cotonou Agreement, and might apply for special membership, in particular because the Cape Verdean escudo, the country's currency, is indexed to the euro. In 2011 Cape Verde ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In 2017 Cape Verde signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
In November 2021, Cape Verde opened its first embassy in Nigeria.
Military
The military of Cape Verde consists of the National Guard and the Coast Guard; 0.7% of the country's GDP was spent on the military in 2005. Having fought their only battles in the war for independence against Portugal between 1974 and 1975, the efforts of the Cape Verdean armed forces have turned to combatting international drug trafficking. In 2007, together with the Cape Verdean Police, they carried out Operation Flying Launch (), a successful operation to put an end to a drug trafficking group which smuggled cocaine from Colombia to the Netherlands and Germany using the country as a reorder point. The operation took more than three years, being a secret operation during the first two years, and ended in 2010. In 2016, Cape Verdean Armed Forces were involved in the Monte Tchota massacre, a green-on-green incident that resulted in 11 deaths.
Geography