São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main islands of São Tomé and Príncipe, about apart and about off the northwestern coast of Gabon. With a population of 201,800 (2018 official estimate),Instituto Nacional de Estadística de São Tomé e Príncipe, as of 13 May 2018. São Tomé and Príncipe is the second-smallest and second-least populous African sovereign state after Seychelles.
The islands were uninhabited until Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar discovered them on 21 December 1470. Gradually colonized and settled throughout the 16th century, they collectively served as a vital commercial and trade centre for the Atlantic slave trade. The rich volcanic soil and proximity to the equator made São Tomé and Príncipe ideal for sugar cultivation, followed later by other cash crops such as coffee and cocoa. The lucrative plantation economy was heavily dependent upon enslaved Africans. Cycles of social unrest and economic instability throughout the 19th and 20th centuries culminated in peaceful independence in 1975 as a one-party communist state, which would remain in place until 1990. São Tomé and Príncipe has since remained one of Africa's most stable and democratic countries. São Tomé and Príncipe is a developing economy with a medium Human Development Index.
The people of São Tomé and Príncipe are predominantly of African and mestiço (mixed European and African) descent, with most practicing Christianity. The legacy of Portuguese rule is also visible in the country's culture, customs, and music, which fuse both European and African influences. São Tomé and Príncipe is a founding member state of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
History
The islands making up São Tomé and Príncipe were formed approximately 30 million years ago due to volcanic activity in deep water along the Cameroon Line. Over time, interactions with seawater and periods of eruption have engendered a wide variety of different igneous and volcanic rocks on the islands with complex assemblages of minerals.
Arrival of Europeans The islands of São Tomé and Príncipe were uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived 21 December 1470. The first Europeans to put ashore were João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar. Portuguese navigators explored the islands and decided that they would be good locations for bases to trade with the mainland.
The dates of European arrival are sometimes given as 21 December (St Thomas's Day) 1471, for São Tomé; and 17 January (St Antony's Day) 1472, for Príncipe, though other sources cite different years around that time. Príncipe was initially named Santo Antão ("Saint Anthony"), changing its name in 1502 to Ilha do Príncipe ("Prince's Island"), in reference to the Prince of Portugal to whom duties on the island's sugar crop were paid.
The first successful settlement of São Tomé was established in 1493 by Álvaro Caminha, who received the land as a grant from the crown. Príncipe was settled in 1500 under a similar arrangement. Attracting settlers proved difficult, however, and most of the earliest inhabitants were "undesirables" sent from Portugal, mostly Sephardic Jews. 2,000 Jewish children, eight years old and under, were taken from the Iberian peninsula for work on the sugar plantations. In time, these settlers found the volcanic soil of the region suitable for agriculture, especially the growing of sugar.
Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe
By 1515, São Tomé and Príncipe had become slave depots for the coastal slave trade centered at Elmina. The cultivation of sugar was a labour-intensive process, and the Portuguese began to enslave large numbers of Africans from the continent. In the sugar boom's early stages, property on the islands had little value, with farming for local consumption. While the economy relied mainly on the transit of slaves, many foodstuffs were already imported.Caldeira, Arlindo Manuel. "LEARNING THE ROPES IN THE TROPICS: SLAVERY AND THE PLANTATION SYSTEM ON THE ISLAND OF SÃO TOMÉ." African Economic History 39 (2011): 41. . When the local landowner Álvaro Borges died in 1504, his cleared land and domesticated animals were sold for only 13,000 réis, about the price of three slaves.Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (hereinafter cited as TT), Corpo Cronológico, II, 15–77, inventory of the assets belonging to Álvaro Borges, 4 November 1507, a published copy of which is found in PMA, vol. V, 221–243. According to Valentim Fernandes around 1506, São Tomé had more sugarcane fields than Madeira "from which they already produce molasses,"Th. Monod, A. Teixeira da Mota, and R. Mauny, eds., Description de la Côte Occidentale d'Afrique par Valentim Fernandes (Bissau: Centro de Estudos da Guiñé Portuguesa, 1951), 11 but the island lacked facilities for industrial sugar production.
Economic development in the 16th century São Tomé saw significant economic development following the introduction of a water-powered sugar mill in 1515, which led to the mass cultivation of sugar:Caldeira, Arlindo Manuel. "LEARNING THE ROPES IN THE TROPICS: SLAVERY AND THE PLANTATION SYSTEM ON THE ISLAND OF SÃO TOMÉ." African Economic History 39 (2011): 43. . "The fields are expanding and the sugar mills, too. At this time, only two sugar mills are here and another three are being built, counting the mill of the contractors, which is large. Similarly, the necessary conditions exist, such as streams and timber, to be able to build many more. And the [sugar] canes are the biggest I have ever seen in my life." Sugar plantations were organized with slave labor, and by the mid-16th century, the Portuguese settlers had turned the islands into Africa's foremost exporter of sugar."As roças vâo em crescimento e os engenhos de açticaragora somente dois e fazem-se très com o dos tratadores [conassi há grande aparelho, assi de ribeiras como de lenha, par canas, as mais façanhosas que em minha vida vi": Letter from Segura to the monarch, 15 March 1517, in Antonio Brásio, édAfricana (hereinafter referred to as
Slaves in São Tomé were brought from the Slave Coast of West Africa, the Niger Delta, the island of Fernando Po, and later from the Kongo and Angola.Vogt, John L. "The Early Sao Tome-Principe Slave Trade with Mina, 1500–1540." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 6, no. 3 (1973): 462. . In the 16th century, the enslaved were imported from and exported to Portugal, Elmina, the Kingdom of Kongo, Angola, and the Spanish Americas. In 1510, reportedly 10,000 to 12,000 slaves were imported by Portugal.SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 66. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . In 1516, São Tomé received 4,072 slaves with the purpose of re-exportation. From 1519 to 1540, the island was the center of the slave trade between Elmina and the Niger Delta.Vogt, John L. "The Early Sao Tome-Principe Slave Trade with Mina, 1500–1540." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 6, no. 3 (1973): 467. . Throughout the early to mid-sixteenth century, São Tomé traded in slaves intermittently with Angola and the Kingdom of Kongo.SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 67. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . In 1525 São Tomé began trafficking slaves to the Spanish Americas, mainly to the Caribbean and Brazil.Vogt, John L. "The Early Sao Tome-Principe Slave Trade with Mina, 1500–1540." The International Journal of African Historical Studies 6, no. 3 (1973): 466. . From 1532 to 1536, São Tomé sent an annual average of 342 slaves to the Antilles.SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 68. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . Prior to 1580, the island accounted for 75 percent of Brazil's imports, mainly slaves. The slave trade remained a cornerstone of São Tomé's economy until after 1600.
The power dynamics of São Tomé in the 16th century were surprisingly diverse with the participation of free mulattos and black citizens in governance. Voluntary colonists shunned São Tomé for its disease and food shortages, so the Portuguese crown deported convicts to the island and encouraged interracial relationships to secure the colony. Slavery was also not permanent, as demonstrated through the 1515 royal decree granting the manumission of African wives of white settlers and their mixed-race children.SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 59. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . In 1517, another decree freed the male slaves who had originally arrived on the island with the first colonists. After 1520, a royal charter allowed for property-owning, married, free mulattos to hold public offices. This was followed by a decree in 1546 establishing civil equality between these qualified mulattos and the white settlers, allowing free mulattos and black citizens opportunities for upward mobility and participation in local politics and business. Social divisions led to frequent disputes within the colony's town councils and with the governor and bishop,Seibert, Gerhard. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 60. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . with constant political instability.
At first, slavery in São Tomé was less strict. In the mid-16th century, an anonymous Portuguese pilot noted that the slaves were employed as couples, built their own accommodations, and worked autonomously once a week on the cultivation of their own food supply.For an English translation, see John William Blake, trans., ed., Europeans in West Africa, 1450–1560 (London, 1942), 145ff. However, this more relaxed slave system did not last long following the introduction of plantations. Throughout, slaves frequently ran away to the inhospitable mountain forests of the island's interior.SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 63. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . Between 1514 and 1527, five percent of slaves that were imported to São Tomé escaped, often to starve,SEIBERT, GERHARD. "São Tomé & Príncipe: The First Plantation Economy in the Tropics." In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law Robin, Schwarz Suzanne, and Strickrodt Silke, 64. Boydell and Brewer, 2013. . though 1531–1535 saw major food shortages even in the plantations. Eventually, the Maroon people developed settlements in the interior known as macambos.
Slave rebellions