page_title: Santiago, Cape Verde
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Santiago, Cape Verde / History
caption_attribution_description: English: View over the town of Picos in Santiago, Cape Verde
context_page_description: Santiago is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation's population. Part of the Sotavento Islands, it lies between the islands of Maio and Fogo. It was the first of the islands to be settled: the town of Ribeira Grande was founded in 1462. Santiago is home to the nation's capital city of Praia.
context_section_description: The eastern side of the nearby island of Fogo collapsed into the ocean 73,000 years ago, creating a tsunami 170 meters high which struck Santiago.
  In 1460, António de Noli became the first European to visit the island and meet its inhabitants. Da Noli settled at Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha) with his family members and Portuguese from Algarve and Alentejo in 1462. Transcontinental slavery made Cidade Velha the second richest city in the Portuguese realm. The wealth of Ribeira Grande and conflicts between Portugal and rival colonial powers France and Britain attracted pirate attacks, including those by Francis Drake (1585) and Jacques Cassard (1712). Ribeira Grande went into decline, and the capital was moved to Praia in 1770.
  Cessation in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis, and the growing port of Mindelo on São Vicente replaced Praia as the most important port. With few natural resources and inadequate sustainable investment from the Portuguese, the citizens grew increasingly discontented with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. The island's native population was disadvantaged by the Portuguese colonial system and supported Amílcar Cabral and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde and the independence of 1975.
caption: Santiago island. The wetter climate of the interior and the eastern coast contrasts with the dryer one in the south/southwest coast
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