Origins and settlement of the archipelago

Cape Verdean institutional sources report no evidence of permanent human presence before navigators sailing for the Portuguese Crown reached the islands. Older accounts have sometimes suggested prior knowledge of the archipelago, but evidence establishing settlement before the 15th century is lacking.

The islands were progressively charted around 1460. Settlement on Santiago began in 1462 and brought together Europeans and Africans, including many people who had been forcibly transported and enslaved. A Creole society gradually emerged in this island setting, developing its own social, cultural and linguistic practices.

The origins of Cabo Verde therefore require a distinction between the geological history of the islands and their documented human history. The latter began with colonisation shaped by Portuguese expansion and coerced Atlantic movement.