1500-1600

1502 Santo Domingo, Island of Hispanola, West Indies. The first enslaved Africans arrive in the New World.

1513 Official census records for the population of Vila de Ribeira Grande only fifty years after settlement begin to reflect the shape of Cape Verde's future demography: 162 residents includes 58 "whites," 12 priests, 16 "free blacks," soldiers and Portuguese convicts and approximately 13,000 slaves. Between 1513-1515 a total of 2,966 captives were brought to Santiago by 29 vessels. Many were taken to Portugal, others sold to Spanish ships enroute to the Canaries or the West Indies.

1520 There were twenty-two ordained Luso-African priests in Ribeira Grande, many of whom would be sent to do missionary work in Brazil.

1533 Vila de Ribeira Grande is elevated to the status of a city. A regional diocese based in Cape Verde is established by Papal decree.

1536 Introduction of the Holy Inquisition and the Jesuit religious order in Portugal. Large scale persecution of Jews and "New Christians" begins. In 1538 leading citizens of Cape Verde petitioned the king in a vain attempt to establish the Inquisition in Cape Verde. They charged that some two hundred so-called "New Christians" (Christianized Jew or ladinos) were living with Africans on the Coast in violation of Royal edicts. One motivation for the strong feelings may have been that these traders or "lan«ados" were successfully competing with Cape Verde-based business interests and were beyond the regulatory hand of the Crown.

1542 French pirates sink two vessels off of Fogo.

1544 French vessels attack Ribeira Grande, Santiago.

1550 A Bishop takes up residence in Cape Verde with jurisdiction for most of West Africa.

1560s John Lovell and later George Fenner, both English privateers, make damaging raids on Ribeira Grande.

1563 The volcano on the Island of Fogo erupts. Between 1563-1995 the volcano has erupted 29 times.

1580-1582 Bishop Brandao describes "a great famine" in Cape Verde in his letters to church officials in Lisbon.

1580-1640 Spanish kings rule Portugal. The people of Sao Felipe on the Island of Fogo refuse to fly the Spanish flag for six years and steadfastly fly the Portuguese colors.

1582 and 1585 Sir Francis Drake, the English privateer, sacks and burns Ribeira Grande. Frequent attacks by English, French, and Dutch pirates were occasions for slaves to runaway to the remote interior regions of Santiago Island where communities of free Africans were formed as early as the mid-16th century. These people became known as badius from the Portuguese word for vagabond or runaway.

1582 The Account of the Islands of Cabo Verde by Francisco Andrade provides evidence of the growth of slave communities in Cape Verde. Andrade reports the combined population of Fogo and Santiago as 13,408 persons by categories. These included 508 "inhabitants" (vezinhos), owning 5,000 slaves and 200 renters owning 1,000 slaves. Settlements in the interior comprised 600 whites and pardos (mixed blood), 400 married free blacks, and 5,000 slaves. Fogo's population was given as 300 renters and 2,000 slaves. Only 12.7 percent of the inhabitants of Santiago and Fogo were free persons.

By mid-16th century the weaving craft became well established in Cape Verde. The indigo-dyed body cloth or pano woven in the Islands became part of the commodities mix in the currency of the slave trade. African weavers who were brought to Cape Verde to establish the "weaving craft industry" were Jalof (Walof), Mandinga, Seninkes, Biafares, Sassos (Susu), Felupes (Fulani), Papeis (Papels), and Banhuns. Antonio Carreira, the distinguished Cape Verdean historian, writes that the best weavers were from the Mnadingo people. The body cloths were woven on horizontal narrow band treadle looms.

1550s-1600s Notwithstanding Royal Portuguese proclamations prescribing severe penalties, Cape Verdean trade with western Africa significantly expanded as mutually advantageous commercial relations are established with African groups associated with the Banyun-Bak, Biafada-Sapi, and Mande networks.

1583 Famine ravages Cape Verde after more than a century of environmental exploitation irreparably damages the fragile ecosystems of the islands.

1596 King Filipe II of Spain orders the construction of fortifications above Vila de Ribeira Grande to defend against pirates.

1598 Dutch ships raid Ribeira Grande, Santiago