History of Santo Antão, Cape Verde

The history of the island of Santo Antão, Cape Verde is one of the longest in all of Cape Verde.

Prehistoric era

The seamount was formed around 119 to 118 million years ago during the Aptian era.^[1] Several rock formations were formed including the old volcanic complex during the Tortonian era, the Bordeira rock group was formed around 2 to 1 million years ago, the Cova group was formed around 1.4 million to 700,000 years ago. Later eruptions took place on the island and made the Proto-Coroa formation around 400,000 years ago,^[2] the Agua Nova group around 300,000 years ago, the last eruption one the island was around 200,000 years ago and was a Plinian eruption, it formed the Coroa and Young Tarrafal rock formations. Around 100,000 years ago, the Lagoa rock formation formed^[2]

Its reptiles and insects came to the island along with its flora, they probably did not rafted itself from the African mainland but the most probable was from the nearby island of São Vicente during the time of the Last Ice Age.

The sea levels dropped during the Ice Age and was larger and compromised an estimate size of 800 km2 of land, it separated São Vicente between 500 meters (1500 feet) to 1 kilometer. Flooding took place and the São Vicente Channel was widened up to 10 km about 8,000 to 6,000 years ago and later to its current 12 km length. Also up to 5,000 and 4,000 BC, the island's tallest summit Topo da Coroa's elevation was at 2,000 meters (around 6,000 feet).

Colonial and provincial Santo Antão Island

The island was discovered by Diogo Afonso on Saint Anthony's Day on January 17, it was discovered after São Nicolau and before São Vicente and Santa Luzia. It did not give its current name until around the 16th century. Before it was inhabited, the forests dominated most of the north and barren landscape in the south and west.

In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas was put on June 7, 1494 between ortugal and the Kingdom of Castile that determined the division of the areas of influences of the Iberian countries it marked the line of discovered and then undiscovered lands with an imaginary line located 370 leagues (1,770 km) west of the island, marked at the island's westernmost point west of present-day Monte Trigo.

The island was first settled in 1548 probably around early January and the first settlement could be Fontainhas where the number of springs were located or Ponta do Sol, the first settlers of Ponta do Sol came from the Madeira Islands and named that settlement after it. Gonçalo de Sousa became its only captain of the island on January 13. African slaves from the mainland including the Bijagós Archipelago (then commonly called Bissagos) and the nearby island of Santiago were brought to the island and were also its settlers. More people specially those from Northern Portugal e and slaves inhabited the island in the mid 17th century and inhabited the area around today's Ribeira Grande, a settlement would be founded there. Later, some Jewish people inhabited the island and the largest population was in the settlement of Sinagoga where a synagogue would be located. Wine and coffee became the most important exports of the island. In 1724, a year of British occupation occurred, not long after, the Portuguese ruled it again for another 250 years. In 1732, RIbeira Grande was elevated to a town and became island capital, before Mindelo was founded, it was the main location of northwestern Cape Verde. Later other settlements including Carvoeiros (now Porto Novo), Ribeira das Pratas and Tarrafal de Monte Trigo were founded.

Cove of Ribeira Grande in the mid 19th century

The island had famous people including the chemist Roberto Duarte Silva and the poet Manuel de Novas.

As Mindelo on the opposite island was flourishing, as yellow fever struck that city in 1861, some families moved to the nearby island to restore Mindelo's population. Even though the island's municipality included that island until the late 19th century and the municipality just included the main island afterwards, for some times, Paul was a separate municipality until the late 19th century and were one of two on the island. Migration to the neighboring island continued for several more years. At the start of the 20th century, famine devastated the island along with all of Cape Verde with the minimal exception of most of Sal, its population mainly emigrated to Europe which intensified during the mid 20th century. Luís Romano de Madeira Melo later became the famous poet from the island, aligned with the independence movement, common throughout Cape Verde at the time, he was later captured by PIDE and exiled until the island's independence. Gabriel Mariano also wrote works related to nationalism including Restoration, Cultural Supplement and Boletim de Cabo Verde, he was later deported to Mozambique Another person Luís de Matos Monteiro da Fonseca, member of the PAIGC spend his times at Tarrafal Camp before independence, later he became a diplomat.

Access to other parts of the island were done by boats. Its dirt tracks and pathways with other parts were narrowly accessible and treacherous. It led to a construction of a highway through high elevations with other parts of the island, Estrada da Corda was opened connecting Ribeira Grande and Carvoeiros through the Cova crater in the mid 1960s which gained access with the south and the west easier, it was the main access for more than four decades. Also in the same time in Ponta do Sol, Santo Antão Airport opened, after independence it was named after Agostinho Neto At the same time, the island's main port was transferred to Carvoeiros and the town's name became Porto Novo after its new port. In 1971, the island municipality was dissolved and Porto Novo and Ribeira Grande municipalities were formed and the municipality of Paul was recreated, they were not fully created until 1990.

Modern Santo Antão Island

The economic growth was not as good as the neighboring island, the population of São Vicente would become more populous in the mid 1980s. Football (soccer) was rising in popularity in the island, in 1981, three clubs were created. Other sports became popular later on in the 1990s. The Santo Antão Regional Championships were established in 1995, it had the North and South Zones in 1997 and an upper level, it resumed the single island championship until 2002 when it broke up into the current north and south zones. Other sports including basketball, futsal, volleyball and athletics unlike Santiago continues its single island competitions. In recent history of football, in December 2015, the first single super cup competition were held and later in January 2016, the singe cup competition took place. Its opening tournaments were dissolved and the single and divided cup and super cup competitions continues to take place together.

The island's airport were difficult to access, fog was and dangerous as high winds were common in that area and fog was dominant some times. After the plane crash that occurred on the mountain on Santo Antão, a short flight from the nearby airport, it led to the closure of the airport in the late 2000s, its last operation was done on August 2012. An announcement of a new airport near Porto Novo in a new safe location, it was done in 2010,^[3][4] no date of construction has announced. As Estrada da Corda seemed difficult to access with two parts of the island, in 2003, construction of Estrada Litoral running in the east through the Paul Valley (Vale de Paul) and no higher than around 150 meters in elevation started and was completed in early May 2009, it features the first two road tunnels in Cape Verde^[5] and made access with the north and other parts of the island easier. The island's main port was enlarged in 2012.

Food export restrictions were implemented in the early 2000s due to the Cape Verdean milipede, a species described in 1987 and did not resumed exports until January 9, 2008.^[6]

The Canto de Cagarra (Barragem de Canto de Cagarra), located in the north west of Ribeira Grande on Ribeira da Garça was completed on November 16, 2014 and became the only large dam on the island.^[7] Hurricane Fred struck the island on September 1, 2015 and ruined carrot, cabbage, and tomato plantations in Alto Mira^[8] and filled up the nearby dam of Canto de Cagarra.^[9]

Demographics

The population growth was not as large as São Vicente, Santiago or the eastern islands. From the 1820s to 2000, the population only doubled. Today it is less populous than the nearby island of São Vicente. The dominant growth in the island is at Porto Novo.

Population history

See also

• Timeline of Santo Antão, Cape Verde

Notes

References

External links

• Santo Antão including its history at caboverde.com