Príncipe is the smaller, northern major island of the

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in ...

. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Census;Projecção a nível distrital 2012 - 2020
Instituto Nacional de Estatística the latest official estimate (at May 2018) was 8,420.Instituto Nacional de Estatística. The island is a heavily eroded volcano speculated to be over three million years old, surrounded by smaller islands including Ilheu Bom Bom, Ilhéu Caroço, Tinhosa Grande and Tinhosa Pequena. Part of the Cameroon Line archipelago, Príncipe rises in the south to 947 metres at Pico do Príncipe. The island is the main constituent of the Autonomous Region of Príncipe, established in 1995, and of the coterminous

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

of Pagué.

History

The island was uninhabited when discovered by the Portuguese on 17 January 1471 and was first named after Saint Anthony ("Ilha de Santo Antão"). Later the island was renamed Príncipe by King

John II of Portugal John II ( pt, João II; ; 3 March 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince ( pt, o Príncipe Perfeito, link=no), was King of Portugal from 1481 until his death in 1495, and also for a brief time in 1477. He is known for re-establishi ...

in honour of his son

Afonso, Prince of Portugal Afonso, Hereditary Prince of Portugal (; 18 May 147513 July 1491) was the heir apparent to the throne of Portugal. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and died in a horse-riding accident on the banks of the river Tagus. Heir apparent Afonso, na ...

. The first settlement, the town

Santo António Santo António (Portuguese for Saint Anthony), also known as Santo António do Príncipe, is the main settlement of the island of Príncipe in São Tomé and Príncipe. It lies on the north east coast. It is the capital of the Autonomous Reg ...

, was founded in 1502.Santo António
Heritage of Portuguese Influence Subsequently, the north and centre of the island were made into

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

s by Portuguese colonists using

slave labor Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. These concentrated initially on producing sugar and after 1822 on cocoa, becoming the world's greatest cocoa producer. Since independence, these plantations have largely reverted to forest. The island's fortress named Fortaleza de Santo António da Ponta da Mina on a point inside Baía de Santo António (Santo António Bay) was built in 1695. In 1706, the city and the fortress were destroyed by the French. From 1753 until 1852, Santo António was the colonial capital of

Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe islands were a colony of the Portuguese Empire from its discovery in 1470 until 1975, when independence was granted by Portugal. History The Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar discovered the is ...

. Príncipe was the site where Einstein's

theory of relativity The theory of relativity usually encompasses two interrelated theories by Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity, proposed and published in 1905 and 1915, respectively. Special relativity applies to all physical phenomena in ...

was experimentally corroborated by

Arthur Stanley Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lumi ...

and his team during the total

solar eclipse of May 29, 1919 A total solar eclipse occurred on Thursday, May 29, 1919. With the duration of totality at maximum eclipse of 6 minutes 50.75 seconds, it was the longest solar eclipse since May 27, 1416. A longer total solar eclipse would later occur on June 8 ...

; photographs of the eclipse revealed evidence of the 'bending' of starlight, in accordance with Einstein's predictions (see

Eddington experiment The Eddington experiment was an observational test of general relativity, organised by the British astronomers Frank Watson Dyson and Arthur Stanley Eddington in 1919. The observations were of the Solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, total solar eclip ...

). On April 29, 1995, the Autonomous Region of Príncipe was established, corresponding with the existing Pagué District.Cooperação Descentralizada Príncipe – Portugal: Eficiência da Existência de Redes de Cooperação
(2010), Ana Maria Luciano Barreira,

Universidade Técnica de Lisboa The Technical University of Lisbon (UTL; pt, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, ) was a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of preexisting schools, and comprised the faculties and institutes of vete ...

, p. 42-43

Settlements

Príncipe has one town,

, and an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

(

IATA code IATA codes are abbreviations that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) publishes to facilitate air travel. They are typically 1, 2, 3, or 4 character combinations (referred to as unigrams, digrams, trigrams, or tetragrams, respect ...

: PCP, ICAO: FPPR). Some other smaller settlements are Sundy and Porto Real.

Demographics

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

is the official and main language of the island. Portuguese creoles are also spoken: Principense or Lunguyê and, in some scale, Forro are also spoken. In 1771, Príncipe had a population of 5,850: 111 whites, 165 free mulattoes, 6 mulatto slaves, 900 free blacks, and 4,668 black slaves. In 1875, the year when slavery was officially abolished in the archipelago, Príncipe's population had dropped to only 1,946, of whom 45 were Europeans, 1,521 were free natives, and 380 were freemen.

Nature

In 2006, the Parque Natural Obô do Príncipe was established, covering the mountainous, densely forested and uninhabited southern part of the island of Príncipe. There are numerous endemic species of fauna on Príncipe, including birds such as the Principe scops owl, the Príncipe kingfisher,

Príncipe seedeater The Príncipe seedeater (''Crithagra rufobrunnea'') is a species of finch in the family Fringillidae. It is found only on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe off the west coast of Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry ...

, Principe starling,

Príncipe sunbird The Príncipe sunbird (''Anabathmis hartlaubii'') is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is Endemism, endemic to Príncipe island.BirdLife InternationalSpecies Factsheet ''Anabathmis hartlaubii'' accessed 17 January 2019 References ...

Dohrn's thrush-babbler Dohrn's warbler (''Sylvia dohrni''), also known as Principe flycatcher-babbler, Dohrn's flycatcher, Dohrn's thrush-babbler, is a species of passerine bird in the family Sylviidae that is endemic to the island of Príncipe which lies off the west ...

and the Príncipe weaver. The Príncipe white-eye also occurs on

São Tomé São Tomé is the capital and largest city of the Central African island country of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its name is Portuguese for " Saint Thomas". Founded in the 15th century, it is one of Africa's oldest colonial cities. History Álvar ...

. Geckos include the Príncipe gecko, frogs include the palm forest tree frog and the Príncipe puddle frog. Marine fauna includes '' Muricopsis principensis'', a mollusc and the West African mud turtle.

Some endemic animals

Príncipe sunbird (Anabathmis hartlaubii) male.jpg,

Príncipe golden weaver (Ploceus princeps) male.jpg, Príncipe golden weaver Príncipe speirops (Zosterops leucophaeus).jpg, Príncipe speirops Principe glossy starling (Lamprotornis ornatus).jpg, Principe glossy starling Príncipe puddle frog (Phrynobatrachus dispar).jpg, Príncipe puddle frog Oceanic tree frog (Hyperolius drewesi).jpg, Oceanic tree frog

Ecological reserve

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

established the Island of Príncipe Biosphere Reserve in 2012 under the

Man and the Biosphere Programme Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments. MAB's work engag ...

. The reserve encompasses the entire emerged area of the island of Príncipe, and its islets Bom Bom, Boné do Jóquei, Mosteiros, Santana, and Pedra da Galei, and the Tinhosas islands.

Notable people

Damião Vaz d'Almeida Damião Vaz d'Almeida (born 28 April 1951) served as the 12th prime minister of São Tomé and Príncipe and the vice-president of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe-Social Democratic Party (MLSTP-PSD). He became Prime Mi ...

, former Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe * João Paulo Cassandra, former autonomous president of the island * José Cassandra, current president of the island * Sara Pinto Coelho, colonial born Portuguese writer * Camilo Domingos, singer * Manuela Margarido, writer *

Nuno Espírito Santo Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo (born 25 January 1974), often referred to as simply Nuno, is a Portuguese football manager and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of Saudi Professional League club Al- ...

, association football goalkeeper and manager

Gallery

File:Praia Boi.jpg, ''Praia do Boi'', in Príncipe File:Praia Banana - panoramio.jpg, ''Praia das Bananas'', São Tomé and Príncipe File:Principe Island 3441.jpg,

Carambola Carambola, also known as star fruit, is the fruit of '' Averrhoa carambola'', a species of tree native to tropical Southeast Asia. The mildly poisonous fruit is commonly consumed in parts of Brazil, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the South Pacif ...

in Príncipe File:Principe 3181.jpg, ''Lagoa do Caixão'', Príncipe Island File:Principe 1220.jpg, Beach in Príncipe File:Igreja Nossa Senhora da Conceicao (21130421485).jpg, ''Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição'', in

, São Tomé and Príncipe. File:Bom Bom Island Bridge (21050088389).jpg, Bom Bom Islet, Príncipe

References

External links

Map of Príncipe

Principe portal

''Financial Times'' * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Principe Former Portuguese colonies Islands of São Tomé and Príncipe Volcanoes of the Atlantic Ocean Autonomous regions