Portuguese São Tomé And Príncipe
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Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe or Portuguese Central Africa was a colony of the
Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...
from the discovery of the islands in 1470 until 1975, when independence was granted by
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...
.


History

The Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar discovered the islands around 1470,Francisco, Agostinho, p.24 which they found uninhabited.Grivetti, Shapiro, p. 1849
São Tomé Island São Tomé Island, at , is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in May 2018 to about 193,380 or 96% of the nation's population. The island is divided into six districts of São Tomé and Príncipe, districts. It is located ...
was named by the Portuguese in honor of Saint Thomas, as they discovered the island on his
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
, while the island of
Príncipe Príncipe (; ) is the smaller, northern major island of the country of São Tomé and Príncipe lying off the west coast of Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. It has an area of (including offshore islets) and a population of 7,324 at the 2012 Cens ...
(Prince's island) was named in honor of
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, named ...
, his father's favorite. The first attempt to settle the islands began in 1485, when the Portuguese Crown granted João de Paiva the island of São Tomé. However, this attempt was not successful because the settlers were unable to produce food in the specific conditions and climate that the islands offered, and because of the tropical diseases that affected the settlers. It was only in 1493 when King
John II of Portugal John II (; ; 3 May 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince (), was King of Portugal from 1481 until his death in 1495, and also for a brief time in 1477. He is known for reestablishing the power of the Portuguese monarchy, reinvigo ...
nominated
Álvaro Caminha Álvaro Caminha was appointed by King John II of Portugal in 1492 Captain-major (governor) – the third – of the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe which had been discovered 22 years earlier. He was a knight of the king's household ...
as
captain-major A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipient of these grants was called a (donatary), because he had been given the grant as a (donat ...
of São Tomé Island that the first successful settlement was established. Among these Portuguese settlers, there was a significant portion of criminals and orphans, as well as Jewish children taken from their parents to ensure that they were raised as Christians. The settlement of Príncipe was initiated in 1500. In the following years, Portuguese settlers started to import large numbers of slaves from mainland
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
to cultivate the rich volcanic soil of São Tomé Island with highly profitable
sugar cane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
. By the middle of the 16th century, São Tomé was generating enormous wealth for Portugal as it became the world's largest producer of sugar.Greene, Morgan, p.86 The humid climate allowed for the quick growth of sugar, but prevented the production of higher quality white sugar. In the first decade of the 17th century, the competition of
sugar plantations Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobac ...
from the Portuguese colony of Brazil and the frequent slave revolts that occurred in the island began to slowly hurt the sugar crop cultivation. This meant the decline of sugar production and the shifting of the local economy towards the slave trade, which remained mostly in the hands of the local ''
mestiço ''Mestiço'' is a Portuguese term that referred to persons of mixed European and Indigenous non-European ancestry in the former Portuguese Empire. Mestiço community in Brazil In Colonial Brazil, it was initially used to refer to , persons b ...
'' population. The geographical location of the islands made them a crucial
trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory in European and colonial contexts, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically a trading post allows people from one geogr ...
of the
transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade or transatlantic slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in Africa, enslaved African people to the Americas. European slave ships regularly used the triangular trade route and its Middle Pass ...
as they served as an assembly point for slaves brought from the
Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea (French language, French: ''Golfe de Guinée''; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Golfo de Guinea''; Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Golfo da Guiné'') is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez i ...
and the
Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' ) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. At its gre ...
that were destined for the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
.Huang, Morrissete, p. 970 The Dutch occupied São Tomé Island from 1641 to 1648, when the Portuguese took back the island. The Dutch, however, did not take Príncipe island. Most Portuguese settlers married African women. Europeans never numbered more than 1000 at their peak in the 16th century; by the 18th century, prosperous and influential local Afro-Portuguese ''mulatos'' came to fill important local positions, such as cathedral chapter and the town-hall, into which they had been admitted as early as 1528. Some were indistinguishable from mainland native Africans and claimed to be ''brancos da terra'' (literally, "the land's whites") on account of their ancestry. In 1753, because of frequent attacks by
pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...
s and corsairs, the capital of São Tomé was transferred to Santo António on Príncipe, and the islands started being ruled as a single colony with one Governor. It was only in 1852 when the capital was transferred back to São Tomé Island.McKenna, p.73 At the beginning of the 19th century, the Portuguese introduced
coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
and cocoa in extensive large-scale plantations called ''roças'', thus giving a great boost to the economy. The coffee production cycle ended in the late 19th century, when it was replaced by cocoa as the islands' main production. São Tomé and Príncipe then became a major global cocoa production area for several generations, and in the first decades of the 20th century it was frequently the world's annual number one cocoa producer. In 1972, a nationalist political party of
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
ideology, the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP), was created by exiles in
Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...
with the intent of creating an independent nation. The
Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...
in 1974 ended the Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal and initiated a process of decolonization of the Portuguese colonies in Africa. On 12 July 1975, the new Portuguese regime granted independence to
São Tomé and Príncipe São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is an island country in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main isla ...
.


Gallery

File:Um comboio de Roca - São Tomé (Edicado do Governo de São Tomé and Príncipe).jpg, A plantation train in 1910. File:CH-NB - Portugal, San Thomé (São Tomé und Príncipe)- Strassenszene - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-25-021.jpg, A street in São Tomé, in 1941–1942. File:CH-NB - Portugal, San Thomé (São Tomé und Príncipe)- Strassenszene - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-25-022.jpg, São Tomé, 1941–1942. File:CH-NB - Portugal, San Thomé (São Tomé und Príncipe)- Strassenszene - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-25-013.jpg, Marketplace in São Tomé, 1941–1942 File:CH-NB - Portugal, San Thomé (São Tomé und Príncipe)- Ansicht der Ortschaft Trindade - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-25-025.jpg, Vila Trindade 1941–1942 File:CH-NB - Portugal, San Thomé (São Tomé und Príncipe)- Landschaft - Annemarie Schwarzenbach - SLA-Schwarzenbach-A-5-25-007.jpg, São Tomé landscape


Colonial architecture

File:Sao Tome National Museum (20031021910) (2).jpg, Fort São Sebastião. File:Sao Tome 46 (16247130301).jpg, Supreme Court of São Tomé. File:Palais présidentiel à São Tomé (6).jpg, Presidential Palace. File:Sao Tome 3 (16223079256).jpg, Residential home. File:Sao Tome Liceu Nacional 1 (16061610770).jpg, Highschool. File:Façade de la Roça São João dos Angolares (São Tomé).jpg, Plantation house of São João dos Angolares File:Cathédrale de São Tomé (5).jpg, Cathedral of São Tomé File:Sao Tome Banco Internacional de Sao Tome e Principe (16247128161).jpg, Former ''Misericórdia''


Currency

File:50 escudo São Tome - 1970.png, 1970 coin of 50 escudos from São Tomé.


See also

* List of governors of Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe


Notes


References

*Jack P. Greene, Philip D. Morgan, ''Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal'' (2008) *Richard M. Juang, Noelle Morrissette, ''Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History'' (2008) *Louis E. Grivetti, Howard-Yana Shapiro, ''Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage'' (2011) *Albertino Francisco, Nujoma Agostinho, ''Exorcising Devils from the Throne: São Tomé and Príncipe in the Chaos of Democratization'' (2011) *Amy McKenna, ''The History of Central and Eastern Africa'' (2011) *Anthony Disney, ''A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire'' (2009) {{Authority control Former Portuguese colonies Former colonies in Africa Portuguese colonisation in Africa States and territories disestablished in 1975 Island countries 1975 disestablishments in Africa