Santiago ( Portuguese for “ Saint James”) is the largest island of

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

, its most important

agricultural Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created f ...

centre and home to half the nation's population. Part of the

Sotavento Islands Cape Verde (formally, the Republic of Cabo Verde) is a group of arid Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic islands which are home to distinct communities of plants, birds, and reptiles. Location and description The Cape Verde Islands are located in the mid ...

, it lies between the islands of Maio ( to the east) and Fogo ( to the west). It was the first of the islands to be settled: the town of Ribeira Grande (now

Cidade Velha Cidade Velha (, Portuguese for "old city", also: ''Santiago de Cabo Verde'') is a city UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

) was founded in 1462. Santiago is home to the nation's

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. Serra Malagueta CV

The eastern side of the nearby island of Fogo collapsed into the ocean 73,000 years ago, creating a tsunami high which struck Santiago. In 1460,

António de Noli Antonio de Noli (born 1415 or possibly 1419) was a 15th-century Genoese nobleman and navigator, and the first governor of the earliest European overseas colony in Subsaharan Africa. He discovered some of the Cape Verde islands on behalf of Henry ...

became the first to visit the island. Da Noli settled at ''Ribeira Grande'' (now

Cidade Velha Cidade Velha (, Portuguese for "old city", also: ''Santiago de Cabo Verde'') is a cityValor simbólico do centro histórico da Praia
Lourenço Conceição Gomes, Universidade Portucalense, 2008, p. 97 Transcontinental slavery made Cidade Velha the second richest city in the Portuguese realm. The wealth of Ribeira Grande and conflicts between Portugal and rival colonial powers France and Britain attracted pirate attacks, including those by

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

( 1585) and

Jacques Cassard Jacques Cassard (30 September 1679 – 1740) was a French naval officer and privateer. Biography Born on 30 September 1679 to a family of merchants of Nantes, Cassard began a career as a sailor at age 14 on the merchantmen owned by his f ...

(

1712 In the Swedish calendar it began as a leap year starting on Monday and remained so until Thursday, February 29. By adding a second leap day, Friday, February 30, Sweden reverted to the Julian calendar and the rest of the year (from Saturday, M ...

). Ribeira Grande went into decline, and the capital was moved to

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Centre historique de Praia
UNESCO Cessation in the slave trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis, and the growing port of

Mindelo Mindelo is a port cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook 2 ...

on São Vicente replaced Praia as the most important port. With few natural resources and inadequate sustainable investment from the Portuguese, the citizens grew increasingly discontented with the colonial masters, who nevertheless refused to provide the local authorities with more autonomy. The island's native population was disadvantaged by the Portuguese colonial system and supported Amílcar Cabral and the

African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (, PAIGC) is a political party in Guinea-Bissau. Originally formed to peacefully campaign for independence from Portugal, the party turned to armed conflict in the 1960s and was o ...

and the independence of 1975.

Geography

Santiago is the largest island of Cape Verde, with an area of . It is 54.9 km long and 28.8 km wide.Cabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook 2015
Instituto Nacional de Estatística The island is mountainous, although slightly flatter in the southeast. The interior and the east coast are seasonally, and somewhat sporadically, hot tropical in climate and forested, whereas the south and southwest occupy the central uplands' arid

rain shadow A rain shadow is an area of significantly reduced rainfall behind a mountainous region, on the side facing away from prevailing winds, known as its leeward side. Evaporated moisture from body of water, bodies of water (such as oceans and larg ...

. The tallest summit is

Pico de Antónia Pico de Antónia is a mountain located in the central part of the island of Santiago in Cape Verde. At , it is the highest point of the island. The mountain is part of the protected area ''Parque Natural da Serra do Pico de Antónia''.

, elevation , barely west of Picos, in the centre of the island. The second is Serra Malagueta between Assomada and Tarrafal in the north. Other mountain ranges include Órgãos in the municipality of São Lourenço dos Órgãos and Monte das Vacas near Praia. Santiago's west coast is rugged, especially at Baía do Inferno, and less populated than the east and south coasts. The most important rivers are Ribeira Seca,

Ribeira Grande de Santiago Ribeira Grande de Santiago is a ''Administrative divisions of Cape Verde, concelho'' (municipality) of Cape Verde. It is situated in the southwestern part of the island of Santiago, Cape Verde, Santiago. Its seat is the city Cidade Velha. Its popu ...

, Ribeira Principal and Ribeira da Trindade. The southernmost point is Ponta Temerosa and the northernmost, Ponta Moreia. The Cape Verde islands are very naturally degraded. Due to their proximity to the Sahara, most are dry, but on those with high mountains and farther away from the continent, by orography (relief precipitation), the humidity is much higher, giving small upland rainforest habitats, but strongly affected by human presence. Northeastern slopes of high mountains receive heavy rain several times most years. Much of the altitude is sufficient for a mild climate and subject-to-seasonal-drought but typically moist soil. Some islands, as on Santiago, have vegetation-clad (

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...

s) where the dense

moisture Moisture is the presence of a liquid, especially water, often in trace amounts. Moisture is defined as water in the adsorbed or absorbed phase. Small amounts of water may be found, for example, in the air (humidity), in foods, and in some comme ...

condenses and soaks the plants, and soil.

Administrative divisions

Since 2005, the island of Santiago is divided into nine

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Ribeira Grande de Santiago Ribeira Grande de Santiago is a ''Administrative divisions of Cape Verde, concelho'' (municipality) of Cape Verde. It is situated in the southwestern part of the island of Santiago, Cape Verde, Santiago. Its seat is the city Cidade Velha. Its popu ...

, Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz, São Domingos, São Lourenço dos Órgãos, São Miguel, São Salvador do Mundo and Tarrafal. Before the creation of the municipality of Santa Catarina in 1834, the island was one municipality. Since then, seven more municipalities were created as shown below.Evolução histórica do Concelho de Santa Catarina (1834 – 1912)
Ana Zenaida Gomes, 2005, p. 19, 29Picos: a terra e a gente
Emanuel de Jesus Monteiro Vaz Fernandes, ISE, 2005, p. 27-29

Population

Praia Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Assomada, in the centre of the island; Tarrafal in the north;

Pedra Badejo Pedra Badejo is a cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook 201 ...

and

Calheta de São Miguel Calheta de São Miguel is a cityCabo Verde, Statistical Ye ...

along the east coast. In the 1830s, Santiago's population was estimated at 30,000. Santiago has always been the most populous island in Cape Verde. The island population has doubled since the independence of Cape Verde in 1975. The population of the island was 294,135 in 2015; the population density was 297/km².

Transport

Air

Santiago is served by the Nelson Mandela International Airport, near Praia. It is the second busiest airport in Cape Verde, after Amílcar Cabral International Airport on Sal, with 662,356 passengers in 2017.

Water

The main port of Santiago is Praia Harbor, in Praia. It is the second busiest port in Cape Verde, after Porto Grande Bay on São Vicente, with 817,845 metric tonnes of cargo and 85,518 passengers handled in 2017.Statistics Port Praia
ENAPOR, December 2017 There are ferry connections from Praia Harbor to the islands of Brava, Fogo, São Nicolau, São Vicente, Maio, Boa Vista and Sal. There are several small fishing ports along the coast, including Tarrafal, Cidade Velha,

Pedra Badejo Pedra Badejo is a cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook 201 ...

and

Calheta de São Miguel Calheta de São Miguel is a cityCabo Verde, Statistical Ye ...

Road

Santiago has of national roads, of which first class roads. In addition, there are several municipal and local roads. The first class national roads are: Public transport within the city of Praia is provided by the city buses of the company SolAtlântico. Intercity public transport is provided by

share taxi A share taxi, shared taxi, taxibus, or jitney or dollar van in the US, or marshrutka in former Soviet countries, is a mode of transport which falls between a taxicab and a bus. Share taxis are a form of paratransit. They are vehicles for hire and ...

s and minibuses. In 2015 a project called EcobusCV started running a fleet of dual fuel waste vegetable oil / diesel minibuses between Praia and Assomada. However, services were suspended in November 2016.

Economy

The main industries are agriculture, tourism, fishing and others, alongside some manufacturing. Main agricultural products are

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

sugarcane 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 ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

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

mango A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in South and Southeast As ...

es. potatoes

Education

Several institutes of higher education are active on Santiago:

University of Cape Verde The University of Cape Verde (, abbreviated "Uni-CV") is the only public university of Cape Verde. The main campus is in Palmarejo, Cape Verde, Palmarejo, Praia, but there are also institutes in Mindelo, Assomada and São Jorge dos Órgãos. It ha ...

(Praia, Assomada and São Jorge), Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde (Praia), Universidade de Santiago (Assomada, Praia and Tarrafal), Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Empresariais (Praia), Instituto Superior de Ciências Jurídicas e Sociais (Praia) and Universidade Lusofona de Cabo Verde (Praia). The Liceu Domingos Ramos is a public secondary school in Praia. The National Library of Cape Verde is also located in Praia.

Nature

Santiago has the most diverse flora and fauna of all Cape Verde: it has 1,915 identified land species, of which 289 are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

.Estatísticas do Ambiente - 2016
Instituto Nacional de Estatística, p. 23-25 It is also the most forested island of Cape Verde: 38% of its area is forest. The only protected areas of the island are the Natural Parks of Serra do Pico de Antónia and Serra Malagueta,Resolução nº 36/2016
Estratégia e Plano Nacional de Negócios das Áreas Protegidas covering 3.68% of the island. Endangered endemic species of flora and fauna on Santiago include the plants '' Campanula bravensis'', '' Campylanthus glaber'', '' Conyza feae'', '' Conyza pannosa'', '' Diplotaxis varia'', '' Echium hypertropicum'', '' Limonium lobinii'', '' Micromeria forbesii'', '' Sonchus daltonii'' and '' Umbilicus schmidtii'', and the animals '' Chioninia vaillantii'' and '' Tarentola rudis''.IUCN Red List Search
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Sports

Several sports are practised on Santiago, including football (soccer), basketball, volleyball, track and field, futsal and athletics. There are two football associations on the island: Santiago North and Santiago South, each with its own competitions. Santiago possesses the most major sports complexes in the country, they include Estádio da Várzea in Praia, Cumbém in Assomada, Mangue in Tarrafal, one in Pedra Badejo and Estádio da Calheta in Calheta de São Miguel.

Notable residents

* Elida Almeida, singer * André Álvares de Almada, writer, trader and explorer *

Orlanda Amarílis Orlanda Amarílis Lopes Rodrigues Fernandes Ferreira, known as Orlanda Amarílis (8 October 1924 – 1 February 2014) was a Cape Verdean writer. She is considered to be a noteworthy writer of fiction whose main literary themes include perspective ...

, writer * Lúcio Antunes, coach * Babanco, footballer * Jorge Barbosa, writer * Gardénia Benrós, singer *

Cao Cao or CAO may refer to: Mythology *Cao (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology Companies or organizations * Air China Cargo, ICAO airline designator CAO * CA Oradea, Romanian football club * CA Osasuna, Spanish football club * Canadian ...

, footballer * Codé di Dona, writer * Djaniny, footballer (soccer) player * Abílio Duarte, politician * Mito Elias, painter * Gilyto, singer *

António Mascarenhas Monteiro António Manuel Mascarenhas Gomes Monteiro (; 16 February 1944 – 16 September 2016) was the first democratically elected President of Cape Verde from 22 March 1991 to 22 March 2001. Early life and education Born in Ribeira da Barca in 1 ...

, former President * José Maria Neves, present Prime Minister * Orlando Pantera, musician * António Pedro, Portuguese writer * Piguita, footballer * Ivone Ramos, writer * Tomé Varela da Silva, writer, poet and philosopher * Ronny Souto (Ronny), footballer * Tcheka, singer * Manuel Veiga, writer, linguist * Arménio Vieira, writer

References

External links

{{Authority control Islands of Cape Verde