Cape Verde when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, establishing the first European settlement in the tropics. Ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The end of slavery in the 19th century led to economic decline and emigration. Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for shipping routes. Incorporated as an overseas department of Portugal in 1951, the islands continued to campaign for independence, which was peacefully achieved in 1975. Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a stable representative democracy,
Movement for Democracy (Cape Verde) However, in the presidential elections in the same year, MpD candidate Jorge Carlos Fonseca defeated the PAICV's Manuel Inocêncio Sousa by 54–46%. Movement for Democracy (Cape Verde) The Movement for Democracy (, MpD) is a Christian democratic and liberal party in Cape Verde. Established in 1990, it was the ruling party from 1991 to 2001 and returned to power in the 2016 parliamentary election. Its members are nicknamed "os ventoinhas" ("the wind fans"). The MpD was established on 14 March 1990 by Carlos Veiga after Prime Minister Pedro Pires of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV,