Cape Verde one on Brava and the other on Santo Antão, closed for safety reasons. Due to its geographical location, Cape Verde is often flown over by transatlantic airliners. It is part of the conventional air-traffic route from Europe to South America, which goes from southern Portugal via the Canary Islands and Cape Verde to northern Brazil. Cape Verde Cape Verde () or Cabo Verde (, ) (, ), officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country spanning an archipelago of 10 volcanic islands in the central Atlantic Ocean. It forms part of the Macaronesia ecoregion, along with the Azores,
Cape Verde Santiago. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered it in 1456. The modern population of Cape Verde descends from the mixture of European settlers and African slaves who were brought to the islands to work on Portuguese plantations. Most Cape Verdeans are therefore mulattos, also called mestiços in Portuguese. Another term is creole, meaning those of mixed native-born African and native-born European descent. European input included Spaniards and Italian seamen who were granted land by the Portuguese Empire, followed by Portuguese settlers and exiles, as well as Portuguese Muslims (ethnic Moors) and Portuguese Jews (ethnic Sephardim), both