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,
Flag of Cape Verde African colours of red, green and yellow, and was identical to the flag of Guinea-Bissau except for the proportions and the charge in the hoist-side stripe. Their similarity evoked the plans to unite both countries, which, however, were abandoned shortly after independence. Guinea-Bissau gained independence on 10 September 1974. Flag of Cape Verde The national flag of Cape Verde was adopted on September 22, 1992, replacing the flag adopted during Cape Verdean independence, fought for with Guinea-Bissau, another former Portuguese colony on mainland West Africa. The National Flag of the Republic of Cabo Verde has five unequal horizontal bands of