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,
Cape Verde–European Union relations Bosnia and Herzegovina. In terms of respect of democracy the Freedom house report ranks Cape Verde top in Africa and again Cape Verde has a better ranking than that of some designated "potential candidate or member countries" of the EU: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Albania. Most of the imports and exports of Cape Verde are for and from the European Union, and it has a service-based economy. Its currency, the escudo, is pegged to the euro. Although the Cape Verde archipelago is geographically in Africa, there have been similar situations before. Cyprus is an island nation that, despite being