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,
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde The African Party of Independence of Cape Verde () is a former socialist party and currently a social-democratic political party in Cape Verde. Its members are nicknamed “os tambarinas” in Portuguese (the tamarinds), and they identify themselves with the color yellow. In 1956, its forerunner, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), was founded by the Bissau-Guinean nationalist leader Amílcar Cabral. PAIGC fought to overthrow the Portuguese Empire, unify Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, and use its vanguardism to advance socialist revolution. From 1961 on, the PAIGC fought