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 Cape Verde–European Union relations Cape Verde is an island nation, part of the Macaronesian group of islands of the Atlantic Ocean and was a former Portuguese colony during the colonial era between 1460 and 1975. EU-Cape Verde relations are founded on the EU/Cape Verde Special Partnership, agreed in 2007, building on six pillars; Following that, an Action Plan for Security and Stability was launched in 2014 and a Mobility Partnership. Cape Verde is 97% Christian and its background is a fusion of African, Asian, European and South American backgrounds, where about 70% is African and mixed. Less than 30% is