Portuguese Guinea
| Guiné Portuguesa | ||||||||||
| Portuguese Guinea | ||||||||||
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Colony; Overseas territory; State of the Portuguese Empire |
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 Portuguese Guinea
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| Capital | Bissau (Cacheu (1558–1697), Bolama (1879-1941)) | |||||||||
| Languages | Portuguese (official), Guinea-Bissau Creole, Balanta, Fula, Mandjak, Mandinka, Papel | |||||||||
| Political structure |
Colony; Overseas territory; State of the Portuguese Empire |
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| Head of state | ||||||||||
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Regent 1446–48 |
Pedro, Duke of Coimbra | ||||||||
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President 1958–61 |
Américo Thomaz | ||||||||
| Governor | ||||||||||
| • | 1879–81 (first) | Agostinho Coelho | ||||||||
| • | 1974 (last) | Carlos Fabião | ||||||||
| Captain-major | ||||||||||
| • | 1640–41 (first) | Luis de Magalhães | ||||||||
| • | 1877–79 (last) | António José Cabral Vieira | ||||||||
| Historical era | Imperialism | |||||||||
| • | Established | 1474 | ||||||||
| • | Fall of Portuguese Empire | 10 September 1974 | ||||||||
| Currency |
Portuguese real (to 1909) Portuguese Guinean real (1909–14) Portuguese Guinean escudo (1914–75) |
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| Today part of |
 Guinea-Bissau
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Portuguese Guinea (Portuguese: Guiné), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951, was a West African colony of Portugal from the late 15th century until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as Guinea-Bissau.
The Portuguese Crown commissioned its navigators to explore the Atlantic coast of West Africa to find the sources of gold. The gold trade was controlled by Morocco, and Muslim caravan routes across the Sahara also carried salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves. The navigators first passed the obstruction of Cape Bojador in 1437 and were able to explore the West African coast as far as Sierra Leone by 1460 and colonize the Cape Verde islands from 1456.
The gold ultimately came from the upper reaches of the Niger River and Volta River and the Portuguese crown aimed to divert the gold trade towards the coast. To control this trade, the king ordered the building of a castle, called São Jorge da Mina (now Elmina Castle), on the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1482 and other trading posts. The Portuguese government instituted the Company of Guinea to deal with the trading and to fix the prices of the goods. Besides gold, ivory, Melegueta pepper and slaves were traded. It is estimated that the Atlantic slave trade transported around 11 million people from Africa between 1440 and 1870, including 2 million from Senegambia or Upper Guinea.
The Portuguese used slaves to grow cotton and indigo in the previously uninhabited Cape Verde islands. Portuguese traders and exiled criminals penetrated the rivers and creeks of Upper Guinea forming a mulatto population using Portuguese-based Creole language as their lingua franca. After 1500 the main area of Portuguese interest for gold and slaves was further south in the Gold Coast.
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Wikipedia