Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe
| Overseas Province of São Tomé and Príncipe | ||||||||
| Província Ultramarina de São Tomé e Príncipe | ||||||||
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Colony; Overseas province of the Portuguese Empire |
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Anthem A Portuguesa (Portuguese) The Portuguese |
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 Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe
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| Capital | São Tomé (Santo António 1753–1852) | |||||||
| Languages | Portuguese | |||||||
| Political structure |
Colony; Overseas province of the Portuguese Empire |
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| Head of state | ||||||||
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King 1470–81 |
Afonso V of Portugal | ||||||
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President 1974–75 |
Francisco da Costa Gomes | ||||||
| Governor | ||||||||
| • | 1755 (first) | Lopo de Sousa Coutinho | ||||||
| • | 1974–75 (last) | António Elísio Capelo Pires Veloso | ||||||
| Historical era | Imperialism | |||||||
| • | Established | 1470 | ||||||
| • | End of Portuguese Empire | 12 July 1975 | ||||||
| Currency | São Tomé and Príncipe escudo | |||||||
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São Tomé and Príncipe islands were a colony of the Portuguese Empire from its discovery in 1470 until 1975, when independence was granted by Portugal.
The Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar discovered the islands around 1470, which they found uninhabited. The São Tomé island was named by the Portuguese in honor of Saint Thomas, as they discovered the island on his feast day, while the Príncipe island (Prince's island) was named in honor of Afonso, Prince of Portugal, his father's favorite.
The first attempt of settlement in the islands began in 1485, when the Portuguese Crown granted to João de Paiva the São Tomé island. However, this attempt was not successful, because the settlers were unable to produce food in the specific conditions and climate that the islands offered, and because of the tropical diseases that affected the settlers. It was only in 1493 when King John II of Portugal nominated Álvaro Caminha as captain-major of São Tomé island, that the first successful settlement was established. Among these Portuguese settlers, there was a significant portion of criminals and orphans, as well as Jewish children taken from their parents to ensure that they were raised as Christians. Settlement of the Príncipe island was initiated in 1500.
In the following years, the Portuguese settlers started to import large numbers of slaves from mainland Africa to cultivate the rich volcanic soil of São Tomé island with highly profitable sugar cane. By the middle of the 16th century São Tomé generated enormous wealth to Portugal when it became the world's largest producer of sugar.
In the first decade of the 17th century, the competition of sugar plantations from the Portuguese colony of Brazil and the frequent slave revolts that occurred in the island, begun to slowly hurt the sugar crop cultivation. This meant the decline of the sugar production, and the shifting of the local economy towards the slave trade, who remained mostly in the hands of the local mestiço population. The geographical location of the islands made them a crucial trading post of the transatlantic slave trade, as they served as an assembly point of the slaves brought from the Gulf of Guinea and the Kingdom of Kongo and destined to the Americas.
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Wikipedia