A Portuguese colony at first uninhabited when established in 1493. Its first inhabitants were 2000 Jewish children eight years and under brought over for slave labor to work sugar fields at a time when the Portuguese Inquisition (or Inquisição Portuguesa) was instated around the year 1515.
Labor was later procured from the nearby African Kingdom of Kongo (present-day Angola) on the African mainland, the leaders of which sold off their people to Portuguese traders.
The islands transitioned to coffee and cocoa cultivation in the 19th century.
Democratic reforms were instituted in the 1980s upon independence in 1975. The first free elections were held in 1991.
