Santiago

Santiago is the largest of the Cape Verde islands and the first to be settled by the Portuguese. Mountains and valleys rise behind its southern shore, where Ribeira Grande became a meeting place of Atlantic routes. The island's society grew from encounters between Europeans and Africans, many of the latter brought there in bondage, and gave rise to a distinctive Creole culture.

In 1462 António de Noli and settlers from Portugal established Ribeira Grande. Its position helped make the town a port of call for ships traveling between Africa, Europe and the Americas. From the sixteenth century it also became a center of the trade in enslaved Africans. Churches and the carved pillory in the town square testified to the institutions of colonial rule, while the royal fort of São Filipe was built above the town after Francis Drake's raid in 1585.

The wealth of Ribeira Grande drew further attackers. In 1712 the French privateer Jacques Cassard struck the town, which subsequently declined as Praia grew in importance. The colonial capital moved to Praia in 1770, but the older port remained a mark of the island's place in Atlantic navigation and the history of enslavement. Ships calling at Santiago carried people and goods between the West African coast, Brazil and the Caribbean, connecting the island to distant shores.

The later city of Praia lies here.