Search Results: Cape Verde

The Portuguese colonization of the Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Islands began from 1462. Initially envisaged as a base to give mariners direct access to West African trade, the Central Atlantic islands soon became a major hub of the Atlantic slave...

A c. 1646 watercolour painting showing the town of Ribeira Grande on Santiago, one of the islands of the Cape Verde archipelago, then a Portuguese colony. Painting by Caspar Schmalkalden, image by Arquipelagos. (Forschungsbibliothek Gotha)

Ribeira Principal stream on the island of Santiago, one of the Cape Verde Islands.

The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas (Tordesilhas) was an agreement between the monarchs of Spain and Portugal to divide the world between them into two spheres of influence. The imaginary dividing line ran down the centre of the Atlantic Ocean...

A 1598 map of the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde, an archipelago in the Central Atlantic off the coast of West Africa. Drawn by Barent Langenes. (National Library of France, Paris)

Hovenweep or Hovenweep National Monument is comprised of the ruins of six Ancestral Puebloan (or Anasazi) villages located on the border between southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah in what is the present-day United States. The home...

Canyon de Chelly or Canyon de Chelly National Monument is a protected site that contains the remains of 5,000 years of Native American inhabitation. Canyon de Chelly is located in the northeastern portion of the US state of Arizona within...

Henry Every (b. 1653), also known as Henry Avery, Benjamin Bridgeman, ‘Long Ben’ and (incorrectly) John Avery, was one of the most savage and successful pirates in the Golden Age of Piracy. Capturing a treasure ship of the Mughal emperor...

Edward 'Ned' Low was an English pirate active in the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic from 1721 to 1724 during the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1730). Probably the most sadistic and cruelest of all pirate captains, Low was said to have frequently...

The caravel (caravela in Spanish and Portuguese), was a type of medium-sized ship which, with its low draught and lateen or triangular sails, made it ideal for exploration from the 15th century onwards. Fast, manoeuvrable, and only needing...