History
The town of Praia de Santa Maria appeared in 1615 when it took the place of the previous settlement on the plateau, which was originally favored because the nearby port (Santa Maria beach) offered good conditions for ships. Initially used as a clandestine harbor (in order to avoid customs fees at the then capital Ribeira Grande), the settlement gradually acquired the characteristics of a town after much of the population from Ribeira Grande fled there during its decline in the midst of frequent pirate attacks. The official transfer of capital status from Ribeira Grande to Praia took place in 1770.
In the history of Cape Verde there have been successive proposals for transferring the capital elsewhere, the most recent being Mindelo in the late 19th century. However, the successive Portuguese administrations never showed an interest (economical or political?) in such proposals. Through an official decree in 1858, when its status was changed from town to city, Praia secured its status as the capital of Cape Verde, concentrating political, religious and economic roles.
During the Portuguese administration, only the central plateau was considered to be the city proper and thus the principal zone of urbanization and concentration of municipal services. It was only after independence (July 1975) that the surrounding neighborhoods generally became accepted as part of the city proper. After independence, the city suffered a demographic boom, and after 33 years its population has quadrupled, receiving migrating movements from all the islands. As a result, half of the entire population of Cape Verde currently resides in Santiago; a fourth in the Municipality of Praia; and a fifth in the City of Praia alone.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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