The lançados (literally, the launched ones) were settlers and colonizers of Portuguese origin in Senegambia, Cabo Verde, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and other areas on the coast of West Africa.
[1] At the time of Prince Henry the Navigator's death in 1460, the Portuguese had visited the West African coast from Cabo Verde as far south as the equator.
The Portuguese monarchy attempted to hold a total monopoly over the West African slave trade by nominating official intermediaries for that purpose.
Some were merchants or agents of commercial enterprises who "threw themselves" willingly ("lançavam") into contact with African peoples for trading purposes, and often circumvented the Portuguese monarchy's monopolistic taxes.
[2] But, the majority of lançados were legally or self-exiled to Africa, including Jews and New Christians escaping the Portuguese Inquisition, and persons called degredados serving out legally-imposed exiles.
[2][3] The coastal lançados and their descendants constituted a new sociocultural group that spoke Portuguese, dressed in European clothes, and lived in rectangular Portuguese-style houses with whitewashed walls and verandas.
[2] The strong linguistic and familial ties between the lançados, their descendants, and native people resulted in a distinct Luso-African culture that partially persists into the 21st century.
The lançados supported and acted as intermediaries for an increasing number of French, English, and Dutch trading along the West African coast from Cabo Verde to Elmina.