[1] It was only in 1493 when King John II of Portugal nominated Álvaro Caminha as captain-major of São Tomé Island that the first successful settlement was established.

[1] In the following years, Portuguese settlers started to import large numbers of slaves from mainland Africa to cultivate the rich volcanic soil of São Tomé Island with highly profitable sugar cane.

[7] Some were indistinguishable from mainland native Africans and claimed to be brancos da terra (literally, "the land's whites") on account of their ancestry.

[8] In 1753, because of frequent attacks by pirates and corsairs, the capital of São Tomé was transferred to Santo António on Príncipe, and the islands started being ruled as a single colony with one Governor.

[9] At the beginning of the 19th century, the Portuguese introduced coffee and cocoa in extensive large-scale plantations called roças, thus giving a great boost to the economy.

The Carnation Revolution in 1974 ended the Estado Novo dictatorship in Portugal and initiated a process of decolonization of the Portuguese colonies in Africa.