Cape Verde /ˌkeɪp ˈvɜrd/ , officially the Republic of Cape Verde, is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa. The islands, covering a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres , are of volcanic origin and while three of them are fairly flat, sandy and dry, the remaining ones are generally rockier and have more vegetation. However, because of the infrequent occurrence of rainfall the overall landscape is not particularly green. The name of the country stems... from the nearby Cap Vert, on the Senegalese coast, which in its turn was originally named "Cabo Verde" when it was sighted by Portuguese explorers in 1444, a few years before the islands were discovered . The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the 15th Century, and became important in the Atlantic slave trade for their location.
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| Founded: | July 5, 1975 |
| Capital: | Praia |
| Population: | 1,000,000 |
| Official language: | Portuguese Language |
| Currency: | Cape Verdean escudo |
| Area: | 1,557.2 sq. mi. |
| GDP: | $1,648,089,240 |
| Form of government: | Republic, Parliamentary republic |
| Also known as: | Kapverden |