Álvaro Caminha founded the colony of São Tomé in 1493. ThePortuguese came to São Tomé in search of land to growsugarcane. The island was uninhabited before the arrival of the Portuguese sometime around 1470. São Tomé, situated about 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of theequator, had a climate wet enough to grow sugarcane in wild abundance. In 1497, 2,000 Jewish children, eight years old and under, were kidnapped from the Iberian peninsula, and forcefully converted to receive catholic education, following the national policy of conversion to Catholicism.[2] The nearby AfricanKingdom of Kongo eventually became a source of slave labor as well. The island of São Tomé was the main center of sugar production in the sixteenth century; it was overtaken by Brazil by 1600.[3]
São Tomé is centred on a sixteenth-centurycathedral, that was largely rebuilt in the 19th century. Another early building is Fort São Sebastião, built in 1566 and now theSão Tomé National Museum. On 9 July 1595, a slave revolt led byRei Amador took control of the capital; they were subjugated in 1596.[4] In 1599, theDutch took the city as well as the islands for two days; they re-occupied it in 1641 for a year. The city served as the capital of thePortuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe and, from São Tomé and Príncipe's independence in 1975, as capital of the sovereign nation.[5]
Important as a port, São Tomé is located on Ana Chaves Bay in the northeast ofSão Tomé Island, andIlhéu das Cabras lies nearby offshore. São Tomé is located northeast ofTrindade, southeast ofGuadalupe and northwest ofSantana. It is linked to these towns by a highway which encircles almost the entire island of São Tomé. It is linked to Cape Verde by a weekly ferry.[6]
Features of the town include thePresidential Palace, thecathedral, and acinema. The city is also home to schools, and middle schools, high schools, one polytechnic, twomarkets, three radio stations, the public television stationTVSP, several clinics and hospitals, the country's main airport –São Tomé International Airport (with direct regular scheduled flights to Angola, Gabon, Ghana and Portugal as well as occasional domestic flights toPríncipe), and many squares (praças). São Tomé also serves as the centre of the island's road and bus networks The town is well known for thetchiloli playing.[7]
São Tomé features atropical wet and dry climate (KöppenAs), although it is not far above asemi-arid climate (BSh) due to the influence of the coldBenguela Current, which makes even the wettest months drier than would be expected for such a low latitude but at the same time makes the city very cloudy and foggy even during the almost rainless dry season mid-year. The city has a relatively lengthywet season from October through May and a shortdry season. São Tomé sees on average just under 900 mm (35 in) of rainfall per year. Temperatures in the city are relatively constant, with average high temperatures usually around 30 °C (86 °F) and average low temperatures around 22 °C (71.6 °F).
^"Home".stp.gov.st.Archived from the original on 18 January 2020. Retrieved27 November 2019.
^Allen, Theodore (1997).The invention of the white race (Second ed.). London: Verso. pp. 5, Appendix C.ISBN9781844677719.OCLC738350824.
^Manning, Patrick (2006). "Slavery & Slave Trade in West Africa 1450-1930".Themes in West Africa's history. Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku. Athens: Ohio University. pp. 102–103.ISBN978-0-8214-4566-2.OCLC745696019.
^Seibert, Gerhard (2012). "Rei Amador". In Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong; Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (eds.).Dictionary of African Biography. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press USA. pp. 191–192.ISBN9780195382075.
^Roman Adrian Cybriwsky,Capital Cities around the World: An Encyclopedia of Geography, History, and Culture, ABC-CLIO, USA, 2013, p. 275
^"Lisboa – Geminações de Cidades e Vilas" [Lisbon – Twinning of Cities and Towns].Associação Nacional de Municípios Portugueses [National Association of Portuguese Municipalities] (in Portuguese). Archived fromthe original on 1 February 2015. Retrieved23 August 2013.
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