The archipelago comprises the major part of one of the twoautonomous regions ofPortugal (the other being theAzores located to the northwest), that includes the islands of Madeira,Porto Santo, and theDesertas, administered together with the separate archipelago of theSavage Islands.
The nameMadeira could be used for the autonomous region, thegeographical group of islands or just the island of Madeira. These islands are part of theMacaronesia.
Madeira's official writtenhistory began in 1418, when twocaptains under service toPrinceHenry the Navigator,João Gonçalves Zarco andTristão Vaz Teixeira, were pushed by a storm to an island which they namedPorto Santo (English:holy harbour). The following year, an organised expedition was sent to this new land to take possession of the island on behalf of the Portuguesecrown. Later, the newsettlers saw an island to the southwest, and so the larger island of Madeira was discovered.
The islands were found to be completely uninhabited, and their colonization by the Portuguese began around 1420 or 1425. To get the minimum conditions for the development ofagriculture, they had to cut part of the dense forest and to construct a large number ofcanals (levadas) to carry water, since in some parts of the island there was excess water, while in others water was scarce. During this period,fish constituted about half of the settlers' diet, together withvegetables andfruits cultivated from small pieces of land. Initially, thesecolonists producedwheat for their own subsistence, but later the quantity cultivated was sufficient to begin sending wheat to continental Portugal.
On the 23 September 1433, the nameIlha da Madeira (English:Madeira Island, or literallyisland of wood) began to appear in the first documents and maps. The name given to the islands corresponded to the large dense forests of native trees that covered the island.
However, when wheat production began to fall, the crisis forced to plant other commercialcrops. They brought fromSicily plants ofsugarcane to producesugar. After the 17th century, as sugar production went toBrazil,São Tomé and Príncipe and elsewhere, Madeira's most important product became itswine.
The archipelago is in theAfrican plate, in the Atlantic Ocean between thelatitudes 30° and 33° north, 978 km (608 mi) southwest of Lisbon and, about 700 km (435 mi) west of the African coast, almost at the samelatitude asCasablanca.
The Madeira islands have a total area of 801 km2 (309 sq mi). Their individual areas vary between 740.7 km2 (286.0 sq mi) of the largest island (Madeira) to 3.6 km2 (1.4 sq mi) of theSavage Islands.
Islands and their areas of the Autonomous Region of Madeira
Of the eight islands, only the two largest (Madeira and Porto Santo) are inhabited, having as main accesses, the Madeira Airport in Funchal and the one in Porto Santo. By sea, Funchal has aport that receives different ships, especiallycruise ships. The remaining islands are nature reserves.
The territory of the archipelago contains two main islands: the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo; besides these, there are two groups of uninhabited islands, the Desertas and Savages.
The island of Madeira has a very irregular and uneventerrain, being the highest points thepeaksPico Ruivo (1862 m),Pico das Torres (1851 m),Pico do Ariero (1818 m) andPico do Juncal (1800 m). The northern coast is dominated by highcliffs.
The island of Porto Santo, on the other hand, has a completely differentgeomorphological formation of the island of Madeira. It is very flat where only small plants grow and the soils are poor and not very good for agriculture. This island has some peaks, particularly in the north, and the Pico do Facho (517 m) is the highest point of elevation in the island, followed byPico Branco (450 m).
The highest point of Desertas Islands isPedregal (442 m) in Deserta Grande, and of Selvagens Islands isPico da Atalaia (153 m), in Selvagem Grande.[4]
The average temperature for the year in Funchal, Madeira island, is 19 °C (66.2 °F). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 22.6 °C (72.7 °F). The coolest month on average is February, with an average temperature of 16.1 °C (61.0 °F).
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Funchal is 596.9 mm (23.5"). The month with the most precipitation on average is December with 109.2 mm (4.3") of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of 2.5 mm (0.1"). There are an average of 87 days of precipitation, with the most precipitation occurring in December with 13 days and the least precipitation occurring in July with 1 days.[5]
For the Villa de Porto Santo, Porto Santo island, the average temperature for the year is 17.8 °C (64.0 °F). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 21.7 °C (71.0 °F). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 15 °C (59.0 °F).
The average amount of precipitation for the year in Villa de Porto Santo is 375.9 mm (14.8"). The month with the most precipitation on average is January with 61 mm (2.4") of precipitation. The month with the least precipitation on average is July with an average of 2.5 mm (0.1").[6]
TheKöppen climate classification subtype for this climate of Funchal (Madeira) and Villa de Porto Santo (Porto Santo) isCsb (Mediterran Climate).[5][7]
The climate of Desertas islands and partes of Porto Santo issemi-arid (Bs) and in the Savage islands is adesert climate (Bw).[5]
In 1976 Madeira became one of the two autonomous regions of the Republic of Portugal (Azores is the other) under the Portuguese nameRegião Autónoma da Madeira, with its ownexecutive and a regionallegislature. The currentpresident of the regional government is Miguel Albuquerque. The main offices of the regional government are in Funchal, making this city the capital of the region.
Municipalities of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
Calheta
Câmara de Lobos
Funchal
Machico
Ponta do Sol
Porto Moniz
Porto Santo
Ribeira Brava
Santa Cruz
Santana
São Vicente
Administratively, the Autonomous Region of Madeira (with a population of 267,785 inhabitants in 2011[8] and covering an area of 801.0 km2 (309.3 sq mi)) is organised into 11municípios, of which 10 are in the island of Madeira and one in Porto Santo. Municipalities are further divided into 54freguesias, 53 in Madeira and 1 in Porto Santo.[9]
According to the 2011 Census, the total population in the Autonomous Region of Madeira was 267,785: 126,268 men and 141,517 women.[8] The density for the whole region is 334.3 persons/km2; calculating the density taking in account only the inhabited islands (Madeira and Porto Santo), the density would be 341.9 inhabitants/km2.
The region of Madeira is home to a great and importantbiodiversity, with an estimated 7,571terrestrialspecies for the whole archipelago. The total number ofendemic species andsubspecies is about 1,419 (1,286 species and 182 sub-species), which represents 19% of the overall species diversity.
The most knownenvironment of the archipelago is itsLaurel forest (laurisilva) which still extends over 15,000 hectares or 20% of the archipelago. These forests, very rich in biodiversity, are the largest and best-preserved Laurel forests in the entireMacaronesia region. They are home to unique plant and animal species, including the famousTrocaz Pigeon or Madeira Laurel Pigeon (Columba trocaz), and theMadeira Kinglet (Regulus madeirensis). The mostthreatened bird of Europe, the Madeiran or Zino’s Petrel (Pterodroma madeira) inhabits the highest cliffs in the Central Mountainous Massif of the Madeira island.
There are 6 protected areas in the Madeira Archipelago, including the Madeira Natural Park. This park, which covers over 2/3 of Madeira Island and includes the entire Laurel forest, is a European Council Biogenetic Reserve since 1992, and aUNESCOWorld Natural Heritage Site since 1999.[12] Additionally, 11sites in the whole archipelago are part of theNatura 2000network and 11 other sites are designatedImportant Bird Areas.[11]
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