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Flags of Cape Verde

Cape Verde starts this atlas from a genuinely different point than any of its West African neighbors: the archipelago was uninhabited when Portuguese navigators reached it around 1460, so there is no pre-colonial indigenous polity to cover here — the story begins with settlement itself. From that founding, five centuries of Portuguese rule turn the islands into a notorious waypoint of the Atlantic slave trade and, from that same mixing, one of the first Atlantic Creole societies. Independence in 1975 arrives peacefully, through the same liberation movement that fought a war next door in Guinea-Bissau — and a deliberate 1992 flag change marks Cape Verde's own break from that shared origin toward a distinct national identity.

Six flags in all: the Kingdom of Portugal's royal banner carried by the first settlers, that same kingdom's flag through the slave-trade centuries, a mid-19th-century constitutional update, the green-and-red Republic flag that flew through the independence struggle, the red-yellow-green PAIGC-style flag Cape Verde shared with Guinea-Bissau at independence, and finally the blue, white-red-white, ten-gold-star flag adopted in 1992.

Scope of this page: the archipelago of Cape Verde, c. 1460–present, six flags. Unlike most pages in this atlas, there is no fragmented pre-colonial chieftaincy or kingdom chapter — the islands were uninhabited before Portuguese discovery and settlement, so the timeline begins there. No internal governing split exists at any point in Cape Verde's history, so the map below carries no internal partition — only the ten islands, traced whole. Part of a larger atlas — see the linked pages at the bottom.

Ten islands, one flag at a time

Cape Verde's own ten main islands, each traced from its real coastline — an archipelago settled from empty, governed as one colony and then one country from the very start, with no internal split to show.

No internal partition exists here to show. Every island in this archipelago was settled, administered, and governed together from Portugal's first landing onward; there is no separate island or group of islands that was ever ruled apart from the rest. What changes here is only who held sovereignty over the whole archipelago at once.

c. 1460 – 1495

Real traced island outlines (simplified); no internal partition shown — see the rule box above for why.

blue field, white-red-white band, circle of ten gold stars — adopted 1992

1992 – present

Republic of Cape Verde (multi-party)

Republic, democraticAntónio Mascarenhas MonteiroSecular (no state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: diaspora exceeds resident population

Who & why: Cape Verde holds its first free multi-party elections in January 1991, peacefully ending sixteen years of one-party PAICV rule, and a new flag is adopted on 22 September 1992. The design is a deliberate, well-documented break from the old red-yellow-green PAIGC symbolism the country had shared with Guinea-Bissau since independence — a fresh national identity for a newly democratized state, not a modification of the old banner.

What it represents: a blue field for the surrounding Atlantic, crossed by a horizontal white-red-white band, with a circle of ten gold five-pointed stars set toward the hoist — each star standing for one of the archipelago's ten main islands, unified in a ring.

Paint guide

Proportions3:5, official since adoption in 1992.

LayoutBlue field; white-red-white horizontal band two-fifths up from the bottom; circle of ten gold stars centered on the band, offset toward the hoist.

Blue#1A4B93

Red#CF142B

White#F4EFE1

Gold, stars#F2C744

red hoist band with black star, yellow over green — near-identical to Guinea-Bissau's flag

1975 – 1992

Independent Cape Verde under PAICV

One-party stateAristides PereiraNo official state religion

Migration & conquest:Emigration: to the Netherlands, Portugal & US

Who & why: Cape Verde becomes independent on 5 July 1975, through the same PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde) that fought an armed war for Guinea-Bissau's independence. Founded by Amílcar Cabral, himself of mixed Cape Verdean and Guinean descent, PAIGC's founders originally envisioned an eventual union of the two countries; Cape Verde's own path to independence is peaceful, following the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, in sharp contrast to Guinea-Bissau's armed struggle. The planned union never materializes, and after a 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau severs the two parties for good, Cape Verde's branch renames itself PAICV (African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde), ruling as the sole legal party until 1990–91.

What it represents: a flag nearly identical to Guinea-Bissau's own — red vertical band at the hoist bearing a black star, with the remaining field split into yellow above and green below — a direct visual echo of the shared PAIGC origin the two nations were founded from together.

Paint guide

Proportions1:2, adopted 1975.

LayoutRed vertical band at hoist with black five-pointed star; fly divided horizontally into yellow (top) and green (bottom).

Red#CF142B

Yellow#F2C744

Green#046A38

Star, black#141413

green and red with an armillary sphere — Portugal's own Republic flag, adopted 1911

1910 – 1975

Portuguese Republic: colony, overseas province, and independence struggle

ColonyTeófilo BragaSecular (church and state separated, 1911)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: contract laborers to São ToméEmigration: famine-driven, to the US

Who & why: Portugal's 1910 revolution topples the monarchy and the new Republic adopts its green-and-red flag in 1911 — the same flag Portugal still flies today — carried over Cape Verde for the rest of colonial rule. Under the authoritarian Estado Novo, Lisbon reclassifies Cape Verde in 1951 from "colony" to "overseas province," a rebranding meant to blunt growing international pressure for decolonization rather than any real change in status. Amílcar Cabral founds PAIGC in 1956 and leads an armed independence war centered in Guinea-Bissau from 1963; Cape Verde itself sees no comparable fighting, and its independence instead follows the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution, which overthrows the Estado Novo in Lisbon and opens the way to decolonization across Portugal's African territories. Cape Verde becomes independent on 5 July 1975.

What it represents: green for hope and red for the blood of those who died defending the nation, with a yellow armillary sphere (a navigational instrument recalling the Age of Discovery) and the old royal shield at center — Portugal's national flag, flown without change over Cape Verde through both the colonial and overseas-province eras and the independence struggle that ended them.

Paint guide

Proportions2:3, official since 1911.

LayoutGreen hoist (two-fifths), red fly (three-fifths); yellow armillary sphere and shield centered on the color boundary.

Green#046A38

Red#CF142B

Gold#F2C744

blue hoist, white fly, arms at center — Portugal's constitutional-monarchy flag

1830 – 1910

Portuguese colonial rule under the constitutional monarchy

ColonyMaria IIRoman Catholic (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Emigration: whalers & sailors to New England, US

Ruling house:House of Braganza

Who & why: Portugal's own 19th-century shift from absolute to constitutional monarchy brings a new national flag, flown in turn over Cape Verde as an ordinary Portuguese colony administered from Lisbon. The archipelago's Creole society, built up over three centuries of settlement and the slave trade, continues to develop through this period, with Cape Verdeans increasingly serving in the colonial administration elsewhere in Portugal's African territories owing to their language and education.

What it represents: blue at the hoist and white at the fly, with the Portuguese royal arms centered on the color boundary — the flag of the constitutional Kingdom of Portugal, carried across its colonies until the 1910 republican revolution.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo single fixed ratio recorded for colonial use; shown at 3:2.

LayoutBlue hoist, white fly, red-and-gold royal shield centered on the boundary.

Blue#1E2F96

White#F4EFE1

Shield, red#CF142B

white field, royal quinas shield — the Kingdom of Portugal's banner through the slave-trade centuries

1495 – 1830

Portuguese colonial rule and the Atlantic slave trade

ColonyManuel IRoman Catholic (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: enslaved Africans (forced, slave-trade waypoint)

Ruling house:House of AvizHouse of Braganza

Who & why: for three and a half centuries, Cape Verde is administered as a colony of the Kingdom of Portugal. Its position off the West African coast makes it a key — and notorious — waypoint and staging post in the Atlantic slave trade: enslaved Africans are brought through Ribeira Grande (later Cidade Velha) and other island ports for sale, provisioning, and onward transport across the Atlantic, a dark and well-documented role the islands play for generations. The mixing of Portuguese settlers, colonial clergy and officials, and enslaved and free Africans produces one of the first Atlantic Creole societies, with a distinct Kriolu language and culture taking shape from this era.

What it represents: the Kingdom of Portugal's white flag bearing the royal quinas shield (five small blue shields recalling the wounds of Christ, arranged in a cross), the same banner carried by the earliest settlers and flown across Portugal's expanding maritime empire through this whole span.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed civil ratio recorded for this period; shown at 3:2.

LayoutWhite field, blue-and-red royal quinas shield centered.

White#F4EFE1

Shield, blue#1E2F96

Border, red#CF142B

the Kingdom of Portugal's banner, carried by the first settlers

c. 1460 – 1495

Discovery and founding of Ribeira Grande

ColonyAntónio da NoliRoman Catholic (state religion)

Migration & conquest:Immigration: Portuguese settlers & first enslaved Africans

Ruling house:House of Aviz

Who & why: the Cape Verde archipelago is uninhabited when Portuguese navigators, traditionally credited to Diogo Gomes and António da Noli (a Genoese captain in Portuguese service), reach it around 1460 — a genuinely different starting point from every other page in this hub, with no indigenous polity to displace or absorb. Settlement follows quickly: Ribeira Grande, on Santiago, is founded in 1462 and becomes the first European colonial town built in the tropics, soon serving as a supply and trading base for Portugal's expanding voyages down the West African coast.

What it represents: the Kingdom of Portugal's own flag — a white field bearing the royal quinas shield — carried by the settlers and flown over the new colony from its very founding, the same banner Portugal flies across its wider maritime empire at this date.

Paint guide

ProportionsNo fixed ratio recorded for this period; shown at 3:2.

LayoutWhite field, blue-and-red royal quinas shield centered.

White#F4EFE1

Shield, blue#1E2F96

Border, red#CF142B

Reading the tags

Colony — administered as a dependency of another crown or state

One-party state — independent, sole legal ruling party

Republic, democratic — sovereign, multi-party elections

Leader — the named ruler most associated with the era's start

State religion — the official/established faith, not the population's

Find the records

Family history research for Cape Verde lives in a different project, Record Atlas, which maps which archive actually holds the paper for a given place and era.

Search Record Atlas for Cape Verde →

More of the atlas

This page is one lineage in a larger set. See the region-wide map and the other countries here:

Flags Atlas indexSearch every country and hub West Africa hubThe wider regional lineage