The island is characterized by two areas: the accidented northeast (mountainous, with rocky ledges and cliffs), and a coastal plain in the southwest (that includes a nine kilometre long white sand beach, giving the island an advantage over neighbouring Madeira). The mountainous northeast part of the island, consists of two geomorphological structures that includes: an area of peaks, […]
Portugal in World War II was neutral, but Salazar’s decision to stick with the oldest alliance in the world, cemented by the Treaty of Windsor (1386) between Portugal and England, which is still in force today, meant that the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance allowed Madeira to help the allies and in July 1940 around 2,000 Gibraltarian Evacuees were shipped to Madeira, this was due to […]
Porto Santo Island is a Portuguese island 43 kilometres (27 mi) northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe and Africa. It appears that some knowledge of Atlantic islands, such as Madeira, existed before the discovery and settlement of these lands, as the islands […]
Islands and islets Madeira (740.7 km2), including Ilhéu de Agostinho, Ilhéu de São Lourenço, Ilhéu Mole (northwest); Porto Santo (42.5 km2), including Ilhéu de Baixo ou da Cal, Ilhéu de Ferro, Ilhéu das Cenouras, Ilhéu de Fora, Ilhéu de Cima; Desertas Islands (14.2 km2), including the three uninhabited islands: Deserta Grande Island, Bugio Island and Ilhéu de Chão; Savage Islands (3.6 km2), archipelago 280 km south-southeast of Madeira […]
The archipelago of Madeira is located 520 km (280 nmi) from the African coast and 1,000 km (540 nmi) from the European continent (approximately a one-and-a-half hour flight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon).[30] It is found in the extreme south of the Tore-Madeira Ridge, a bathymetric structure of great dimensions oriented along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis that extends for […]
On 31 December 1916 during the Great War, the German U-boat, SM U-38, captained by Max Valentiner, entered Funchal harbour on Madeira; it torpedoed and sank three ships: CS Dacia (1,856 tons), SS Kanguroo (2,493 tons) and Surprise (680 tons), bringing the war to Portugal by extension. The commander of the French gunboat Surprise and 34 of her crew (including 7 Portuguese) died in the attack. TheDacia, a British cable-laying vessel, had previously undertaken war work off […]
The first Portuguese settlers began colonizing the islands around 1420 or 1425. The three Captains-majorhad led the first settlement, along with their respective families, a small group of minor nobility, people of modest conditions, and some prisoners, who could be trusted to work the lands. To gain the minimum conditions for the development of agriculture, they had to […]
João Gonçalves Zarco (c. 1390 – 21 November 1471) was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator. Zarco was born in Portugal, and became a knight at the service of Prince Henry the Navigator‘s household. In his service at an early age, Zarco commanded the caravelsguarding the coast of Algarve from the incursions […]
In 1419 two captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven by a storm to the island they called Porto Santo, or Holy Harbour, in gratitude for their rescue from shipwreck. The next year an expedition was sent to populate the island, and, Madeira being described, they made for it, and took possession […]
Pliny mentions certain Purple Islands, the position of which with reference to the Fortunate Islands or Canaries might seem to indicate Madeira islands. Plutarch (Sertorius, 75 AD) referring to the military commander Quintus Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cádiz, “he met seamen recently arrived from Atlantic islands, two in number, divided from one another only by a narrow […]
