The islands became the biggest sugar producers in the world shortly after the Portuguese founded the town of São Tomé in 1485. They brought slaves from the mainland to work the plantations, but the sugar boom was short lived, however, as a slave revolt in 1530 frightened the plantation owners and they hightailed it to Brazil. But slavery remained the mainstay of the colony's economy, and coffee and cocoa plantations set up in the 18th and 19th centuries depended entirely on slave labour. Even when slavery was abolished in the colony in 1875, the Portuguese replaced it with a system of forced labour with minimal wages.
Portugal supplemented the plantation labour force with deportees from Cape Verde, Angola and Mozambique, and they fought the Portuguese on numerous occasions in attempts to win their freedom. In 1905 the international community imposed a boycott because of the conditions of virtual slavery that existed on the islands, and the cocoa trade consequently declined. Throughout the 20th century, Portugal continued to crush dissent and revolts fiercely. The worst example was the notorious 1953 massacre, when over 1000
When the Portuguese fascist regime fell in 1974, black troops in São Tomé mutinied, and the colonial authorities were finally forced to come to terms with the liberation movement. A transitional government was set up in December 1974, and the colony declared its independence in July of the following year. By that time almost all of the Portuguese had fled, taking their expertise and capital with them. Portugal abandoned the new nation, leaving a 90% illiteracy rate, virtually no skilled workers, many abandoned plantations and the grand total of one doctor.
The new president, Manual Pinto da Costa, was a moderate, but faced with an economic crisis and the demands of the more radical members of his government, he started applying the thumbscrews. Most of the plantations were nationalised and the government passed laws prohibiting anyone from owning more than 100 hectares (247 acres) of land. People's militias were set up to operate in the workplaces and villages, and the country began relying on Angola for support. While the economy remained tied to Western Europe, the government formed close ties with the communist bloc.
Unidentified ships and planes had been sighted frequently in São Tomé's territorial waters and air space, and since many opposition leaders were in exile in staunchly pro-Western Gabon, it looked as if an invasion was imminent. In 1978, 1000 Angolan troops flew to the islands to augment the Cuban and Angolan advisers already there, but the feared invasion never came.
Once communism collapsed in Europe, São Tomé leaned further to the west, and even held its first multiparty elections in 1991. Manual Trovoada, who had previously been in exile, was inaugurated as president in May of that year. His Independent Democratic Action Party (ADI) lost a lot of ground at the polls in July 1996, but he was elected to another five year term. In July 2001, Fradique de Menezes won the presidential election.
