Tom Colton
domesticated humans?!
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
As much as terra nullius is a Very Bad and Evil tool of colonialism used to justify murdering and exploiting native populations, there are some parts of the world which weren't settled until very recently (like, in the last half-millennium), and the islands of Cape Verde happen to be one of those, showing no signs of human habitation until Portuguese colonisation in the 15th century. The clickbait title is because Cape Verde (being a bunch of remote islands in the Atlantic Ocean) has been raised as one candidate for Plato's Atlantis - alternatively, they could be identified with the supposed "Fortunate Islands" of antiquity.
At any rate, the general environs of the area were known in Classical antiquity, around Plato's time, thanks to the pioneering works of the Carthaginian explorer called Hanno, whose route might have taken him as far as modern-day Cameroon.
This therefore leads to a few possibilities concerning people who might have wanted to settle these islands prior to the Portuguese:
Which of these are the most plausible? What implications would there be in antiquity, medieval or Age of Sail times for a settled population on these islands?
At any rate, the general environs of the area were known in Classical antiquity, around Plato's time, thanks to the pioneering works of the Carthaginian explorer called Hanno, whose route might have taken him as far as modern-day Cameroon.
This therefore leads to a few possibilities concerning people who might have wanted to settle these islands prior to the Portuguese:
- Neolithic Seneglaese peoples, whose artefacts evince a culture of seaborne fishing
- Indigenous Toucouleur/Tarkur and Soninke peoples of Senegal
- Migratory Wolof, Fulani and Serer peoples of Senegal
- Punic populations, be they Hisapnic Ulterior, Berber or Carthaginian
- Greek peoples following Hanno's route
- Roman explorers seeking out the "Fortunate Isles"
Which of these are the most plausible? What implications would there be in antiquity, medieval or Age of Sail times for a settled population on these islands?
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