Genesis

Knowledge of the archipelago of Madeira existed much earlier than their formal discovery and settlement.

According to ancient literary artifacts, Plutarch in his Parallel Lives (Sertorius, 75 AD) referring to the military commander Quintus Sertorius (d. 72 BC), relates that after his return to Cádiz, he met sailors who spoke of idyllic Atlantic islands: "The islands are said to be two in number separated by a very narrow strait and lie 10,000 furlongs [2,000 km] from Africa. They are called the Isles of the Blessed." 

Archaeological evidence suggests that the islands may have been visited by the Vikings sometime between 900 and 1030.

In 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven off course by a storm to an island they named Porto Santo (English: holy harbour) in gratitude for divine deliverance from a shipwreck. The following year, an organised expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco, Vaz Teixeira, and Bartolomeu Perestrello, traveled to the island to claim it on behalf of the Portuguese Crown. Subsequently, the new settlers observed "a heavy black cloud suspended to the southwest." Their investigation revealed it to be the larger island they called Madeira.

 

Carnation Revolution

One of the more important days in modern Portuguese history was the Carnation Revolution, a military coup that took place on April 25, 1974. Famous for toppling an authoritarian government and ending fascism in Portugal with barely any violence, it also led to a new democracy. Now, April 25 is a national holiday, also known as Freedom Day, when government offices close and many locals have the day off work. Here are some extra facts about Portugal’s Carnation Revolution.

The revolution ended the ‘Estado Novo’ regime

 

The Estado Novo (Second Republic) regime began in 1933 under the leadership of Prime Minister and dictator António Salazar, after a prior coup overthrew the 16-year First Republic. Characterized as an authoritarian government, it was a time of censorship and oppression and maintained by a “secret police” force. After Salazar suffered a stroke, leadership was shifted to Marcello Caetano who ruled for six years until his resignation after the Carnation Revolution.

It ended Portugal’s colonization of Africa

 

One of the driving forces that led to the Carnation Revolution was a desire to end colonization in Africa, especially in light of the violent and costly Portuguese Colonial War. Decolonization began shortly after and by the end of 1975, many of Portugal’s (now) ex-colonies, like Angola, Cape Verde, São Tomé, and Mozambique, gained their independence.

The details were planned from the African colonies

Much of the planning for the Carnation Revolution happened by military stationed in African colonies, primarily Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea Bissau.

One of Lisbon’s two bridges is named after the revolution

 

Lisbon’s famous bridge, which heads towards the beaches of Costa da Caparica and Almada, has been nicknamed as Portugal’s Golden Gate Bridge but it is officially called Ponte 25 de Abril (25 of April Bridge), named for the day of the Carnation Revolution. Before this historic day, it was the Ponte Salazar (Salazar Bridge).

It was Portugal’s third coup in approximately six decades

The first Portuguese revolution of the 20th century was organized by the Portuguese Republican Party and overthrew the monarchy on October 5, 1910. After approximately 16 years of an unstable government, a military coup overthrew the First Republic and replaced it with the Estado Novo. The Carnation Revolution, the third Portuguese coup of the 20th century, took place almost 50 years later.

Soldiers placed flowers inside their guns

Google the Carnation Revolution and you’re likely to see photos and artwork depicting soldiers covered with carnations. The flowers were offered by civilians who joined the “rebel” soldiers in peaceful civil resistance. Even the officers’ guns had flowers poking out of them.

Soldiers placed flowers inside their gun barrels

Google the Carnation Revolution and you’re likely to see photos and artwork depicting soldiers covered with carnations. The flowers were offered by civilians who joined the “rebel” soldiers in peaceful civil resistance. Even the officers’ guns had flowers poking out of the barrels.

 

There were casulaties

 

Many people don’t know it but there were four casualties on April 25, 1974 – civilians shot by PIDE (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado), the Estado Novo’s secret police.

 

The first democratic vote took place a year later

 

Even though Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano resigned shortly after the revolution and the authoritarian government ended, the first democratic election wouldn’t take place until April 25, 1975. This is exactly one year after the Carnation Revolution.

History of the Jews in Madeira

The history of the Jews in Madeira spans the entire length of the history of Madeira itself, from Crypto-Jews to World War II evacuees. Like the Jews of mainland Portugal, Madeira jews are mainly related to Sephardi history, a Jewish ethnic division that represents communities who have originated in the Iberian Peninsula.

Manoel Dias Soeiro  better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh ben Israel (מנשה בן ישראל‎), was born in Madeira in 1604.

Menasseh was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, writer, diplomat, printer, publisher, and founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in 1626.

In 1819, Jews from Morocco arrived to Madeira and set themselves up in the cloth and wine trades.

The Synagogue of Funchal, called Shaar Hashamain, located at 33 Rua do Carmo, Funchal, is no longer in use and is the only known synagogue that has ever existed in Madeira. The construction period was around 1836, believed to be updated around 1914 by architect Miguel Ventura Terra, as he designed the Lisbon Synagogue around the same time.

The Abudarham family from Gibraltar were involved in the Madeira wine industry from the early 1860s onwards. Rabbi David Zaguri became its spiritual leader in 1857.

Another period of immigration followed in the 20th century, with the arrival of refugees from the First and Second World Wars. The Jewish community also grew due to the Evacuation of the Gibraltarian civilian population during World War II to Madeira. Tito Benady, a historian on Gibraltar Jewry, noted that when some 200 Jews of the 2000 evacuees from Gibraltar were evacuated as non combatants to Funchal, at the start of World War II, they found a Jewish cemetery that belonged to the Abudarham family, the same family after whom the Abudarham Synagogue in Gibraltar was named. Some of these evacuees were buried in the Jewish Cemetery of Funchal, a burial ground that was built in 1851. The Jewish Cemetery of Funchal is located in Rua do Lazareto, Funchal. Sephardi Jews as well as Ashkenazi Jews are buried there. Thirty-eight graves in total. The last burial took place in 1976.

In 2013, Passover Seder was held in Madeira sponsored by Shavei Israel and was attended by Bnei Anousim or Crypto-jews.

Was Madeira’s Pioneer, João G. Zarco, Jewish?

There are discussions as to whether João Gonçalves Zarco, the Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, could have been of Jewish Converso origin. It is believed that Zarco was of a prominent Jewish family from Santarém and Lisbon.

Mossé Zarco was King João II's tailor. There was also a Portuguese doctor named Joseph Zarco, whom some authors claim to be Joseph Ibn Sharga, the great kabbalist, and a sixteenth-century poet named Yehuda Zarco. Authors known for making the claim that João Gonçalves Zarco was of Jewish ancestry are Augusto Mascarenhas Barreto and Manuel Luciano da Silva, who also suggest that Christopher Columbus could have been of Jewish descent from Portugal and his real name was Salvador Fernandes Zarco. Isabel Violante Pereira also attributes Jewish ancestry to João Gonçalves Zarco.

The Valley of the Nuns

Curral das Freiras is situated in the mountainous interior of the island. Being one of the more distant locations from Câmara de Lobos, it is geographically isolated from other communities by the cliffs and peaks surrounding its central valley. A tunnel southwards in the direction of Funchal now offers safe access to the valley.

Initially, during its early settlement, access to the valley of Curral was difficult, and was only attempted by semi-nomadic shepherds and slaves who gained their emancipation or escaped from servitude. These people built small homes, and a small hamlet developed towards the end of the 15th century. More permanent residents began to dwell in the valley shortly after, although the area remained little developed.

The settlement was part of the dominion of João Gonçalves Zarco, who granted its use for cultivation around 1462 to João Ferreira and his wife Branca Dias. These settlers later donated their lands to their grandchild Branca Teixeira, on 22 August 1474. On 11 September 1480, the lands were, once again, sold to the second Captain-Donatório, João Gonçalves da Câmara (Zarco´s son), who in turn donated it the Convento of Santa Clara in the name of his daughter Elvira and Joana who lived in the convent.

During early colonization, the settlement was simply known as Curral or Curral da Serra (English: corral or English: corral of the mountains), because it was known for its extensive pasture-lands, used for grazing cattle and small herds (sheep and goats). The name was subsequently altered, when these lands became the property of the nuns of the Convent of Santa Clara (between 1492 and 1497). There is also some discrepancy; others credit the name change after 1566, when the nuns of the Convent took refuge on these properties, during the French privateer attacks on Funchal.

Vikings in Madeira by Sarah Griffiths

It is popularly thought that Portuguese explorers colonized Madeira in the 15th century, but mouse bones suggest that the Vikings visited the island four centuries beforehand. Scientists also believe that the mouse population that stowed away on their boats led to an ‘ecological disaster’ and the extinction of native birds. House mice reached the island in the year 1036 - four centuries before the Portuguese colonisation - according to a study published in the journal proceedings of the Royal Society B. The discovery comes after experts dated old mouse bones found at Ponta de São Lourenço, to the east of the island. Researchers from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (Imedea) in Majorca and the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, analysed two samples of bones and while the first yielded no information, the second was dated to between 900 and 1030AD, which is the earliest evidence of the presence of mice on the island.

‘Current populations of house mice on Madeira show similarities in mitochondrial DNA with those in Scandinavia and northern Germany, but not with those in Portugal,’ said Josep Antoni Alcover of Imedea. This hints that the mice were neither indigenous nor hitched a ride on the ships of Portuguese settlers who took possession of the island in 1419.

‘The second sample analysed leads us to think that the Vikings…[carried] the mice.’

He explained that more morphological and genetic studies of the remains are needed and there are no historical references of Vikings travelling to the island. However, if the findings are correct and Vikings did land on Madeira long ago, they may have triggered significant ecological changes on the island.

The researchers believe that the first human visitors began the extinction of endemic bird species on the island. They think the mice quickly thrived due to their reproductive potential and the lack of rats – and their predatory activity wiped out eggs and chicks of small and medium birds such as the quail and rail.

The researchers said that atleast two thirds of the endemic birds and two non-endemic species became extinct, which in turn enabled predators such as owls to prosper.

‘The introduction of the mice probably resulted in an ecological disaster, based on the extinction of endemic birds and changing the ecology of the island four years earlier than previously thought,’ Mr Alcover said.

Madeira Day

On 1 July 1976, following the democratic revolution of 1974, Portugal granted political autonomy to Madeira, celebrated on Madeira Day. The region now has its own government and legislative assembly.

Twelfth of September 1978 marks the date in which the Madeira flag made its debut to the public. The blue area symbolizes the sea surrounding the island and the yellow represents the abundance of life on the island. The red cross of the Order of Christ, with a white cross on it, is identical to the one on the flag of Prince Henry's ships that discovered the island. 

Slavery in Madeira

Evidence of slavery predates written records. It has clearly found its way into the history of many countries, and Portugal was no exception. The first slave market created in Portugal for the sale of imported African slaves – the Mercado de Escravos, opened in 1444. The very first slaves by the Portuguese were captured from the north of present-day Mauritania. By 1448, hundreds of black Africans were being shipped to Madeira.

Their labor was used in back breaking tasks such as the construction of the famous "levadas." This vast network of channels transported the much needed water to all parts of the island. The slaves were used to craft these channels out of the mountains, while hanging from baskets over steep cliffs, many lost their lives. By the year 1552, three thousand slaves could be found on the island of Madeira.

It should also be noted that without the slave trade, Madeira would not have developed into a profitable Portuguese colony.

During the ‘White Gold Era’ sugarcane production became a leading factor in the island's economy, and increased the demand for labour. This is where the slaves stepped in, working from dawn to dusk on fields and sugar plantations. One happy consequence of the decline of the sugar industry was the disappearance of slavery from the agricultural work force. By 1775, slavery had come to an end when it was finally abolished.

Madeira Re-discovered

Madeira appears on maps as early as 1339. From a portolan dating to 1351, and preserved in Florence, Italy, it would appear that the islands of Madeira had been discovered long before Portuguese vessels rediscovered them in the "official" timeline. In Libro del Conocimiento (1348–1349), a Spanish monk also identified the location of the islands in its present location, with the names Leiname, Diserta and Puerto Santo. Officially, in 1418, two captains under service to Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco and Tristão Vaz Teixeira, were driven off-course by a storm to an island which they named Porto Santo (English: holy harbour); the name was bestowed for their gratitude and divine deliverance from a possible shipwreck by the protected anchorage. 

The following year, an organized expedition, under the captaincy of Zarco and Vaz Teixeira, was sent to this new land, and along with captain Bartolomeu Perestrello, to take possession of the island on behalf of the Portuguese crown. Consequently, the new settlers discovered "a heavy black cloud suspended to the southwest", which when explored they discovered the larger island of Madeira.

A Historical Overview

20 Million BC

Volcanic eruptions in the ocean. Formation of the group of islands.

1.7 Million BC

Termination of volcanoes, cooled lava gave birth to the geological and geographical features.

1351

Madeira Island appears for the first time in a Florentine map titled "Part dell 'Affrica Tratt dalla V. del Portulano Charter."

1418 - 1420

Captains João Gonçalves Zarco, Tristão Vaz Teixeira and Bartolomeu Perestrelo set sail to Porto Santo. Zarco and Teixeira explore the coast. Madeira Island´s colonization begins.

1425

The commencement of the cultivation of sugar cane, also known as “white gold” which paved way to great economic prosperity. Tristão Vaz Teixeira named the administrator of the northern half of the island. The first settlers began to set fire to Funchal´s dense forest determining the best areas for the cultivation of sugar cane.

1440

The area of administration of ​​Tristão VazTeixeira is named a"Captaincy" and is located in Machico. The creation of the Municipalities of Ribeira Brava, São Vicente and Caniço.

1446

Bartolomeu Perestrelo becomes captain-donee of Porto Santo.

1450

João Gonçalves Zarco is named captain of the southwest half of the island, the captaincy of Funchal.

1455

Cultivation of wine. (Malvasia grape Crete /Candia).

1457

Death of João Gonçalves Zarco.

1470

Creation of the municipality of Ponta Delgada.

1478

Christopher Columbus travels to Madeira Islands to buy sugar. 

1479

Christopher Columbus Marries Dona Felipa Perestrelo e Moniz, Bartolomeu Perestrelo´s daughter. 

1480

Diego Columbus, Columbus´s first born is born in Porto Santo 

1497

D. Manuel I incorporates Madeira in the crown of Portugal.
Madeira Island is attacked by pirates.

1508

Funchal received its first charter between 1452 and 1454, which elevated it to town status and the county capital. In 1508 it was elevated to city status and received a coat of arms with five gold forms of sugar, in the shape of a cross, representing the economy of Madeira and fact that in a few decades it became the biggest European sugar exporter.

1513

The Fortress of St. Lawrence in the port of Funchal was constructed to protect the city against pirate attacks. 

1514

Inauguration of the Sé Cathedral of Funchal (Commencement 1493). It is elevated to bishopric by Pope Leo X. 

1530

Madeira, a major sugar cane exporter, gets competition from America (Portuguese colonies in Brazil). 

1566

Funchal is attacked by command of the French privateer Bertrand Montluc.
Palaces and churches were looted.
Death of Montluc.

1580

The Death of King Henry II. 

1581

D. Philip II of Spain, becomes D.Philip I of Portugal.

1588

England enters the coastal region of Portugal.
An increasing share of spice and slave trades are taken by English privateers. 

1595

The nearby Porto Santo Island is often plundered by pirates. 

1617

Porto Santo was a target of a large pirate attack where about 900 people were kidnapped. 

1620

English pirate John Ward attacks the capital Funchal (on behalf of Beys of Tunis). About 1200 people were abducted and taken to Tunisia as slaves. 

1640

Portuguese free themselves of the hated Spanish rule/regime. 

1662

Marriage of King Charles II of England with the Portuguese King´s daughter Catherine of Braganza. Expansion of the Madeira wine trade by English merchants.

1668

Portugal regains its independence.

1703

London imposed a wine embargo against France.
Madeira´s wine business is expanding greatly under the control of British dealers.

1724

cholera epidemic

1748

Strong earthquake 

1807 -1814

British “friendly occupation” of Madeira Island during the Napoleonic Wars. Madeira Island was then returned to Portugal in 1814 

1828

Madeira´s governor José Travassos Valdez fled to England under the protection of the Royal navy after a crushing defeat by Miguel of Portugal, who unrightfully claimed the crown after the death of King John IV of Portugal, for supporting the rightful heiress Maria II. 

1887

The birth of tourism in Madeira Island. An increase in ship traffic to the island from the northern colder European countries paves the way to what is today the main source of economy in Madeira, tourism. 

1891

The classy Reids hotel opens its doors to a upper class clientele. 

1916 and 1917

World War I, German U-boat arrived and torpedoed 3 ships in Funchal´s harbour. 

1922

Charles I , the last emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire, died after he came into exile in Madeira Island. 

1931

Population revolts against the strict economic measures set in place by Oliveira Salazar´s government. A general strike took place that was then suppressed by troops sent in from Lisbon. This event commenced a wave of emigration to South America, USA and Hawaii. 

1964

Santa Catarina International Airport is inaugurated 

1974

Portugal´s democratic revolution took place on April 25 and put to end years of dictatorship 

1976

Political autonomy was granted to Madeira Island. The island has its own government, legislation and presidency. 

1986

Madeira is granted great financial support after Portugal entered the European Economic Community.

2010

On February 20^th Madeira was hit by violent winds and torrential rains causing various mudslides throughout the island. About 50 people were killed.