Autonomous Region of Madeira

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Phoenicians, and in the time of King Juba II of Mauretania (first century B.C.) they were called the Insulae Purpuriae, after the purple dye produced there. When they were rediscovered by the Portu guese navigator Joao Gonçalves Zarco in 1419 they were uninhabited and covered with dense forest, hence the name Ilha da Madeira island of timber.

After the Portuguese colonization Madeira prospered by the growing of sugar cane. Together with mainland Portugal and the Azores it was under Spanish rule from 1580 to 1640. Between 1807 and 1814 it was occupied by Britain. The influx of tourists (at first mainly British) began in the middle of the 19th century and has grown steadily since then.

Economy

Only about a third of the island's area can be cultivated. Soon after Madeira's rediscovery in the 16th century deforestation by burning was begun, leading to the almost total destruction of the natural forest. Thereafter centuries of effort went into building up thousands of terraces (poios) on the hillsides which now constitute the major part of the cultivable land and give the island its characteristic appearance from the sea.

Since 1452 sugar cane was one of Madeira's most important products. In the 20th C., however it declined considerably in importance. Today the main crops include bananas, sweet potatoes, grain and early vegetables of all kinds. Much fruit is also grown, including, in addition to melons and grapefruit, such less usual species as the sugar apple or sweet sop (anona), passion fruit (maracuja) and loquat.

The intensive use of even the smallest cultivable area is only possible because of the irrigation system that has been in place for centuries whereby countless canals (levadas) carry the water from the north of the island, where rain is plentiful, to the south which is drier but where the farming is more intense.

Further contributions to the economy are made by cattle farming, and the dairy produce associated with it, and, along the coasts, fishing for tuna, mackerel, etc.

Needlework has been an additional source of income since the mid 19th C. when the craft was introduced by an Englishwoman named Miss Phelps. Nowadays Madeira's internationally famous embroidery employs some 30,000 women, most of them working at home. Baskets made in the workshops at Camacha are mostly for export (mainly to South America and South Africa).

Tourism

Tourism nowadays is another more substantial factor in the economy. The first prosperous English visitors came to Madeira in the mid 19th C., and they still come in large numbers today, but the island is also a popular winter destination for Scandinavians and Germans. Madeira has around 20,000 hotel bedspaces altogether, many of them in the de luxe category. About 350,000 holidaymakers overnight here in a year, plus a further 60,000 or so cruise passengers.

The attraction for most visitors to Madeira is the pleasant climate and the luxuriant vegetation, but many also come for the unique opportunities for walking that exist on the island because of the narrow paths installed for the repair of the levadas. These paths now function as a network of walks, many of them easy to use and lined with flowers, others only a foot's width and difficult for even the most experienced walker. As Madeira cannot boast much in the way of beaches it is not really a suitable holiday destination for families with children or for those who love to spend much of their time on the beach. The only good beaches are to be found on the neighboring island of Porto Santo.

Excursions on Madeira

Madeira's roads are good, albeit often narrow and winding. Some byroads are paved rather than asphalted, making it advisable to keep average speeds down to about 30kmph/20mph.