The Republic of Cape Verde (Portuguese: Cabo Verde, 'kabu 'veɾdɨ), also Cape Verdi, is a republic located on an archipelago in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa. The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonized by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century (though there may have been earlier discoveries), and attained independence in 1975.