2019600 Years of the Discovery of Madeira - First Day Cover MS

The discovery and colonisation of the Archipelago of Madeira was, without a doubt, a unique and remarkable moment in world history. From early on, due to its geostrategic location, on both outward and return journeys, Madeira played a fundamental role in the Portuguese maritime expansion of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. Consequently, from these islands‘of the vast Ocean ower, noble Madeira’, - such were the immortal words of Francisco Álvares de Nobrega, the Machico- born Madeiran poet also known as ‘Little Camões’ -, stemmedthe globalisation which unequivocally marked and changed thesocio-economic paradigm of the country and the world.