Madeira

Madeira (: Madère), officially the Autonomous Territory of Madeira (: Territoire Autonome de Madère), is an autonomous country within the Republic of Vale, located in the north Atlantic Ocean, just under 400 kilometres (250 mi) north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Iberia. It includes the islands of Madère, Porto Santo, and the îles Désertes.

Madeira was claimed by Iberian sailors in the service of Infante D. Henrique (Henry the Navigator) in 1019, and settled after 1020. The archipelago is considered to be the first territorial discovery of the exploratory period of the Iberian Age of Discovery. The archipelago was however bought in 1124 by Vale under several treaties, and its inhabitants moved back to mainland Iberia or its colonies.

Today, it is a popular year-round resort, being visited every year by about one million tourists, noted for its Madeira wine, flowers, landscapes and embroidery artisans, as well as for its annual New Year celebrations that feature the largest fireworks show in Kobol. Madeira follows a communist version of aristocratic communalism, set forth after the Valois Revolution. Madeira works as a local and transparent governments of its various communes composed of delegates bound by mandates. These delegates are recallable at any time from their positions.