Portugal

Portugal is a country in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and part of the Mediterranean.  It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. Its capital city is Lisbon  It has been a member of the European Union since 1986.  Portugal was under a dictatorship between 1926 and 1974 called Estado Novo. The dictatorship of Estado Novo was ended by a peaceful revolution called Carnation Revolution. The Portuguese economy has since prospered but was hit hard by the 2007-2008 recession.

Portugal has a football team and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and hosted the event in 2018.

It once had an empire called the Portuguese Empire, and was a powerful maritime nation from 1500s–1800s, the 10th-largest empire with a maximum land area of 10.4 million km² which included Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timore, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and even Macau in China (until 2002).

Portugal is a popular holiday destination but is sometimes overlooked in favour of larger countries like France, Spain and Italy. The Algarve region in the south and capital Lisbon are the most popular.

Geography
Three groups of islands in the Atlantic Ocean are also part of Portugal: the Azores (Açores), Madeira and the Savage Isles (Ilhas Selvagens). The Savage Isles are a small group of uninhabited islands, administered by Madeira. Portugal claims that Olivença is also part of its territory, but it is controlled by Spain.

History

Kingdom of Portugal 

Portugal became its own kingdom in 1139 but was not officially recognized until 1143.  Portugal has had links with England since the 1100s by a treaty.  The border with Spain has been almost the same since the 13th century.  Fishing and trading with other countries were important here.

Portugal was important in the world exploration for two reasons. Henry the Navigator, a prince from Portugal, was very interested in exploration. Inventions in navigation led to a bigger knowledge of geography.

This world exploration began the Portuguese Empire. Portugal was a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries. It tried to colonize Canada in the 16th century. However, it lost a lot of money soon after this. Portugal and Spain were in the Iberian Union from 1580 to 1640. The city of Lisbon was destroyed in an earthquake in 1755.  The country was occupied during the Peninsular War.  It lost its largest colony, Brazil, in 1822.

Portuguese Republic 
In 1910, the Kingdom of Portugal ended and Portugal became a Republic. Eight years after Portugal’s involvement in World War One, a military group took control of the country from the Portuguese First Republic called the 28 May coup d’état. This began a time of rule by authoritarian governments called Ditadura Nacíonal that later became known as Estado Novo. During World War II Portugal remained neutral but friendly to Britain and Spain. In 1974 a peaceful left-wing army coup, called the Carnation Revolution had taken place that overthrown the military dictatorship and ended the Portuguese Colonial War. Political prisoners and oppositions of António de Oliveira Salazar were freed. The coup was an important part of Portugal’s transition to democracy and changed the way the country was ran.

The next year, Portugal allowed its colonies in Africa to be on their own sovereignty: Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.

East Timor in Asia declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975, and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later.

Portugal went into the European Union in 1986. Another Asian colony, Macau, became part of China

The main language of Portugal is Portuguese.

Some famous Portuguese people are D. Afonso Henriques, Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Ferdinand Magellan, Luís de Camões, Fernando Pessoa, Amália Rodrigues, Álvaro Siza Vieira, Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Luís de Camões wrote the national poem of Portugal. It is called Os Lusíadas and was written in 1572.

Notes

Related pages
 List of rivers of Portugal
 Portugal at the Olympics
 Portugal national football team

References

 
Portuguese-speaking countries
European Union member states
1974 establishments in Europe