page_title: Portuguese Empire
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Portuguese Empire / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Katedrála Sé de Santa Catarina ve Staré Góe (Góa, Indie). English: The Sé de Santa Catarina Cathedral in Old Goa (Goa, India).
context_page_description: The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas or the Portuguese Colonial Empire, was composed of the overseas colonies and territories governed by Portugal. It was the first global empire in history and one of the longest-lived empires. It existed for almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415, to the handover of Portuguese Macau to China in 1999. The empire began in the 15th century, and from the early 16th century it stretched across the globe, with bases in North and South America, Africa, and various regions of Asia and Oceania.
  The Portuguese Empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery, and the power and influence of the Kingdom of Portugal would eventually expand across the globe. In the wake of the Reconquista, Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418–19, using recent developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, with the aim of finding a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice-trade. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama reached India.
context_section_description: Presently, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) serves as the cultural and intergovernmental successor of the Empire.
  Macau was returned to China on 20 December 1999, under the terms of an agreement negotiated between People's Republic of China and Portugal twelve years earlier. Nevertheless, the Portuguese language remains co-official with Cantonese Chinese in Macau.
  Currently, the Azores, Madeira, and Savage Islands are the only overseas territories that remain politically linked to Portugal. Although Portugal began the process of decolonizing East Timor in 1975, during 1999–2002 was sometimes considered Portugal's last remaining colony, as the Indonesian invasion of East Timor was not justified by Portugal.
  Eight of the former colonies of Portugal have Portuguese as their official language. Together with Portugal, they are now members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, which when combined total 10,742,000 km², or 7.2% of the Earth's landmass (148 939 063 km²). There are six associate observers of the CPLP: Georgia, Japan, Mauritius, Namibia, Senegal, and Turkey. Moreover, twelve candidate countries or regions have applied for membership to the CPLP and are awaiting approval.
  Today, Portuguese is one of the world's major languages, ranked sixth overall with approximately 240 million speakers around the globe. It is the third most spoken language in the Americas, mainly due to Brazil, although there are also significant communities of lusophones in nations such as Canada, the US and Venezuela. In addition, there are numerous Portuguese-based creole languages, including the one utilized by the Kristang people in Malacca.
  For instance, as Portuguese merchants were presumably the first to introduce the sweet orange in Europe, in several modern Indo-European languages the fruit has been named after them. Some examples are Albanian portokall, Bulgarian портокал (portokal), Greek πορτοκάλι (portokali), Macedonian портокал (portokal), Persian پرتقال (porteghal), and Romanian portocală. Related names can be found in other languages, such as Arabic البرتقال (bourtouqal), Georgian ფორთოხალი (p'ort'oxali), Turkish portakal and Amharic birtukan. Also, in southern Italian dialects (e.g., Neapolitan), an orange is portogallo or purtuallo, literally "(the) Portuguese (one)", in contrast to standard Italian arancia.
  In light of its international importance, Portugal and Brazil are leading a movement to include Portuguese as one of the official languages of the United Nations.
caption: The Se Cathedral in Goa, India, an example of Portuguese architecture and one of Asia's largest churches
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