History of Portugal
Encyclopedia
The history of Portugal
, a Europe
an and an Atlantic nation
, dates back to the Early Middle Ages
. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended
to the status of a world power
during Europe's "Age of Discovery
" as it built up a vast empire
including possessions in South America
, Africa
, Asia
and Australasia
. In the next two centuries, Portugal gradually lost much of its wealth and status as the Dutch
, English
and French
took an increasing share of the spice
and slave trades (the economic basis of its empire), by surrounding or conquering the widely-scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories, leaving it with ever fewer resources to defend its overseas interests.
Signs of military decline began with two disastrous battles: the Battle of Alcácer Quibir
in Morocco in 1578 and Spain's abortive attempt
to conquer England in 1588 (Portugal was then in a dynastic union with Spain
, and contributed ships to the Spanish invasion fleet). The country was further weakened by the destruction of much of its capital city in a 1755 earthquake
, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars
and the loss of its largest colony, Brazil
, in 1822. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, nearly two-million Portuguese
left Europe to live in Brazil and the United States (U.S.). In 1910, there was a revolution that deposed the monarchy; however, the subsequent republic was unable to solve the country's problems. Amid corruption, repression of the church, and the near bankruptcy of the state, a military coup in 1926 installed a dictatorship that remained until another coup in 1974. The new government instituted sweeping democratic
reforms and granted independence to all of Portugal's African colonies in 1975.
Portugal is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA). It entered the European Community (now the European Union
) in 1986.
name Portus Cale
. Cale was the name of an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean
in the north of what is now Portugal. Around 200 BC, the Romans took the Iberian Peninsula
from the Carthaginians
during the Second Punic War
, and in the process conquered Cale and renamed it Portus Cale (Port of Cale
). During the Middle Ages
, the region around Portus Cale became known by the Suevi and Visigoths as Portucale
. The name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho
, the Minho flowing along what would become the northern border between Portugal and Spain
. By the 11th and 12th century, Portugale was already referred to as Portugal.
The etymology of the name Cale is mysterious, as is the identity of the town's founders. Some historians have argued that Greeks were the first to settle Cale and that the name derives from the Greek
word kallis (καλλις), 'beautiful', referring to the beauty of the Douro valley. Still others have claimed that Cale originated in the language of the Gallaeci people indigenous to the surrounding region (see below). Others argue that Cale is a Celtic name like many others found in the region. The word cale or cala, would mean 'port', an 'inlet' or 'harbour,' and implied the existence of an older celtic harbour. Others argue it is the stem of Gallaecia. Another theory claims it derives from Caladunum.
In any case, the Portu part of the name Portucale became Porto
, the modern name for the city located on the site of the ancient city of Cale at the mouth of the Douro River. And Port
became the name in English of the wine from the Douro Valley region around Porto. The name Cale is today reflected in Gaia (Vila Nova de Gaia
), a city on the left bank of the river.
s and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, did establish organized societies. Neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and pluvial or marine fishing.
Early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from central Europe
and inter-married with the local populations, forming different ethnic groups
, with many tribes. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of northern Portugal
, the Lusitanians of central Portugal
, the Celtici of Alentejo
, and the Cynetes or Conii of the Algarve
. Among the lesser tribes or sub-divisions were the Bracari
, Coelerni
, Equaesi
, Grovii
, Interamici
, Leuni
, Luanqui
, Limici
, Narbasi
, Nemetati
, Paesuri
, Quaquerni
, Seurbi
, Tamagani
, Tapoli
, Turduli
, Turduli Veteres
, Turdulorum Oppida
, Turodi
, and Zoelae
).
There were in the southern part the country, some small, semi-permanent commercial coastal settlements founded by Phoenicians-Carthaginians (such as Tavira
, in the Algarve).
According to John Koch, Cunliffe, Karl, Wodtko and other scholars, Celtic culture may have developed first in far Southern Portugal and Southwestern Spain, approximately 500 years prior to anything recorded in Central Europe. The Tartessian language
from the southwest of the Iberian peninsula, which John T. Koch
has claimed to be able to translate, is being accepted by a number of philologists and other linguists as the first attested Celtic language, but the linguistic mainstream continues to treat Tartessian as an unclassified (Pre-Indo-European?) language, and Koch's view of the evolution of Celtic is not generally accepted.
The first Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula occurred in 219 BC. Within 200 years, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Empire
. The Carthaginians, Rome's adversary in the Punic Wars
, were expelled from their coastal colonies.
The Roman conquest of what is now part of modern day Portugal took several decades: it started from the south, where the Romans found friendly natives, the Conii. It suffered a severe setback in 194 BC, when a rebellion began in the north. The Lusitanians and other native tribes, under the leadership of Viriathus
, wrested control of all of Portugal. Rome sent numerous legions and its best generals to Lusitania to quell the rebellion, but to no avail — the Lusitanians gained more and more territory. The Roman leaders decided to change their strategy. They bribed Viriathus's ambassador to kill his own leader. Viriathus was assassinated, and the resistance was soon over.
Rome installed a colonial regime. During this period, Lusitania grew in prosperity and many of modern day Portugal's cities and towns were founded. In 27 BC, Lusitania gained the status of Roman province
. Later, a northern province of Lusitania was formed, known as Gallaecia
, with capital in Bracara (today's Braga
).
Contemporary historians include Paulus Orosius (c. 375-418) and Hydatius
(c. 400–469), bishop of Aquae Flaviae
, who reported on the final years of the roman rule and arrival of the germanic tribes.
In the early 5th century, Germanic tribes invaded the peninsula, namely the Suevi, the Vandals
(Silingi
and Hasdingi
) and their allies, the Sarmatia
n Alans
. Only the kingdom of the Suevi (Quadi
and Marcomanni
) endured after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths, who conquered all of the Iberian Peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually conquered the Suevi kingdom and its capital city Bracara in 584–585.
The Germanic tribe of the Buri
also accompanied the Suevi in their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula
and colonization of Gallaecia
(modern northern Portugal and Galicia). The Buri settled in the region between the rivers Cávado
and Homem, in the area known as thereafter as Terras de Boiro or Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri).
Other minor influences from this period include some 5th century vestiges of Alan
settlement, which were found in Alenquer
, Coimbra
and even Lisbon
.
Landing near Algeciras in the spring of 711, the Islam
ic Moors
(mainly Berber
s with some Arab
s) from North Africa
invaded the Iberian Peninsula., destroying the Visigoth
ic Kingdom. Many of the ousted Gothic nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands
. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors: this war of reconquest is known in Portuguese
(and Spanish
) as the Reconquista
.
In 868, Count Vímara Peres
reconquered and governed the region between the rivers Minho
and Douro
. The county was then known as Portucale (i.e., Portugal).
While it had its origins as a dependency of the Kingdom of León
, Portugal occasionally gained de facto independence during weak Leonese reigns.
Portugal gained its first de jure independence (as the Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal) in 1065 under the rule of Garcia II
. Because of feudal power struggles, Portuguese and Galician nobles rebelled. In 1072, the country rejoined León
under Garcia II's brother Alfonso VI of León.
In 1095, Portugal separated almost completely from the Kingdom of Galicia
. Its territories consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego River.
At the end of the 11th century, the Burgundian knight Henry
became count of Portugal and defended his independence, merging the County of Portucale and the County of Coimbra
. Henry declared independence for Portugal while a civil war raged between León and Castile.
Henry died without achieving his aims. His son, Afonso Henriques
, took control of the county. The city of Braga, the unofficial Catholic centre of the Iberian Peninsula, faced new competition from other regions. Lords of the cities of Coimbra and Porto
(then Portucale) with Braga
's clergy demanded the independence of the renewed county.
Portugal traces its national origin to 24 June 1128, with the Battle of São Mamede. Afonso proclaimed himself first Prince of Portugal and in 1139 the first King of Portugal. By 1143, with the assistance of a representative of the Holy See
at the conference of Zamora, Portugal was formally recognized as independent, with the prince recognized as Dux Portucalensis. In 1179 Afonso I was declared, by the Pope
, as king. After the Battle of São Mamede, the first capital of Portugal was Guimarães
from which the first king ruled. Later, when Portugal was already officially independent, he ruled from Coimbra
.
From 1249 to 1250 the Algarve, the southernmost region, was finally re-conquered by Portugal from the Moors
. In 1255 the capital shifted to Lisbon
. Neighboring Spain would not complete their Reconquista until 1492 almost 250 years later.
Portugal's land-based boundaries have been notably stable in history. The border with Spain has remained almost unchanged since the 13th century. The Treaty of Windsor (1386) created an alliance between Portugal and England
that remains in effect to this day. Since early times, fishing and overseas commerce have been the main economic activities. Henry the Navigator's interest in exploration together with some technological developments in navigation made Portugal's expansion possible and led to great advances in geographic, mathematical, scientific knowledge and technology, more specifically naval technology.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal was a leading European power, ranking with England, France and Spain in terms of economic, political, and cultural influence. Though not predominant in European affairs, Portugal did have an extensive colonial trading empire throughout the world backed by a powerful thalassocracy
.
July 25, 1415 marked the beginning of the Portuguese Empire
, when the Portuguese Armada departed to the rich trade Islamic centre of Ceuta
in North Africa
with King John I
and his wife Phillipa of Lancaster and their sons Prince Duarte (future king), Prince Pedro, Prince Henry the Navigator (born in Porto in 1394) and Prince Afonso, and legendary Portuguese hero Nuno Álvares Pereira
. On August 21, 1415, Ceuta, the city on the coast of North Africa directly across from Gibraltar, was conquered by Portugal, and the long-lived Portuguese Empire was founded. The conquest of Ceuta had been helped by the fact that a major civil war had been engaging the Muslims of the Magrib (North Africa) since 1411. This same civil war between the Muslims prevented a re-capture of Ceuta from the Portuguese, when Muhammad IX, the Left-Handed King of Granada
, laid siege to Ceuta and attempted to coordinate the forces in Morocco and attempted to get aid and assistance for the effort from Tunis. The Muslim attempt to retake Ceuta was ultimately unsuccessful and Ceuta remained the first part of the new Portuguese Empire. However, further steps were taken that would soon expand the Portuguese Empire.
In 1418 two of the captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco
and Tristão Vaz Teixeira
, were driven by a storm to an island which they called Porto Santo
("Holy Port") in gratitude for their rescue from the shipwreck. In 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco
disembarked on Madeira Island. Uninhabited Madeira Island was colonized by the Portuguese in 1420. Between 1427 and 1431, most of the Azorean islands were discovered and these uninhabited islands were colonized by the Portuguese in 1445. Similarly, the Canary Islands were also discovered by the Portuguese, but Castile objected to any claim by the Portuguese to the Canary Islands and, thus, settlement by the Portuguese of these islands was not undertaken. The Canary Islands would eventually be part of the Spanish Empire.
In 1434, Gil Eanes
turned the Cape Bojador
, south of Morocco
. The trip marked the beginning of the Portuguese exploration of Africa
. Before the turn, very little information was known in Europe about what lay around the cape. At the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th, those who tried to venture there became lost, which gave birth to legends of sea monster
s. Some setbacks occurred: in 1436 the Canaries
were officially recognized as Castilian by the Pope; earlier they were recognized as Portuguese. Also, in 1438 in a military expedition to Tangier
, the Portuguese were defeated.
However, the Portuguese did not give up their exploratory efforts. In 1448, on a small island known as Arguim off the coast of Mauritania
, an important castle was built, working as a feitoria
, a trading post, for commerce with inland Africa. Some years before the first African gold
was brought to Portugal, circumventing the Arab caravans that crossed the Sahara. Some time later, the caravel
s explored the Gulf of Guinea which lead to the discovery of several uninhabited islands: Cape Verde
, Fernão Póo, São Tomé
, Príncipe and Annobón
. On November 13, 1460, Prince Henry the Navigator died. He had been the leading patron of all maritime exploration by Portugal up to that time. Immediately following Henry's death, there was a lapse of further exploration. However, Henry's patronage of explorations had shown that profits could be made in trade which followed the exploration of new lands. Accordingly when exploration was commenced again private merchants led the way in attempting to stretch trade routes further down the African coast. In 1470s, Portuguese trading ships reached the Gold Coast
. Finally, in 1471, the Portuguese captured Tangier, after years of attempts. Eleven years later in 1482, the fortress of São Jorge da Mina in the town of Elmina
on the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea
was built. (Setting sail aboard the fleet of ships taking the materials and building crews to Elmina on this trip in December of 1481 was Christopher Columbus
.) In 1483, Diogo Cão
reached and explored the Congo River
.
In 1484, Portugal officially rejected Christopher Columbus
's idea of reaching India
from the west, because it was seen as unreasonable. Some historians have claimed that the Portuguese had already performed fairly accurate calculations concerning the size of the world and therefore knew that sailing west to reach the Indies would require a far longer journey than navigating to the east. However, this continues to be debated. Thus began a long-lasting dispute which eventually resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas
with Spain in 1494. The treaty divided the (largely undiscovered) world equally between the Spanish and the Portuguese, along a north-south meridian line
370 leagues (1770 km/1100 miles) west of the Cape Verde
islands, with all lands to the east belonging to Portugal and all lands to the west to Spain.
A remarkable achievement was the turning of the Cape of Good Hope
by Bartolomeu Dias
in 1487. The richness of India
was now accessible. Indeed the name of the cape stems from this promise of rich trade with the east. In 1489, the King of Bemobi gave his realms to the Portuguese king and became Christian
. Between 1491 and 1494, Pêro de Barcelos
and João Fernandes Lavrador
explored North America
. At the same time, Pêro da Covilhã
reached Ethiopia
by land. Vasco da Gama
sailed for India, and arrived at Calicut
on 20 May 1498, returning in glory to Portugal the next year. The Monastery of Jerónimos was built, dedicated to the discovery of the route to India.
In the spring of 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral
set sail from Cape Verde with 13 ships and crews and a list of nobles that included Nicolau Coelho
, Bartolomeu Dias
and his brother Diogo, Duarte Pacheco Pereira
(author of the Esmeraldo) along with various other nobles, nine chaplains and some 1,200 men. From Cape Verde they sailed southwest across the Atlantic. On April 22, 1500, they caught sight of land in the distance. They disembarked and claimed this new land for Portugal. This was the coast of what would later become the Portuguese colony of Brazil
.
However, the real goal of the expedition was to open sea trade to the empires of the east. Trade with the east had effectively been cut off since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Accordingly, Cabral turned from exploring the coasts of the new land of Brazil and sailed to the southeast back across the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope. Cabral reached Sofala
on the east coast of Africa in July of 1500. Later in 1505, a Portuguese fort would be established here and the land around the fort would become the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Then they sailed on to the east and landed in Calicut
in India in September of 1500. Here they traded for pepper and, more significantly opened European sea trade with the empires of the east. No longer would the Islamic occupation of Constantinople form a barrier between Europe and the east.Ten years later in 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque
after attempting and failing to capture and occupy Zamorin's Calicut militarily, conquered Goa
on the west coast of India.
With this, the Portuguese became the first civilization to fully start the process we know today as globalization
.
João da Nova
discovered Ascension
in 1501 and Saint Helena
in 1502; Tristão da Cunha
was the first to sight the archipelago still known by his name 1506. In 1505, Francisco de Almeida
was engaged to improve the Portuguese trade with the far east. Accordingly, he sailed to East Africa. Several small Islamic states along the coast of Mozambique
, Kilwa, Brava
and Mombasa
were destroyed or became subjects or allies of Portugal. Almeida then sailed on to Cochin, and made peace with the ruler there and built a stone fort there.
The two million Portuguese people ruled a vast empire with many millions of inhabitants in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. From 1514, the Portuguese had reached China
and Japan
. In the Indian Ocean
and Arabian Sea
, one of Cabral's ships discovered Madagascar
(1501), which was partly explored by Tristão da Cunha
(1507); Mauritius
was discovered in 1507, Socotra
occupied in 1506, and in the same year Lourenço de Almeida
visited Ceylon.
In the Red Sea
, Massawa
was the most northerly point frequented by the Portuguese until 1541, when a fleet under Estevão da Gama
penetrated as far as Suez
. Hormuz
, in the Persian Gulf
, was seized by Afonso de Albuquerque
in 1515, who also entered into diplomatic relations with Persia
. In 1521, a force under Antonio Correia
conquered Bahrain
ushering in a period of almost 80 years of Portuguese rule of the Persian Gulf archipelago (for further information see Bahrain as a Portuguese dominion).
On the Asiatic mainland the first trading stations were established by Pedro Álvares Cabral
at Cochin and Calicut (1501); more important were the conquests of Goa
(1510) and Malacca
(1511) by Afonso de Albuquerque
, and the acquisition of Diu (1535) by Martim Afonso de Sousa
. East of Malacca Albuquerque sent Duarte Fernandes
as envoy to Siam (now Thailand
) in 1511, and dispatched to the Moluccas two expeditions (1512, 1514), which founded the Portuguese dominion in Maritime Southeast Asia
. The Portuguese established their base in the "Spice Islands" on the island of Ambon. Fernão Pires de Andrade
visited Canton in 1517 and opened up trade with China, where in 1557 the Portuguese were permitted to occupy Macau
. Japan
, accidentally reached by three Portuguese traders in 1542, soon attracted large numbers of merchants and missionaries. In 1522 one of the ships in the expedition that Ferdinand Magellan
organized in the Spanish service completed the first voyage around the world
.
By the end of the 15th century, Portugal expelled some local Jews, along with those refugees that came from Castile
and Aragon
after 1492. In addition, many Jews were forcibly converted to Catholicism and remained as Converso
s. Many Jews remained secretly Jewish, in danger of persecution by the Portuguese Inquisition
. In 1506, 3,000 "New Christians" were massacred in Lisbon.
died in battle without an heir and his body was not found. His death lead to a dynastic crisis
. The late king's elderly granduncle, Cardinal Henry, became king. However, Henry I died a mere two years later on January 31, 1580. Portugal was worried about the maintenance of its independence and sought help to find a new king. Philip II of Spain
was on his mother's side the grandson of King Manuel I
, and on that basis claimed the Portuguese throne. He was opposed by António, Prior of Crato
, the illegitimate son of one of the younger sons of Manuel I. As a result, following Henry's death Spain invaded Portugal and the Spanish king became Philip I of Portugal in 1580; the Spanish
and Portuguese Empires came under a single rule. This did not, however, end resistance to Spanish rule. The Prior of Crato held out in the Azores
until 1583, and continued to actively seek to recover the throne until his death in 1595. Impostor
s claimed to be King Sebastian in 1584, 1585, 1595 and 1598. "Sebastianism
", the myth that the young king will return to Portugal on a foggy day, has prevailed until modern times.
After the 16th century, Portugal gradually saw its wealth decreasing. Portugal was officially an autonomous state, but, in actuality, the country was under the rule of the Spanish
from 1580 to 1640
. The Consejo de Portugal independent inasmuch as it was one of the key administrative units used by the Castilian monarchy, on legally equal terms with the Consejo de Indias.
The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and Spain's enemies became Portugal's. England
had been an ally of Portugal since the Treaty of Windsor
in 1386. War between Spain and England led to a deterioration of the relations with Portugal's oldest ally, and the loss of Hormuz
. From 1595 to 1663 Dutch-Portuguese War
led to invasions of many countries in Asia
and commercial interests in Japan
, Africa
and South America
. In 1624, the Dutch seized Bahia
, the capital of Brazil. In 1630, the Dutch seized Pernambuco in northern Brazil. The Treaty of 1654 returned Pernambuco to Portuguese control. Both the English and the Dutch continued to aspire to dominate both the Atlantic slave trade and the spice trade with the Far East.
The Dutch intrusion into Brazil was long lasting and troublesome to Portugal. The Seven Provinces (the Dutch) captured a large portion of the Brazilian coast including Bahia
, Salvador, Recife
, Pernambuco
, Paraíba
, Rio Grande do Norte
, Ceará
, and Sergipe
, while Dutch privateers sacked Portuguese ships in both the Atlantic
and Indian Ocean
s. This was reversed, beginning with a major Spanish-Portuguese military operation in 1625. This laid the foundations for the recovery of remaining Dutch controlled areas. The other smaller, less developed areas were recovered in stages and relieved of Dutch piracy in the next two decades by local resistance and Portuguese expeditions. After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal would reestablish its authority over some lost territories of the Portuguese Empire
.
, and Portugal maintained an independent law, currency and government. It was even proposed to move the Spanish capital to Lisbon
. Later, Philip IV
tried to make Portugal a Spanish province, and Portuguese nobles lost power. Because of this, as well as the general strain on the finances of the Spanish throne as a result of the Thirty Years War, on 1 December 1640, the Duke of Braganza
, one of the great native noblemen and a descendant of King Manuel I, was proclaimed king as John IV
, and a war of independence against Spain was launched. Ceuta governors did not accept the new king; they maintained their allegiance to Spain. Although Portugal had substantially attained its independence in 1640, the Spanish continued to try to reassert their control for the next twenty-eight years, only accepting Portuguese independence in 1668.
In the 17th century the Portuguese emigrated in large numbers to Brazil. By 1709, John V prohibited emigration, since Portugal had lost a sizable fraction of its population. Brazil was elevated to a vice-kingdom.
In 1738, Sebastião de Melo, the talented son of a Lisbon squire, began a diplomatic career as the Portuguese Ambassador
in London
and later in Vienna
. The Queen consort
of Portugal, Archduchess Maria Anne Josefa of Austria
, was fond of Melo; and after his first wife died, she arranged the widowed de Melo's second marriage to the daughter of the Austrian Field Marshal Leopold Josef, Count von Daun. King John V of Portugal, however, was not pleased and recalled Melo to Portugal in 1749. John V died the following year and his son, Joseph I of Portugal was crowned. In contrast to his father, Joseph I was fond of de Melo, and with the Queen Mother
's approval, he appointed Melo as Minister of Foreign Affairs. As the King's confidence in de Melo increased, the King entrusted him with more control of the state.
By 1755, Sebastião de Melo was made Prime Minister. Impressed by British economic success he had witnessed while Ambassador, he successfully implemented similar economic
policies in Portugal. He abolished slavery in Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies in India
; reorganized the army and the navy; restructured the University of Coimbra, and ended discrimination against different Christian
sects in Portugal.
But Sebastião de Melo's greatest reforms were economic and financial, with the creation of several companies and guilds to regulate every commercial activity. He demarcated the region for production of Port
to ensure the wine's quality, and this was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe. He ruled with a strong hand by imposing strict law upon all classes of Portuguese society from the high nobility to the poorest working class, along with a widespread review of the country's tax system. These reforms gained him enemies in the upper classes, especially among the high nobility, who despised him as a social upstart.
Disaster fell upon Portugal in the morning of 1 November 1755, when Lisbon
was struck by a violent earthquake
with an estimated Richter scale
magnitude of 9. The city was razed to the ground by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and ensuing fires. Sebastião de Melo survived by a stroke of luck and then immediately embarked on rebuilding the city, with his famous quote: "What now? We bury the dead and feed the living."
Despite the calamity, Lisbon suffered no epidemics and within less than one year was already being rebuilt. The new downtown of Lisbon
was designed to resist subsequent earthquakes. Architectural models were built for tests, and the effects of an earthquake were simulated by marching troops around the models. The buildings and big squares of the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon still remain as one of Lisbon's tourist attractions: They represent the world's first quake-proof buildings. Sebastião de Melo also made an important contribution to the study of seismology
by designing an inquiry that was sent to every parish in the country.
Following the earthquake, Joseph I gave his Prime Minister even more power, and Sebastião de Melo became a powerful, progressive dictator. As his power grew, his enemies increased in number, and bitter disputes with the high nobility became frequent. In 1758 Joseph I was wounded in an attempted assassination. The Távora family
and the Duke of Aveiro were implicated and executed after a quick trial. The Jesuits
were expelled from the country and their assets confiscated by the crown. Sebastião de Melo showed no mercy and prosecuted every person involved, even women and children. This was the final stroke that broke the power of the aristocracy and ensured the victory of the Minister against his enemies. Based upon his swift resolve, Joseph I made his loyal minister Count of Oeiras in 1759.
Following the Távora affair, the new Count of Oeiras knew no opposition. Made "Marquis of Pombal" in 1770, he effectively ruled Portugal until Joseph I's death in 1779. However, historians also argue that Pombal’s "enlightenment," while far-reaching, was primarily a mechanism for enhancing autocracy at the expense of individual liberty and especially an apparatus for crushing opposition, suppressing criticism, and furthering colonial
economic exploitation as well as intensifying book censorship and consolidating personal control and profit.
The new ruler, Queen Maria I of Portugal
, disliked the Marquis (See Távora affair
), and forbade him from coming within 20 miles of her, thus curtailing his influence.
. Joseph refused to accept this and protested that his 1704 alliance with Britain was no threat.
In spring 1762 Spanish troops invaded Portugal from the north as far as the Douro
, while a second column captured Almeida
and threatened to advance on Lisbon. The arrival of a force of British troops rescued Portugal from defeat, blocking the Spanish advance and driving them back across the border following the Battle of Valencia de Alcántara. At the Treaty of Paris
in 1763 Spain agreed to hand back Almeida to Portugal.
of embargo against the United Kingdom
; a French invasion under General Junot
followed, and Lisbon was captured on 8 December 1807. British intervention in the Peninsular War
restored Portuguese independence, the last French troops being expelled in 1812. The war cost Portugal the province of Olivença
, now governed by Spain. Rio de Janeiro
in Brazil, was the Portuguese capital between 1808 and 1821. In 1820 constitutionalist insurrections took place at Oporto
(24 August) and Lisbon (15 September). Lisbon regained its status as the capital of Portugal when Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822.
The death of John VI
in 1826 led to a crisis of royal succession. His eldest son, Peter I of Brazil
, briefly became Peter IV of Portugal, but neither the Portuguese nor the Brazilians wanted a unified monarchy; consequently, Peter abdicated the Portuguese crown in favor of his 7-year-old daughter, Maria da Glória, on the condition that when of age she would marry his brother, Miguel
. Dissatisfaction at Peter's constitutional reforms led the "absolutist" faction of landowners and the church to proclaim Miguel as king in February 1828. This led to the Liberal Wars
in which Pedro, eventually forced Miguel to abdicate and go into exile in 1834, and placed his daughter on throne as Queen Maria II.
In 1890 the British government made an ultimatum
delivered on 11 January 1890, to Portugal
, forcing the retreat of Portuguese military forces in the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe
and Zambia
). The area had been claimed by Portugal, which had included it in its "Pink Map
", but this clashed with British aspirations to create a railroad link between Cairo
and Cape Town
, thereby linking its colonies from the north of Africa to the very south. This diplomatic clash leading to several waves of protest, prompted the downfall of the Portuguese government. The 1890 British Ultimatum was considered by Portuguese historians and politics at that time, the most outrageous and infamous action of the British against her oldest ally.
(PRP) and claimed that the PRP had turned the republican regime into a de facto dictatorship. This vision clashes with an older interpretation of the First Republic as a progressive and increasingly democratic regime that presented a clear contrast to Salazar
’s ensuing dictatorship.
The revolution immediately targeted the Catholic Church: churches were plundered, convents were attacked and religious (priests and nuns) were harassed. Scarcely had the provisional government been installed when it began devoting its entire attention to an anti-religious policy, in spite of a disastrous economic situation. On 10 October – five days after the inauguration of the Republic – the new government decreed that all convents, monasteries and all religious orders were to be suppressed. All religious were expelled and their goods confiscated. The Jesuits were forced to forfeit their Portuguese citizenship.
A series of anti-Catholic laws and decrees followed each other in rapid succession. On 3 November, a law legalizing divorce was passed; then laws recognizing the legitimacy of children born outside wedlock, authorizing cremation, secularizing cemeteries, suppressing religious teaching in the schools and prohibiting the wearing of the cassock, were passed. In addition, the ringing of church bells and times of worship were subjected to certain restraints, and the public celebration of religious feasts was suppressed. The government even interfered with the seminaries, reserving the right to name the professors and determine the programs. This whole series of laws authored by Afonso Costa
culminated in the law of Separation of Church and State, which was passed on 20 April 1911.
A republican constitution was approved in 1911, inaugurating a parliamentary regime with reduced presidential powers and two chambers of parliament. The Republic provoked important fractures within Portuguese society, notably among the essentially monarchist rural population, in the trade unions, and in the Church. Even the PRP had to endure the secession of its more moderate elements, who formed conservative republican parties like the Evolutionist party and the Republican Union. In spite of these splits, the PRP, led by Afonso Costa
, preserved its dominance, largely due to a brand of clientelist politics inherited from the monarchy. In view of these tactics, a number of opposition forces were forced to resort to violence in order to enjoy the fruits of power. There are few recent studies of this period of the Republic’s existence, known as the ‘old’ Republic. Nevertheless, an essay by Vasco Pulido Valente should be consulted (1997a), as should the attempt to establish the political, social, and economic context made by M. Villaverde Cabral (1988).
The PRP viewed the outbreak of the First World War as a unique opportunity to achieve a number of goals: putting an end to the twin threats of a Spanish invasion of Portugal and of foreign occupation of the African colonies and, at the internal level, creating a national consensus around the regime and even around the party. These domestic objectives were not met, since participation in the conflict was not the subject of a national consensus and since it did not therefore serve to mobilise the population. Quite the opposite occurred: existing lines of political and ideological fracture were deepened by Portugal’s intervention in the First World War. The lack of consensus around Portugal’s intervention in turn made possible the appearance of two dictatorships, led by General Pimenta de Castro (January–May 1915) and Sidónio Pais
(December 1917-December 1918).
Sidonismo, also known as Dezembrismo (English
"Decemberism"), aroused a strong interest among historians, largely as a result of the elements of modernity that it contained. António José Telo has made clear the way in which this regime predated some of the political solutions invented by the totalitarian and fascist dictatorships of the 1920s and 1930s. Sidónio Pais undertook the rescue of traditional values, notably the Pátria (English: "Homeland"), and attempted to rule in a charismatic fashion. A move was made to abolish traditional political parties and to alter the existing mode of national representation in parliament (which, it was claimed, exacerbated divisions within the Pátria) through the creation of a corporative Senate
, the founding of a single-party (the National Republican Party), and the attribution of a mobilising function to the leader. The state carved out an economically interventionist role for itself while, at the same time, repressing working-class movements and leftist republicans. Sidónio Pais also attempted to restore public order and to overcome some of the rifts of the recent past, making the republic more acceptable to monarchists and Catholics.
The vacuum of power created by Sidónio Pais’ murder on 14 December 1918, led the country to a brief civil war
. The monarchy’s restoration was proclaimed in the north of Portugal on 19 January 1919, and four days later a monarchist insurrection broke out in Lisbon
. A republican coalition government, led by José Relvas
, coordinated the struggle against the monarchists by loyal army units and armed civilians. After a series of clashes the monarchists were definitively chased from Oporto
on 13 February 1919. This military victory allowed the PRP to return to government and to emerge triumphant from the elections held later that year, having won the usual absolute majority.
It was during this restoration of the ‘old’ republic that an attempted reform was carried out in order to provide the regime with greater stability. In August 1919 a conservative president was elected – António José de Almeida
(whose Evolutionist party had come together in wartime with the PRP to form a flawed, because incomplete, Sacred Union) – and his office was given the power to dissolve parliament. Relations with the Holy See
, restored by Sidónio Pais, were preserved. The president used his new power to resolve a crisis of government in May 1921, naming a liberal
government (the Liberal party being the result of the postwar fusion of Evolutionists and Unionists) to prepare the forthcoming elections. These were held on 10 July 1921, with victory going, as was usually the case, to the party in power. However, liberal government did not last long. On 19 October a military pronunciamento was carried out during which – and apparently against the wishes of the coup’s leaders – a number of prominent conservative figures, including Prime Minister António Granjo
, were assassinated. This event, known as the ‘night of blood’ left a deep wound among political elites and public opinion. There could be no greater demonstration of the essential fragility of the Republic’s institutions and proof that the regime was democratic in name only, since it did not even admit the possibility of the rotation in power characteristic of the elitist regimes of the nineteenth century.
A new round of elections on 29 January 1922 inaugurated a fresh period of stability: the PRP once again emerged from the contest with an absolute majority. Discontent with this situation had not, however, disappeared. Numerous accusations of corruption, and the manifest failure to resolve pressing social concerns wore down the more visible PRP leaders while making the opposition’s attacks more deadly. At the same time, moreover, all political parties suffered from growing internal factionalism, especially the PRP itself. The party system was fractured and discredited. This is clearly shown by the fact that regular PRP victories at the ballot box did not lead to stable government. Between 1910 and 1926 there were forty-five governments. The opposition of presidents to single-party governments, internal dissent within the PRP, the party’s almost non-existent internal discipline, and its desire to group together and lead all republican forces made any government’s task practically impossible. Many different formulas were attempted, including single-party governments, coalitions, and presidential executives, but none succeeded. Force was clearly the sole means open to the opposition if the PRP wanted to enjoy the fruits of power.
By the mid-1920s the domestic and international scenes began to favour another authoritarian solution, wherein a strengthened executive might restore political and social order. Since the opposition’s constitutional route to power was blocked by the various means deployed by the PRP to protect itself, it turned to the army for support. The political awareness of the armed forces had grown during the war, and many of whose leaders had not forgiven the PRP for sending it to a war it did not want to fight. They seemed to represent, to conservative forces, the last bastion of ‘order’ against the ‘chaos’ that was taking over the country. Links were established between conservative figures and military officers, who added their own political and corporative demands to the already complex equation. The pronunciamento of 28 May 1926 enjoyed the support of most army units and even of most political parties. As had been the case in December 1917, the population of Lisbon did not rise to defend the Republic, leaving it at the mercy of the army. There are few global and up-to-date studies of this turbulent third phase of the Republic’s existence. Nevertheless, much has been written about the crisis and fall of the regime and the 28 May movement. The First Republic continues to be the subject of an intense debate. A recent historiographical balance sheet, elaborated by Armando Malheiro da Silva (2000,) is a good introduction into this debate. Three main interpretations can be identified. For some historians the First Republic was a progressive and increasingly democratic regime. For others it was essentially a prolongation of the liberal and elitist regimes of the 19th century. A third group chooses to highlight the regime’s revolutionary, Jacobin and dictatorial nature.
Political chaos, several strikes, harsh relations with the church, and considerable economic problems aggravated by a disastrous military intervention in the First World War
led to the military 28 May 1926 coup d'état. This coup installed the "Second Republic" that would become the Estado Novo in 1933, led by António de Oliveira Salazar
, which transformed Portugal into a proto-Fascist Axis-leaning state. This later evolved into some mixture of single-party corporative regime. In 1961 the Portuguese army was involved in armed action in its colony in Goa against an Indian invasion (See Operation Vijay). The operations resulted in a humiliating Portuguese defeat and the loss of the colonies in India. Independence movements also became active in Portuguese Angola, Portuguese Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea
; the Portuguese Colonial War
started. Portugal, during this period, was never an outcast, and was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA).
After the death of Salazar in 1970, his replacement by Marcelo Caetano
offered a certain hope that the regime would open up, the primavera marcelista (Marcelist spring). However the colonial wars in Africa continued, political prisoner
s remained incarcerated, freedom of association was not restored, censorship
was only slightly eased and the election
s remained tightly controlled. The regime retained its characteristic traits: censorship, corporativeness, with a market economy dominated by a handful of economical groups, continuous surveillance and intimidation of several sectors of society through the use of a political police and techniques instilling fear (such as arbitrary imprisonment, systematic political persecution and even assassination of anti-regime insurgents).
" of 1974, an effectively bloodless left-wing military coup, installed the "Third Republic". Broad democratic reforms were implemented. In 1975, Portugal granted independence to its Overseas Provinces
(Províncias Ultramarinas in Portuguese
) in Africa
(Mozambique
, Angola
, Guinea-Bissau
, Cape Verde
and São Tomé and Príncipe
). Nearly 1 million Portuguese
or persons of Portuguese descent left these former colonies as refugees. In that same year, Indonesia
invaded and annexed the Portuguese province of Portuguese Timor
(East Timor) in Asia before independence could be granted. The massive exodus of the Portuguese military and citizens from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique, would prompt an era of chaos and severe destruction in those territories after independence from Portugal in 1975. From May 1974 to the end of the 1970s, over a million Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique) left those territories as destitute refugees - the retornados. The newly-independent countries were ravaged by brutal civil wars in the following decades - the Angolan Civil War
(1975–2002) and Mozambican Civil War
(1977–1992) - responsible for millions of deaths and refugees. The Asian dependency of Macau
, after an agreement in 1986, was returned to Chinese
sovereignty in 1999. Portugal applied international pressure to secure East Timor's independence from Indonesia, as East Timor was still legally a Portuguese dependency, and recognized as such by the United Nations
. After a referendum in 1999, East Timor voted for independence and Portugal recognized its independence in 2002.
With the 1975–76 independence of its colonies, other than Macau, the 560 year old Portuguese Empire
effectively ended. Simultaneously 15 years of war effort also came to an end; many Portuguese returned from the colonies (the retornados) and came to comprise a sizeable section of the population. This opened new paths for the country's future just as others closed. In 1986, Portugal entered the European Economic Community
and left the European Free Trade Association
which was founded by Portugal and its partners in 1960. The country joined the Euro in 1999. The Portuguese empire
ended de facto in 1999 when Macau was returned to China, and de jure in 2002 when East Timor
was independent.
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an and an Atlantic nation
Nation
A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...
, dates back to the Early Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it ascended
Portugal in the Age of Discovery
During the history of Portugal between 1415 and 1578, Portugal discovered an eastern route to India that rounded the Cape of Good Hope, discovered Brazil, established trading routes throughout most of southern Asia, colonized selected areas of Africa, and sent the first direct European maritime...
to the status of a world power
World Power
World Power is the debut album of German Eurodance project Snap!, released in 1990 on Bookmark/Ariola Records. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, as the project's musical style and its vocalists, Turbo B and Penny "Tiny" Ford, were well-received...
during Europe's "Age of Discovery
Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration and the Great Navigations , was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with...
" as it built up a vast empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
including possessions in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
. In the next two centuries, Portugal gradually lost much of its wealth and status as the Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
took an increasing share of the spice
Spice trade
Civilizations of Asia were involved in spice trade from the ancient times, and the Greco-Roman world soon followed by trading along the Incense route and the Roman-India routes...
and slave trades (the economic basis of its empire), by surrounding or conquering the widely-scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories, leaving it with ever fewer resources to defend its overseas interests.
Signs of military decline began with two disastrous battles: the Battle of Alcácer Quibir
Battle of Alcácer Quibir
The Battle of Ksar El Kebir, also known as Battle of Three Kings, or "Battle of Oued El Makhazeen" in Morocco, and Battle of Alcácer Quibir in Portugal , was fought in northern Morocco, near the town of Ksar-el-Kebir and Larache, on 4 August 1578...
in Morocco in 1578 and Spain's abortive attempt
Spanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...
to conquer England in 1588 (Portugal was then in a dynastic union with Spain
Iberian Union
The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...
, and contributed ships to the Spanish invasion fleet). The country was further weakened by the destruction of much of its capital city in a 1755 earthquake
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...
, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
and the loss of its largest colony, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, in 1822. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, nearly two-million Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
left Europe to live in Brazil and the United States (U.S.). In 1910, there was a revolution that deposed the monarchy; however, the subsequent republic was unable to solve the country's problems. Amid corruption, repression of the church, and the near bankruptcy of the state, a military coup in 1926 installed a dictatorship that remained until another coup in 1974. The new government instituted sweeping democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
reforms and granted independence to all of Portugal's African colonies in 1975.
Portugal is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Free Trade Association
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association or EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union . EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to,...
(EFTA). It entered the European Community (now the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
) in 1986.
Etymology
Portugal's name derives from the RomanAncient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
name Portus Cale
Portus Cale
Portus Cale was the old name of an ancient town and port in current day Portugal. It was located in the north of Portugal, in the area of today's Grande Porto.-Early History:...
. Cale was the name of an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
in the north of what is now Portugal. Around 200 BC, the Romans took the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
from the Carthaginians
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
during the Second Punic War
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War, also referred to as The Hannibalic War and The War Against Hannibal, lasted from 218 to 201 BC and involved combatants in the western and eastern Mediterranean. This was the second major war between Carthage and the Roman Republic, with the participation of the Berbers on...
, and in the process conquered Cale and renamed it Portus Cale (Port of Cale
Portus Cale
Portus Cale was the old name of an ancient town and port in current day Portugal. It was located in the north of Portugal, in the area of today's Grande Porto.-Early History:...
). During the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the region around Portus Cale became known by the Suevi and Visigoths as Portucale
Portucale
Portucale can mean different things:*Portus Cale, old Roman name of an ancient town and port in current day Portugal, in the area of today's Grande Porto...
. The name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho
Minho River
The Minho or Miño is the longest river in Galicia, Spain, with an extension of 340 km.Both names come from Latin Minius...
, the Minho flowing along what would become the northern border between Portugal and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. By the 11th and 12th century, Portugale was already referred to as Portugal.
The etymology of the name Cale is mysterious, as is the identity of the town's founders. Some historians have argued that Greeks were the first to settle Cale and that the name derives from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word kallis (καλλις), 'beautiful', referring to the beauty of the Douro valley. Still others have claimed that Cale originated in the language of the Gallaeci people indigenous to the surrounding region (see below). Others argue that Cale is a Celtic name like many others found in the region. The word cale or cala, would mean 'port', an 'inlet' or 'harbour,' and implied the existence of an older celtic harbour. Others argue it is the stem of Gallaecia. Another theory claims it derives from Caladunum.
In any case, the Portu part of the name Portucale became Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, the modern name for the city located on the site of the ancient city of Cale at the mouth of the Douro River. And Port
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...
became the name in English of the wine from the Douro Valley region around Porto. The name Cale is today reflected in Gaia (Vila Nova de Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia
Vila Nova de Gaia, or simply Gaia is a city in Vila Nova de Gaia Municipality, Portugal. It is located in the Porto District, south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper has a population of 178,255 and the municipality contains 24 parishes with a total...
), a city on the left bank of the river.
Neolithic
The region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by NeanderthalNeanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
s and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, did establish organized societies. Neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and pluvial or marine fishing.
Early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and inter-married with the local populations, forming different ethnic groups
Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula
This is a list of the Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian peninsula .-Non-Indo-European:*Aquitanians**Aquitani**Autrigones - some consider them Celtic .**Caristii - some consider them Celtic ....
, with many tribes. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of northern Portugal
Gallaecia
Gallaecia or Callaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania...
, the Lusitanians of central Portugal
Lusitanians
The Lusitanians were an Indo-European people living in the Western Iberian Peninsula long before it became the Roman province of Lusitania . They spoke the Lusitanian language which might have been Celtic. The modern Portuguese people see the Lusitanians as their ancestors...
, the Celtici of Alentejo
Celtici
]The Celtici were a Celtic tribe or group of tribes of the Iberian peninsula, inhabiting three definite areas: in what today are the provinces of Alentejo and the Algarve in Portugal; in the Province of Badajoz and north of Province of Huelva in Spain, in the ancient Baeturia; and along the...
, and the Cynetes or Conii of the Algarve
Cynetes
The Cynetes or Conii were one of the pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula, living in today's Algarve and Low Alentejo regions of southern Portugal before the 6th century BCE .They are often mentioned in the ancient sources under various designations, mostly Greek or Latin derivatives of their...
. Among the lesser tribes or sub-divisions were the Bracari
Bracari
The Bracari were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, akin to the Calaicians or Gallaeci, living in the northwest of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Tâmega and Cávado, around the area of the modern city of Braga .Appian wrote they were a very warlike people...
, Coelerni
Coelerni
The Coelerni were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia in Hispania , part of Calaician or Gallaeci people , living in what was to become the Roman Province of Hispania Citerior, convent of Bracara Augusta , in what is now the southern part of the province of Ourense .Some sources, like Alarcão,...
, Equaesi
Equaesi
The Equaesi were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, between the provinces of Minho and Trás-os-Montes, near the border of modern Galicia .-External links:*...
, Grovii
Grovii
The Grovii were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, around the Minho river, and spreading into modern day Galicia . One of their main gods was Turiacus.-External links:*...
, Interamici
Interamici
The Interamici were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, near the border with Galicia .-External links:*...
, Leuni
Leuni
The Leuni were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Lima and Minho.-External links:*...
, Luanqui
Luanqui
The Luanqvi were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, between the rivers Tâmega and Tua.-External links:*...
, Limici
Limici
The Limici were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the swamps of the river Lima, in the border region between Minho and Galicia .-External links:*...
, Narbasi
Narbasi
The Narbasi were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the province of Minho and nearby areas of modern Galicia .-External links:*...
, Nemetati
Nemetati
The Nemetati were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal between the Cávado and Ave Rivers, in the province of Minho, north of the Douro.They lived near the valley of the Ave River and may have some link with inscriptions to the war god Cosus Nemedecus. The...
, Paesuri
Paesuri
The Paesuri were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians, to whom they were a dependent tribe. Located between the rivers Douro and Vouga, in the modern northern central Portugal, the Paesures comprised four tribes - Ireucoutiori, Aravoni, Seareas and Paisicaicoi, which...
, Quaquerni
Quaquerni
The Quaquerni were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, province of Minho, in the mountains at the mouths of the rivers Tâmega and Cávado.-External links:*...
, Seurbi
Seurbi
The Seurbi were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Minho, between the rivers Cávado and Lima .-External links:*...
, Tamagani
Tamagani
The Tamagani were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, from the area of Chaves, near the river Tâmega.-External links:*...
, Tapoli
Tapoli
The Tapoli were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians, to whom they were a dependent tribe, living just north of the river Tagus, around the border area of modern day Portugal and Spain.-External links:*...
, Turduli
Turduli
The Turduli were an ancient Celtiberian tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians. They lived in the south of modern Portugal, in the east of the province of Alentejo, along the Guadiana valley , and Extremadura proper...
, Turduli Veteres
Turduli Veteres
The Turduli Veteres, also known as "Ancient Turduli" or "Old Turduli" were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians and Calaicians or Gallaeci, living south of the estuary of the river Douro, in the north of modern Portugal...
, Turdulorum Oppida
Turdulorum Oppida
The Turdulorum Oppida , or Turduli Oppidani, living in the Portuguese region of Estremadura , were an ancient Celtic tribe of Lusitania, akin to the Lusitanians. They held the fortified towns of Aeminium , Conimbriga , Coniumbriga , Collipo The Turdulorum Oppida (Latin - oppidums of the Turduli),...
, Turodi
Turodi
The Turodi were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes and border areas in Galicia .-External links:*...
, and Zoelae
Zoelae
The Zoelae were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, between the mountains of Serra da Nogueira and the mountains of Mogadouro.-External links:*...
).
There were in the southern part the country, some small, semi-permanent commercial coastal settlements founded by Phoenicians-Carthaginians (such as Tavira
Tavira
Tavira is a Portuguese city, situated at 37°07' north, 7°39' west in the east of the Algarve on the south coast of Portugal. It is 30 km east of Faro and 160 km west of Seville in Spain. The Gilão River meets the Atlantic Ocean in Tavira....
, in the Algarve).
According to John Koch, Cunliffe, Karl, Wodtko and other scholars, Celtic culture may have developed first in far Southern Portugal and Southwestern Spain, approximately 500 years prior to anything recorded in Central Europe. The Tartessian language
Tartessian language
The Tartessian language is the extinct Paleohispanic language of inscriptions in the Southwestern script found in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula: mainly in the south of Portugal , but also in Spain . There are 95 of these inscriptions with the longest having 82 readable signs...
from the southwest of the Iberian peninsula, which John T. Koch
John T. Koch
Professor John T. Koch is an American academic, historian and linguist who specializes in Celtic studies, especially prehistory and the early Middle Ages....
has claimed to be able to translate, is being accepted by a number of philologists and other linguists as the first attested Celtic language, but the linguistic mainstream continues to treat Tartessian as an unclassified (Pre-Indo-European?) language, and Koch's view of the evolution of Celtic is not generally accepted.
Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia
The first Roman invasion of the Iberian Peninsula occurred in 219 BC. Within 200 years, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The Carthaginians, Rome's adversary in the Punic Wars
Punic Wars
The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage from 264 B.C.E. to 146 B.C.E. At the time, they were probably the largest wars that had ever taken place...
, were expelled from their coastal colonies.
The Roman conquest of what is now part of modern day Portugal took several decades: it started from the south, where the Romans found friendly natives, the Conii. It suffered a severe setback in 194 BC, when a rebellion began in the north. The Lusitanians and other native tribes, under the leadership of Viriathus
Viriathus
Viriathus was the most important leader of the Lusitanian people that resisted Roman expansion into the regions of Western Hispania , where the Roman province of Lusitania would be established...
, wrested control of all of Portugal. Rome sent numerous legions and its best generals to Lusitania to quell the rebellion, but to no avail — the Lusitanians gained more and more territory. The Roman leaders decided to change their strategy. They bribed Viriathus's ambassador to kill his own leader. Viriathus was assassinated, and the resistance was soon over.
Rome installed a colonial regime. During this period, Lusitania grew in prosperity and many of modern day Portugal's cities and towns were founded. In 27 BC, Lusitania gained the status of Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
. Later, a northern province of Lusitania was formed, known as Gallaecia
Gallaecia
Gallaecia or Callaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania...
, with capital in Bracara (today's Braga
Braga
Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...
).
Contemporary historians include Paulus Orosius (c. 375-418) and Hydatius
Hydatius
Hydatius or Idacius , bishop of Aquae Flaviae in the Roman province of Gallaecia was the author of a chronicle of his own times that provides us with our best evidence for the history of the Iberian Peninsula in the 5th century.-Life:Hydatius was born around the year 400 in the...
(c. 400–469), bishop of Aquae Flaviae
Aquae Flaviae
Aquæ Flaviæ is the ancient Roman name for the current city of Chaves, Portugal.-Pre-roman ocupation:The city was a center of pre-roman occupation, being the main town of the Turodi people.-Roman domain:...
, who reported on the final years of the roman rule and arrival of the germanic tribes.
Germanic kingdoms
Vandals
The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Vandals under king Genseric entered Africa in 429 and by 439 established a kingdom which included the Roman Africa province, besides the islands of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia and the Balearics....
(Silingi
Silingi
The Silings or Silingi supposedly were an East Germanic tribe, probably part of the larger Vandal group. According to most scholars, examples Jerzy Strzelczyk, Norman Davies, Jerzy Krasuski, Andrzej Kokowski, Henryk Łowmiański, the Silingi may have lived in Silesia...
and Hasdingi
Hasdingi
The Hasdingi were the southern tribes of the Vandals, an East Germanic tribe. They lived in areas of today's southern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary...
) and their allies, the Sarmatia
Sarmatia
Sarmatia or Sarmatian can refer to:* the land of Sarmatians, western Scythia as described by many classical authors, such as Herodotus in the 5th century BC* Sarmatian languages, part of Scythian languages...
n Alans
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
. Only the kingdom of the Suevi (Quadi
Quadi
The Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little is definitively known. We only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through reports of the Romans themselves...
and Marcomanni
Marcomanni
The Marcomanni were a Germanic tribe, probably related to the Buri, Suebi or Suevi.-Origin:Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of "march" and "men"....
) endured after the arrival of another wave of Germanic invaders, the Visigoths, who conquered all of the Iberian Peninsula and expelled or partially integrated the Vandals and the Alans. The Visigoths eventually conquered the Suevi kingdom and its capital city Bracara in 584–585.
The Germanic tribe of the Buri
Buri (Germanic tribe)
The Buri were a Germanic tribe mentioned in the Germania of Tacitus, where they initially "close the back" of the Marcomanni and Quadi of Bohemia and Moravia. It is said that their speech and customs were like those of the Suebi...
also accompanied the Suevi in their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...
and colonization of Gallaecia
Gallaecia
Gallaecia or Callaecia, also known as Hispania Gallaecia, was the name of a Roman province and an early Mediaeval kingdom that comprised a territory in the north-west of Hispania...
(modern northern Portugal and Galicia). The Buri settled in the region between the rivers Cávado
Cávado
Cávado is a subregion that is integrated in the Portuguese region of Norte. It has 6 municipalities or Concelhos and is centered in the city of Braga . With an area of 1,243 km² and a population of 404,681 inhabitants, it is one of the most densely populated subregions of Portugal...
and Homem, in the area known as thereafter as Terras de Boiro or Terras de Bouro (Lands of the Buri).
Other minor influences from this period include some 5th century vestiges of Alan
Alans
The Alans, or the Alani, occasionally termed Alauni or Halani, were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan —...
settlement, which were found in Alenquer
Alenquer
Alenquer is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 304.2 km² and a total population of 42,932 inhabitants. The municipality is composed of 16 parishes, and is located in the District of Lisbon....
, Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
and even Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
.
Moorish rule and the Reconquista
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
(mainly Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
s with some Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s) from North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
invaded the Iberian Peninsula., destroying the Visigoth
Visigoth
The Visigoths were one of two main branches of the Goths, the Ostrogoths being the other. These tribes were among the Germans who spread through the late Roman Empire during the Migration Period...
ic Kingdom. Many of the ousted Gothic nobles took refuge in the unconquered north Asturian highlands
Kingdom of Asturias
The Kingdom of Asturias was a Kingdom in the Iberian peninsula founded in 718 by Visigothic nobles under the leadership of Pelagius of Asturias. It was the first Christian political entity established following the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom after Islamic conquest of Hispania...
. From there they aimed to reconquer their lands from the Moors: this war of reconquest is known in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
(and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
) as the Reconquista
Reconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
.
In 868, Count Vímara Peres
Vímara Peres
Vímara Peres, Count of Portugal was a Galician Christian duke of the 9th century in west Iberia. He was a vassal of the King of Asturias, Léon and Galicia, Alfonso III, and was sent to reconquer and secure from the Moors , in the west coastal fringe of Gallaecia, the area from the Minho River to...
reconquered and governed the region between the rivers Minho
Minho River
The Minho or Miño is the longest river in Galicia, Spain, with an extension of 340 km.Both names come from Latin Minius...
and Douro
Douro
The Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
. The county was then known as Portucale (i.e., Portugal).
While it had its origins as a dependency of the Kingdom of León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
, Portugal occasionally gained de facto independence during weak Leonese reigns.
Portugal gained its first de jure independence (as the Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal) in 1065 under the rule of Garcia II
García II of Galicia and Portugal
García II , King of Galicia and Portugal, was the youngest of the three sons and heirs of Ferdinand I, King of Castile and León, and Sancha of León, whose Leonese inheritance included the lands García would be given....
. Because of feudal power struggles, Portuguese and Galician nobles rebelled. In 1072, the country rejoined León
Kingdom of León
The Kingdom of León was an independent kingdom situated in the northwest region of the Iberian Peninsula. It was founded in AD 910 when the Christian princes of Asturias along the northern coast of the peninsula shifted their capital from Oviedo to the city of León...
under Garcia II's brother Alfonso VI of León.
Affirmation of Portugal
Kingdom of Galicia
The Kingdom of Galicia was a political entity located in southwestern Europe, which at its territorial zenith occupied the entire northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Founded by Suebic king Hermeric in the year 409, the Galician capital was established in Braga, being the first kingdom which...
. Its territories consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego River.
At the end of the 11th century, the Burgundian knight Henry
Henry, Count of Portugal
Henry of Burgundy, Count of Portugal was Count of Portugal from 1093 to his death. He was brother of Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy, and Odo I, Duke of Burgundy, all sons of Henry, the heir of Robert I, Duke of Burgundy. His name is Henri in modern French, Henricus in Latin, Enrique in modern Spanish...
became count of Portugal and defended his independence, merging the County of Portucale and the County of Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
. Henry declared independence for Portugal while a civil war raged between León and Castile.
Henry died without achieving his aims. His son, Afonso Henriques
Afonso I of Portugal
Afonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques , more commonly known as Afonso Henriques , nicknamed "the Conqueror" , "the Founder" or "the Great" by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali and Ibn-Arrik by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal...
, took control of the county. The city of Braga, the unofficial Catholic centre of the Iberian Peninsula, faced new competition from other regions. Lords of the cities of Coimbra and Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
(then Portucale) with Braga
Braga
Braga , a city in the Braga Municipality in northwestern Portugal, is the capital of the Braga District, the oldest archdiocese and the third major city of the country. Braga is the oldest Portuguese city and one of the oldest Christian cities in the World...
's clergy demanded the independence of the renewed county.
Portugal traces its national origin to 24 June 1128, with the Battle of São Mamede. Afonso proclaimed himself first Prince of Portugal and in 1139 the first King of Portugal. By 1143, with the assistance of a representative of the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
at the conference of Zamora, Portugal was formally recognized as independent, with the prince recognized as Dux Portucalensis. In 1179 Afonso I was declared, by the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
, as king. After the Battle of São Mamede, the first capital of Portugal was Guimarães
Guimarães
Guimarães Municipality is located in northwestern Portugal in the province of Minho and in the Braga District. It contains the city of Guimarães.The present Mayor is António Magalhães Silva, elected by the Socialist Party.-Parishes:-Economy:...
from which the first king ruled. Later, when Portugal was already officially independent, he ruled from Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
.
From 1249 to 1250 the Algarve, the southernmost region, was finally re-conquered by Portugal from the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...
. In 1255 the capital shifted to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Neighboring Spain would not complete their Reconquista until 1492 almost 250 years later.
Portugal's land-based boundaries have been notably stable in history. The border with Spain has remained almost unchanged since the 13th century. The Treaty of Windsor (1386) created an alliance between Portugal and England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
that remains in effect to this day. Since early times, fishing and overseas commerce have been the main economic activities. Henry the Navigator's interest in exploration together with some technological developments in navigation made Portugal's expansion possible and led to great advances in geographic, mathematical, scientific knowledge and technology, more specifically naval technology.
Period of discoveries and Portuguese Empire
Thalassocracy
The term thalassocracy refers to a state with primarily maritime realms—an empire at sea, such as Athens or the Phoenician network of merchant cities...
.
July 25, 1415 marked the beginning of the Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
, when the Portuguese Armada departed to the rich trade Islamic centre of Ceuta
Ceuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
in North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
with King John I
John I of Portugal
John I KG , called the Good or of Happy Memory, more rarely and outside Portugal the Bastard, was the tenth King of Portugal and the Algarve and the first to use the title Lord of Ceuta...
and his wife Phillipa of Lancaster and their sons Prince Duarte (future king), Prince Pedro, Prince Henry the Navigator (born in Porto in 1394) and Prince Afonso, and legendary Portuguese hero Nuno Álvares Pereira
Nuno Álvares Pereira
Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira, O. Carm. , also spelled Nun'Álvares Pereira, was a Portuguese general of great success who had a decisive role in the 1383-1385 Crisis that assured Portugal's independence from Castile...
. On August 21, 1415, Ceuta, the city on the coast of North Africa directly across from Gibraltar, was conquered by Portugal, and the long-lived Portuguese Empire was founded. The conquest of Ceuta had been helped by the fact that a major civil war had been engaging the Muslims of the Magrib (North Africa) since 1411. This same civil war between the Muslims prevented a re-capture of Ceuta from the Portuguese, when Muhammad IX, the Left-Handed King of Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...
, laid siege to Ceuta and attempted to coordinate the forces in Morocco and attempted to get aid and assistance for the effort from Tunis. The Muslim attempt to retake Ceuta was ultimately unsuccessful and Ceuta remained the first part of the new Portuguese Empire. However, further steps were taken that would soon expand the Portuguese Empire.
In 1418 two of the captains of Prince Henry the Navigator, João Gonçalves Zarco
João Gonçalves Zarco
João Gonçalves Zarco was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator.-Life:...
and Tristão Vaz Teixeira
Tristão Vaz Teixeira
Tristão Vaz Teixeira was a Portuguese navigator and explorer who, together with João Gonçalves Zarco and Bartolomeu Perestrelo, discovered the Madeira Islands...
, were driven by a storm to an island which they called Porto Santo
Porto Santo Island
Porto Santo Island is a Portuguese island northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe and Africa.- History :...
("Holy Port") in gratitude for their rescue from the shipwreck. In 1419, João Gonçalves Zarco
João Gonçalves Zarco
João Gonçalves Zarco was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator.-Life:...
disembarked on Madeira Island. Uninhabited Madeira Island was colonized by the Portuguese in 1420. Between 1427 and 1431, most of the Azorean islands were discovered and these uninhabited islands were colonized by the Portuguese in 1445. Similarly, the Canary Islands were also discovered by the Portuguese, but Castile objected to any claim by the Portuguese to the Canary Islands and, thus, settlement by the Portuguese of these islands was not undertaken. The Canary Islands would eventually be part of the Spanish Empire.
In 1434, Gil Eanes
Gil Eanes
Gil Eanes was a 15th-century Portuguese navigator and explorer.Little is known about the personal life of Gil Eanes, prior to his role in the Portuguese Age of Discovery, and was considered a household servant and shield-bearer of the Infante Henry the Navigator...
turned the Cape Bojador
Cape Bojador
Cape Bojador or Cape Boujdour is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26° 07' 37"N, 14° 29' 57"W. , as well as the name of a nearby town with a population of 41,178.It is shown on nautical charts with the original Portuguese name "Cabo Bojador", but is sometimes...
, south of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. The trip marked the beginning of the Portuguese exploration of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. Before the turn, very little information was known in Europe about what lay around the cape. At the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 14th, those who tried to venture there became lost, which gave birth to legends of sea monster
Sea monster
Sea monsters are sea-dwelling mythical or legendary creatures, often believed to be of immense size.Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or multi-armed beasts. They can be slimy or scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water...
s. Some setbacks occurred: in 1436 the Canaries
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
were officially recognized as Castilian by the Pope; earlier they were recognized as Portuguese. Also, in 1438 in a military expedition to Tangier
Tangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
, the Portuguese were defeated.
However, the Portuguese did not give up their exploratory efforts. In 1448, on a small island known as Arguim off the coast of Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, an important castle was built, working as a feitoria
Factory (trading post)
Factory was the English term for the trading posts system originally established by Europeans in foreign territories, first within different states of medieval Europe, and later in their colonial possessions...
, a trading post, for commerce with inland Africa. Some years before the first African gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
was brought to Portugal, circumventing the Arab caravans that crossed the Sahara. Some time later, the caravel
Caravel
A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward...
s explored the Gulf of Guinea which lead to the discovery of several uninhabited islands: Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
, Fernão Póo, São Tomé
São Tomé Island
São Tomé Island, at , is the largest island of São Tomé and Príncipe and is home in 2009 to about 157,000 or 96% of the nation's population. This island and smaller nearby islets make up São Tomé Province, which is divided into six districts. The main island is located 2 km north of the...
, Príncipe and Annobón
Annobón
Annobón may refer to:* Annobón Province* Annobonese language* Annobon people...
. On November 13, 1460, Prince Henry the Navigator died. He had been the leading patron of all maritime exploration by Portugal up to that time. Immediately following Henry's death, there was a lapse of further exploration. However, Henry's patronage of explorations had shown that profits could be made in trade which followed the exploration of new lands. Accordingly when exploration was commenced again private merchants led the way in attempting to stretch trade routes further down the African coast. In 1470s, Portuguese trading ships reached the Gold Coast
Portuguese Gold Coast
The Portuguese Gold Coast was a Portuguese colony on the West African Gold Coast on the Gulf of Guinea.-History:The Portuguese established the following settlements on the Gold Coast from January 21, 1482:...
. Finally, in 1471, the Portuguese captured Tangier, after years of attempts. Eleven years later in 1482, the fortress of São Jorge da Mina in the town of Elmina
Elmina
Elmina, is a town in the Central Region, situated on a south-facing bay on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Ghana, about 12 km west of Cape Coast...
on the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea
Gulf of Guinea
The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean between Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian is in the gulf....
was built. (Setting sail aboard the fleet of ships taking the materials and building crews to Elmina on this trip in December of 1481 was Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
.) In 1483, Diogo Cão
Diogo Cão
Diogo Cão was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most remarkable navigators of the Age of Discovery, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa to Namibia in the 1480s.-Early life and family:...
reached and explored the Congo River
Congo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
.
In 1484, Portugal officially rejected Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
's idea of reaching India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
from the west, because it was seen as unreasonable. Some historians have claimed that the Portuguese had already performed fairly accurate calculations concerning the size of the world and therefore knew that sailing west to reach the Indies would require a far longer journey than navigating to the east. However, this continues to be debated. Thus began a long-lasting dispute which eventually resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
with Spain in 1494. The treaty divided the (largely undiscovered) world equally between the Spanish and the Portuguese, along a north-south meridian line
Prime Meridian
The Prime Meridian is the meridian at which the longitude is defined to be 0°.The Prime Meridian and its opposite the 180th meridian , which the International Date Line generally follows, form a great circle that divides the Earth into the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.An international...
370 leagues (1770 km/1100 miles) west of the Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
islands, with all lands to the east belonging to Portugal and all lands to the west to Spain.
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
by Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
in 1487. The richness of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
was now accessible. Indeed the name of the cape stems from this promise of rich trade with the east. In 1489, the King of Bemobi gave his realms to the Portuguese king and became Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
. Between 1491 and 1494, Pêro de Barcelos
Pêro de Barcelos
Pêro de Barcelos , sometimes Pedro de Barcelos, was a Portuguese explorer of North America, whom, together with João Fernandes Lavrador, was the first to sight the Coast of Labrador in 1499....
and João Fernandes Lavrador
João Fernandes Lavrador
João Fernandes Lavrador was a Portuguese explorer of the late 15th century. He was the first modern explorer in the coasts of the Northeast of Northern America, including the Labrador peninsula, which bears his name.-Expeditions:Fernandes was granted a patent by King Manuel I in 1498 given him...
explored North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. At the same time, Pêro da Covilhã
Pêro da Covilhã
Pedro or Pêro da Covilhã was a Portuguese diplomat and explorer.He was a native of Covilhã in Beira. In his early life he had gone to Castile and entered the service of Alphonso, Duke of Seville...
reached Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
by land. Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
sailed for India, and arrived at Calicut
History of Kozhikode
Kozhikode , also known as Calicut, is a city in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the third largest city in Kerala and the headquarters of Kozhikode district....
on 20 May 1498, returning in glory to Portugal the next year. The Monastery of Jerónimos was built, dedicated to the discovery of the route to India.
In the spring of 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
set sail from Cape Verde with 13 ships and crews and a list of nobles that included Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho
Nicolau Coelho was an expert Portuguese sailor during the age of discovery. He participated in the discovery of the route to India by Vasco da Gama where he commanded Berrio, the first caravel to return; was captain of a ship in the fleet headed by Pedro Álvares Cabral who landed in Brazil...
, Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias
Bartolomeu Dias , a nobleman of the Portuguese royal household, was a Portuguese explorer who sailed around the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488, the first European known to have done so.-Purposes of the Dias expedition:...
and his brother Diogo, Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, called the Great, was a 15th century Portuguese sea captain, soldier, explorer and cartographer. He travelled particularly in the central Atlantic Ocean west of the Cape Verde islands, along the coast of West Africa and to India...
(author of the Esmeraldo) along with various other nobles, nine chaplains and some 1,200 men. From Cape Verde they sailed southwest across the Atlantic. On April 22, 1500, they caught sight of land in the distance. They disembarked and claimed this new land for Portugal. This was the coast of what would later become the Portuguese colony of Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
.
However, the real goal of the expedition was to open sea trade to the empires of the east. Trade with the east had effectively been cut off since the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Accordingly, Cabral turned from exploring the coasts of the new land of Brazil and sailed to the southeast back across the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope. Cabral reached Sofala
Sofala
Sofala, at present known as Nova Sofala, used to be the chief seaport of the Monomotapa Kingdom, whose capital was at Mount Fura. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique.-History:...
on the east coast of Africa in July of 1500. Later in 1505, a Portuguese fort would be established here and the land around the fort would become the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Then they sailed on to the east and landed in Calicut
History of Kozhikode
Kozhikode , also known as Calicut, is a city in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the third largest city in Kerala and the headquarters of Kozhikode district....
in India in September of 1500. Here they traded for pepper and, more significantly opened European sea trade with the empires of the east. No longer would the Islamic occupation of Constantinople form a barrier between Europe and the east.Ten years later in 1510, Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
after attempting and failing to capture and occupy Zamorin's Calicut militarily, conquered Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
on the west coast of India.
With this, the Portuguese became the first civilization to fully start the process we know today as globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
.
João da Nova
João da Nova
João da Nova , Xoán de Novoa or Joam de Nôvoa galician spellings, Juan de Nova, Spanish spelling, was a Galician explorer of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans at the service of Portugal...
discovered Ascension
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
in 1501 and Saint Helena
Saint Helena
Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...
in 1502; Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha was a Portuguese explorer and naval commander. In 1514 he served as ambassador from king Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X leading a luxurious embassy presenting in Rome the new conquests of Portugal...
was the first to sight the archipelago still known by his name 1506. In 1505, Francisco de Almeida
Francisco de Almeida
Dom Francisco de Almeida , also known as "the Great Dom Francisco" , was a Portuguese nobleman, soldier and explorer. He distinguished himself as a counsellor to King John II of Portugal and later in the wars against the Moors and in the conquest of Granada in 1492...
was engaged to improve the Portuguese trade with the far east. Accordingly, he sailed to East Africa. Several small Islamic states along the coast of Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Kilwa, Brava
Brava
Brava may refer to:*Brava, Cape Verde, a volcanic island*Brava, Costa Rica, an island of Costa Rica *Vauxhall Brava, a pickup truck*Fiat Brava, a car*Barawa, a town in Somalia commonly known as Brava...
and Mombasa
Mombasa
Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....
were destroyed or became subjects or allies of Portugal. Almeida then sailed on to Cochin, and made peace with the ruler there and built a stone fort there.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. In the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and Arabian Sea
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea is a region of the Indian Ocean bounded on the east by India, on the north by Pakistan and Iran, on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, on the south, approximately, by a line between Cape Guardafui in northeastern Somalia and Kanyakumari in India...
, one of Cabral's ships discovered Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
(1501), which was partly explored by Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha
Tristão da Cunha was a Portuguese explorer and naval commander. In 1514 he served as ambassador from king Manuel I of Portugal to Pope Leo X leading a luxurious embassy presenting in Rome the new conquests of Portugal...
(1507); Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
was discovered in 1507, Socotra
Socotra
Socotra , also spelt Soqotra, is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some east of the Horn of Africa and south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through...
occupied in 1506, and in the same year Lourenço de Almeida
Lourenço de Almeida
Lourenço de Almeida , son of Francisco de Almeida, acting under him, distinguished himself in the Indian Ocean, and made Ceylon tributary to Portugal...
visited Ceylon.
In the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
, Massawa
Massawa
Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...
was the most northerly point frequented by the Portuguese until 1541, when a fleet under Estevão da Gama
Estêvão da Gama
Estêvão da Gama was the Portuguese governor of Portuguese Gold Coast and Portuguese India . He was the second son of Vasco da Gama and brother of Cristóvão da Gama, and named after his paternal grandfather Estêvão da Gama....
penetrated as far as Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
. Hormuz
Hormuz Island
Hormuz Island , also spelled Hormoz, is an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf. It is located in the Strait of Hormuz and is part of the Hormozgān Province.-Geography:...
, in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
, was seized by Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
in 1515, who also entered into diplomatic relations with Persia
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. In 1521, a force under Antonio Correia
António Correia
António Correia was a Portuguese commander who in 1521 conquered Bahrain, beginning eighty years of Portuguese rule in the Persian Gulf state.Correia was the son of merchant and explorer Aires Correia, who had gained notoriety during the Portuguese bombardment of Calicut a generation earlier...
conquered Bahrain
Bahrain
' , officially the Kingdom of Bahrain , is a small island state near the western shores of the Persian Gulf. It is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family. The population in 2010 stood at 1,214,705, including 235,108 non-nationals. Formerly an emirate, Bahrain was declared a kingdom in 2002.Bahrain is...
ushering in a period of almost 80 years of Portuguese rule of the Persian Gulf archipelago (for further information see Bahrain as a Portuguese dominion).
On the Asiatic mainland the first trading stations were established by Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
at Cochin and Calicut (1501); more important were the conquests of Goa
Old Goa
Old Goa or Velha Goa is a historical city in North Goa district in the Indian state of Goa. The city was constructed by the Bijapur Sultanate in the 15th century, and served as capital of Portuguese India from the 16th century until its abandonment in the 18th century due to plague...
(1510) and Malacca
Malacca
Malacca , dubbed The Historic State or Negeri Bersejarah among locals) is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south...
(1511) by Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque
Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...
, and the acquisition of Diu (1535) by Martim Afonso de Sousa
Martim Afonso de Sousa
Martim Afonso de Sousa was a Portuguese fidalgo and explorer.Born in Vila Viçosa, he was commander of the first official Portuguese expedition into mainland Brazil...
. East of Malacca Albuquerque sent Duarte Fernandes
Duarte Fernandes
Duarte Fernandes was a Portuguese diplomat and the first European to establish diplomatic relations with Thailand, when in 1511 he led a diplomatic mission to Ayutthaya Kingdom , after the Portuguese conquest of Malacca....
as envoy to Siam (now Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
) in 1511, and dispatched to the Moluccas two expeditions (1512, 1514), which founded the Portuguese dominion in Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia
Maritime Southeast Asia refers to the maritime region of Southeast Asia as opposed to mainland Southeast Asia and includes the modern countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, East Timor and Singapore....
. The Portuguese established their base in the "Spice Islands" on the island of Ambon. Fernão Pires de Andrade
Fernão Pires de Andrade
Captain Fernão Pires de Andrade was a Portuguese merchant, pharmacist, and official diplomat under the explorer and Malacca governor Afonso de Albuquerque...
visited Canton in 1517 and opened up trade with China, where in 1557 the Portuguese were permitted to occupy Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
. Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, accidentally reached by three Portuguese traders in 1542, soon attracted large numbers of merchants and missionaries. In 1522 one of the ships in the expedition that Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese explorer. He was born in Sabrosa, in northern Portugal, and served King Charles I of Spain in search of a westward route to the "Spice Islands" ....
organized in the Spanish service completed the first voyage around the world
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
.
By the end of the 15th century, Portugal expelled some local Jews, along with those refugees that came from Castile
Crown of Castile
The Crown of Castile was a medieval and modern state in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accession of the then King Ferdinand III of Castile to the vacant Leonese throne...
and Aragon
Aragon
Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...
after 1492. In addition, many Jews were forcibly converted to Catholicism and remained as Converso
Converso
A converso and its feminine form conversa was a Jew or Muslim—or a descendant of Jews or Muslims—who converted to Catholicism in Spain or Portugal, particularly during the 14th and 15th centuries. Mass conversions once took place under significant government pressure...
s. Many Jews remained secretly Jewish, in danger of persecution by the Portuguese Inquisition
Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of marriage with Maria of Aragon, but it was only after his death that the Pope...
. In 1506, 3,000 "New Christians" were massacred in Lisbon.
1580 crisis, Iberian Union and decline of the Empire
On August 4, 1578, while fighting in Morocco, young King SebastianSebastian of Portugal
Sebastian "the Desired" was the 16th king of Portugal and the Algarves. He was the son of Prince John of Portugal and his wife, Joan of Spain...
died in battle without an heir and his body was not found. His death lead to a dynastic crisis
Struggle for the throne of Portugal
The 1580 Portuguese succession crisis came about as a result of the 1578 death of young King Sebastian I of Portugal in the Battle of Ksar El Kebir...
. The late king's elderly granduncle, Cardinal Henry, became king. However, Henry I died a mere two years later on January 31, 1580. Portugal was worried about the maintenance of its independence and sought help to find a new king. Philip II of Spain
Philip II of Spain
Philip II was King of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and, while married to Mary I, King of England and Ireland. He was lord of the Seventeen Provinces from 1556 until 1581, holding various titles for the individual territories such as duke or count....
was on his mother's side the grandson of King Manuel I
Manuel I of Portugal
Manuel I , the Fortunate , 14th king of Portugal and the Algarves was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, , by his wife, Infanta Beatrice of Portugal...
, and on that basis claimed the Portuguese throne. He was opposed by António, Prior of Crato
António, Prior of Crato
António, Prior of Crato , was a grandson of King Manuel I of Portugal, claimant of the Portuguese throne during the 1580 dynastic crisis, who was King of Portugal as António I of Portugal during 33 days in the continent in 1580, and, after the crowning of Philip II of Spain as King of Portugal,...
, the illegitimate son of one of the younger sons of Manuel I. As a result, following Henry's death Spain invaded Portugal and the Spanish king became Philip I of Portugal in 1580; the Spanish
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
and Portuguese Empires came under a single rule. This did not, however, end resistance to Spanish rule. The Prior of Crato held out in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
until 1583, and continued to actively seek to recover the throne until his death in 1595. Impostor
Impostor
An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but just as often for purposes of espionage or law enforcement....
s claimed to be King Sebastian in 1584, 1585, 1595 and 1598. "Sebastianism
Sebastianism
Sebastianism, one aspect of the sleeping king folk-motif, is part of the Portuguese and Brazilian mythology and culture. It means waiting for a hero that will save Portugal and lead it to the Fifth Empire, and known as Eu nacional...
", the myth that the young king will return to Portugal on a foggy day, has prevailed until modern times.
After the 16th century, Portugal gradually saw its wealth decreasing. Portugal was officially an autonomous state, but, in actuality, the country was under the rule of the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
from 1580 to 1640
Iberian Union
The Iberian union was a political unit that governed all of the Iberian Peninsula south of the Pyrenees from 1580–1640, through a dynastic union between the monarchies of Portugal and Spain after the War of the Portuguese Succession...
. The Consejo de Portugal independent inasmuch as it was one of the key administrative units used by the Castilian monarchy, on legally equal terms with the Consejo de Indias.
The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and Spain's enemies became Portugal's. England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
had been an ally of Portugal since the Treaty of Windsor
Treaty of Windsor 1386
The Treaty of Windsor is the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world which is still in force. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance was renewed in 1386 with the Treaty of Windsor and the marriage of King John I of Portugal with Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster...
in 1386. War between Spain and England led to a deterioration of the relations with Portugal's oldest ally, and the loss of Hormuz
Ormus
The Kingdom of Ormus was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Persian Gulf and extending as far as the Strait of Hormuz...
. From 1595 to 1663 Dutch-Portuguese War
Dutch-Portuguese War
The Dutch–Portuguese War was an armed conflict involving Dutch forces, in the form of the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company, against the Portuguese Empire. Beginning in 1602, the conflict primarily involved the Dutch companies invading Portuguese colonies in the Americas,...
led to invasions of many countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and commercial interests in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
. In 1624, the Dutch seized Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, the capital of Brazil. In 1630, the Dutch seized Pernambuco in northern Brazil. The Treaty of 1654 returned Pernambuco to Portuguese control. Both the English and the Dutch continued to aspire to dominate both the Atlantic slave trade and the spice trade with the Far East.
The Dutch intrusion into Brazil was long lasting and troublesome to Portugal. The Seven Provinces (the Dutch) captured a large portion of the Brazilian coast including Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, Salvador, Recife
Recife
Recife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
, Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, Paraíba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
, Rio Grande do Norte
Rio Grande do Norte
Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern region of the country, occupying the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. Because of its geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal...
, Ceará
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...
, and Sergipe
Sergipe
Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
, while Dutch privateers sacked Portuguese ships in both the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
and Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
s. This was reversed, beginning with a major Spanish-Portuguese military operation in 1625. This laid the foundations for the recovery of remaining Dutch controlled areas. The other smaller, less developed areas were recovered in stages and relieved of Dutch piracy in the next two decades by local resistance and Portuguese expeditions. After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal would reestablish its authority over some lost territories of the Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
.
Restoration War and the end of the Union
At home, life was calm and serene with the first two Spanish kings; they maintained Portugal's status, gave excellent positions to Portuguese nobles in the Spanish courtsNoble court
The court of a monarch, or at some periods an important nobleman, is a term for the extended household and all those who regularly attended on the ruler or central figure...
, and Portugal maintained an independent law, currency and government. It was even proposed to move the Spanish capital to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. Later, Philip IV
Philip IV of Spain
Philip IV was King of Spain between 1621 and 1665, sovereign of the Spanish Netherlands, and King of Portugal until 1640...
tried to make Portugal a Spanish province, and Portuguese nobles lost power. Because of this, as well as the general strain on the finances of the Spanish throne as a result of the Thirty Years War, on 1 December 1640, the Duke of Braganza
Duke of Braganza
The title Duke of Braganza in the House of Braganza is one of the most important titles in the peerage of Portugal. Since the House of Braganza acceded to the throne of Portugal in 1640, the male heir of the Portuguese Crown was known as the Duke of Braganza and Prince of Brazil until 1822, or...
, one of the great native noblemen and a descendant of King Manuel I, was proclaimed king as John IV
John IV of Portugal
|-|John IV was the King of Portugal and the Algarves from 1640 to his death. He was the grandson of Catherine, Duchess of Braganza, who had in 1580 claimed the Portuguese crown and sparked the struggle for the throne of Portugal. John was nicknamed John the Restorer...
, and a war of independence against Spain was launched. Ceuta governors did not accept the new king; they maintained their allegiance to Spain. Although Portugal had substantially attained its independence in 1640, the Spanish continued to try to reassert their control for the next twenty-eight years, only accepting Portuguese independence in 1668.
In the 17th century the Portuguese emigrated in large numbers to Brazil. By 1709, John V prohibited emigration, since Portugal had lost a sizable fraction of its population. Brazil was elevated to a vice-kingdom.
Pombaline era
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and later in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. The Queen consort
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of Portugal, Archduchess Maria Anne Josefa of Austria
Mary Anne of Austria
Maria Anna of Austria was an Archduchess of Austria and Queen consort of Portugal. She was also Regent of Portugal from 1742 until 1750 during the illness of her husband King John V of Portugal....
, was fond of Melo; and after his first wife died, she arranged the widowed de Melo's second marriage to the daughter of the Austrian Field Marshal Leopold Josef, Count von Daun. King John V of Portugal, however, was not pleased and recalled Melo to Portugal in 1749. John V died the following year and his son, Joseph I of Portugal was crowned. In contrast to his father, Joseph I was fond of de Melo, and with the Queen Mother
Queen mother
Queen Mother is a title or position reserved for a widowed queen consort whose son or daughter from that marriage is the reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since at least 1577...
's approval, he appointed Melo as Minister of Foreign Affairs. As the King's confidence in de Melo increased, the King entrusted him with more control of the state.
By 1755, Sebastião de Melo was made Prime Minister. Impressed by British economic success he had witnessed while Ambassador, he successfully implemented similar economic
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
policies in Portugal. He abolished slavery in Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; reorganized the army and the navy; restructured the University of Coimbra, and ended discrimination against different Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
sects in Portugal.
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...
to ensure the wine's quality, and this was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe. He ruled with a strong hand by imposing strict law upon all classes of Portuguese society from the high nobility to the poorest working class, along with a widespread review of the country's tax system. These reforms gained him enemies in the upper classes, especially among the high nobility, who despised him as a social upstart.
Disaster fell upon Portugal in the morning of 1 November 1755, when Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
was struck by a violent earthquake
1755 Lisbon earthquake
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that took place on Saturday 1 November 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by fires and a tsunami, which almost totally destroyed Lisbon in the Kingdom of Portugal, and...
with an estimated Richter scale
Richter magnitude scale
The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....
magnitude of 9. The city was razed to the ground by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and ensuing fires. Sebastião de Melo survived by a stroke of luck and then immediately embarked on rebuilding the city, with his famous quote: "What now? We bury the dead and feed the living."
Despite the calamity, Lisbon suffered no epidemics and within less than one year was already being rebuilt. The new downtown of Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
was designed to resist subsequent earthquakes. Architectural models were built for tests, and the effects of an earthquake were simulated by marching troops around the models. The buildings and big squares of the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon still remain as one of Lisbon's tourist attractions: They represent the world's first quake-proof buildings. Sebastião de Melo also made an important contribution to the study of seismology
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
by designing an inquiry that was sent to every parish in the country.
Following the earthquake, Joseph I gave his Prime Minister even more power, and Sebastião de Melo became a powerful, progressive dictator. As his power grew, his enemies increased in number, and bitter disputes with the high nobility became frequent. In 1758 Joseph I was wounded in an attempted assassination. The Távora family
Távora affair
The Távora affair was a political scandal of the 18th century Portuguese court. The events triggered by the attempted murder of King Joseph I of Portugal in 1758 ended with the public execution of the entire Távora family and its closest relatives in 1759...
and the Duke of Aveiro were implicated and executed after a quick trial. The Jesuits
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
were expelled from the country and their assets confiscated by the crown. Sebastião de Melo showed no mercy and prosecuted every person involved, even women and children. This was the final stroke that broke the power of the aristocracy and ensured the victory of the Minister against his enemies. Based upon his swift resolve, Joseph I made his loyal minister Count of Oeiras in 1759.
Following the Távora affair, the new Count of Oeiras knew no opposition. Made "Marquis of Pombal" in 1770, he effectively ruled Portugal until Joseph I's death in 1779. However, historians also argue that Pombal’s "enlightenment," while far-reaching, was primarily a mechanism for enhancing autocracy at the expense of individual liberty and especially an apparatus for crushing opposition, suppressing criticism, and furthering colonial
economic exploitation as well as intensifying book censorship and consolidating personal control and profit.
The new ruler, Queen Maria I of Portugal
Maria I of Portugal
Maria I was Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious , or Maria the Mad , she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...
, disliked the Marquis (See Távora affair
Távora affair
The Távora affair was a political scandal of the 18th century Portuguese court. The events triggered by the attempted murder of King Joseph I of Portugal in 1758 ended with the public execution of the entire Távora family and its closest relatives in 1759...
), and forbade him from coming within 20 miles of her, thus curtailing his influence.
Seven Years' War
In 1762 France and Spain tried to force Portugal to join the Bourbon Family Compact, by asserting that Britain had become too powerfulGreat Britain in the Seven Years War
The Kingdom of Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War which lasted between 1756 and 1763. Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power having gained a number of new territories at the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and established itself as the...
. Joseph refused to accept this and protested that his 1704 alliance with Britain was no threat.
In spring 1762 Spanish troops invaded Portugal from the north as far as the Douro
Douro
The Douro or Duero is one of the major rivers of the Iberian Peninsula, flowing from its source near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province across northern-central Spain and Portugal to its outlet at Porto...
, while a second column captured Almeida
Siege of Almeida (1762)
The Siege of Almeida took place in August 1762 when a Spanish force besieged and captured the city of Almeida from its Portuguese defenders during the Seven Years' War. The city was taken on 25 August as part of the invasion of Portugal by a Spanish army commanded by the Conte De Aranda.The force...
and threatened to advance on Lisbon. The arrival of a force of British troops rescued Portugal from defeat, blocking the Spanish advance and driving them back across the border following the Battle of Valencia de Alcántara. At the Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris (1763)
The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War...
in 1763 Spain agreed to hand back Almeida to Portugal.
Crises of the nineteenth century
In 1807 Portugal refused Napoleon Bonaparte's demand to accede to the Continental SystemContinental System
The Continental System or Continental Blockade was the foreign policy of Napoleon I of France in his struggle against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland during the Napoleonic Wars. It was a large-scale embargo against British trade, which began on November 21, 1806...
of embargo against the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
; a French invasion under General Junot
Jean-Andoche Junot
Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duke of Abrantès was a French general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Early life:...
followed, and Lisbon was captured on 8 December 1807. British intervention in the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
restored Portuguese independence, the last French troops being expelled in 1812. The war cost Portugal the province of Olivença
Olivença
Olivença can be:* The Portuguese name of the town of Olivenza, administered as part of the province of Badajoz . Portugal does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over it.* Olivença, Alagoas, a municipality in the state of Alagoas in Brazil....
, now governed by Spain. Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
in Brazil, was the Portuguese capital between 1808 and 1821. In 1820 constitutionalist insurrections took place at Oporto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
(24 August) and Lisbon (15 September). Lisbon regained its status as the capital of Portugal when Brazil declared its independence from Portugal in 1822.
The death of John VI
John VI of Portugal
John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...
in 1826 led to a crisis of royal succession. His eldest son, Peter I of Brazil
Peter I of Brazil
Dom Pedro I of Brazil , nicknamed "the Liberator" and "the Soldier-King", was the founder and first ruler of the Empire of Brazil and also King of Portugal as Pedro IV, having reigned for eight years in Brazil and two months in Portugal.-Birth:Pedro was born on 12 October 1798, around...
, briefly became Peter IV of Portugal, but neither the Portuguese nor the Brazilians wanted a unified monarchy; consequently, Peter abdicated the Portuguese crown in favor of his 7-year-old daughter, Maria da Glória, on the condition that when of age she would marry his brother, Miguel
Miguel of Portugal
Dom Miguel I, sometimes Michael , was the King of Portugal between 1828 and 1834, the seventh child and second son of King John VI and his queen, Charlotte of Spain....
. Dissatisfaction at Peter's constitutional reforms led the "absolutist" faction of landowners and the church to proclaim Miguel as king in February 1828. This led to the Liberal Wars
Liberal Wars
The Liberal Wars, also known as the Portuguese Civil War, the War of the Two Brothers, or Miguelite War, was a war between progressive constitutionalists and authoritarian absolutists in Portugal over royal succession that lasted from 1828 to 1834...
in which Pedro, eventually forced Miguel to abdicate and go into exile in 1834, and placed his daughter on throne as Queen Maria II.
In 1890 the British government made an ultimatum
British Ultimatum
The 1890 British Ultimatum was an ultimatum by the British government delivered on 11 January 1890 to Portugal in breach of the Treaty of Windsor of 1386...
delivered on 11 January 1890, to Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, forcing the retreat of Portuguese military forces in the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
and Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
). The area had been claimed by Portugal, which had included it in its "Pink Map
Pink Map
The Pink Map was a document representing Portugal's claim of sovereignty over the land between Angola and Mozambique, which today is currently Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi.The Pink Map collided with Sir Cecil Rhodes' "Cape to Cairo Red Line"...
", but this clashed with British aspirations to create a railroad link between Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
and Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, thereby linking its colonies from the north of Africa to the very south. This diplomatic clash leading to several waves of protest, prompted the downfall of the Portuguese government. The 1890 British Ultimatum was considered by Portuguese historians and politics at that time, the most outrageous and infamous action of the British against her oldest ally.
The First Republic
The First Republic has, over the course of a recent past, lost many historians to the New State. As a result, it is difficult to attempt a global synthesis of the republican period in view of the important gaps that still persist in our knowledge of its political history. As far as the October 1910 Revolution is concerned, a number of valuable studies have been made, first among which ranks Vasco Pulido Valente’s polemical thesis. This historian posited the Jacobin and urban nature of the revolution carried out by the Portuguese Republican PartyPortuguese Republican Party
The Portuguese Republican Party was a Portuguese political party formed during the late years of monarchy that proposed and conducted the substitution of the Constitutional Monarchy by the Portuguese First Republic....
(PRP) and claimed that the PRP had turned the republican regime into a de facto dictatorship. This vision clashes with an older interpretation of the First Republic as a progressive and increasingly democratic regime that presented a clear contrast to Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...
’s ensuing dictatorship.
The revolution immediately targeted the Catholic Church: churches were plundered, convents were attacked and religious (priests and nuns) were harassed. Scarcely had the provisional government been installed when it began devoting its entire attention to an anti-religious policy, in spite of a disastrous economic situation. On 10 October – five days after the inauguration of the Republic – the new government decreed that all convents, monasteries and all religious orders were to be suppressed. All religious were expelled and their goods confiscated. The Jesuits were forced to forfeit their Portuguese citizenship.
A series of anti-Catholic laws and decrees followed each other in rapid succession. On 3 November, a law legalizing divorce was passed; then laws recognizing the legitimacy of children born outside wedlock, authorizing cremation, secularizing cemeteries, suppressing religious teaching in the schools and prohibiting the wearing of the cassock, were passed. In addition, the ringing of church bells and times of worship were subjected to certain restraints, and the public celebration of religious feasts was suppressed. The government even interfered with the seminaries, reserving the right to name the professors and determine the programs. This whole series of laws authored by Afonso Costa
Afonso Costa
Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL was a Portuguese lawyer, professor, and republican politician.-Political career:Costa was the leader of the Portuguese Republican Party, and he was one of the major figures of the Portuguese First Republic. He was a republican deputy in the Chamber of Deputies...
culminated in the law of Separation of Church and State, which was passed on 20 April 1911.
A republican constitution was approved in 1911, inaugurating a parliamentary regime with reduced presidential powers and two chambers of parliament. The Republic provoked important fractures within Portuguese society, notably among the essentially monarchist rural population, in the trade unions, and in the Church. Even the PRP had to endure the secession of its more moderate elements, who formed conservative republican parties like the Evolutionist party and the Republican Union. In spite of these splits, the PRP, led by Afonso Costa
Afonso Costa
Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL was a Portuguese lawyer, professor, and republican politician.-Political career:Costa was the leader of the Portuguese Republican Party, and he was one of the major figures of the Portuguese First Republic. He was a republican deputy in the Chamber of Deputies...
, preserved its dominance, largely due to a brand of clientelist politics inherited from the monarchy. In view of these tactics, a number of opposition forces were forced to resort to violence in order to enjoy the fruits of power. There are few recent studies of this period of the Republic’s existence, known as the ‘old’ Republic. Nevertheless, an essay by Vasco Pulido Valente should be consulted (1997a), as should the attempt to establish the political, social, and economic context made by M. Villaverde Cabral (1988).
The PRP viewed the outbreak of the First World War as a unique opportunity to achieve a number of goals: putting an end to the twin threats of a Spanish invasion of Portugal and of foreign occupation of the African colonies and, at the internal level, creating a national consensus around the regime and even around the party. These domestic objectives were not met, since participation in the conflict was not the subject of a national consensus and since it did not therefore serve to mobilise the population. Quite the opposite occurred: existing lines of political and ideological fracture were deepened by Portugal’s intervention in the First World War. The lack of consensus around Portugal’s intervention in turn made possible the appearance of two dictatorships, led by General Pimenta de Castro (January–May 1915) and Sidónio Pais
Sidónio Pais
Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais was a Portuguese politician and diplomat, the fourth President in 1918. He was known as the President-King.-Family:...
(December 1917-December 1918).
Sidonismo, also known as Dezembrismo (English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
"Decemberism"), aroused a strong interest among historians, largely as a result of the elements of modernity that it contained. António José Telo has made clear the way in which this regime predated some of the political solutions invented by the totalitarian and fascist dictatorships of the 1920s and 1930s. Sidónio Pais undertook the rescue of traditional values, notably the Pátria (English: "Homeland"), and attempted to rule in a charismatic fashion. A move was made to abolish traditional political parties and to alter the existing mode of national representation in parliament (which, it was claimed, exacerbated divisions within the Pátria) through the creation of a corporative Senate
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a legislature or parliament. There have been many such bodies in history, since senate means the assembly of the eldest and wiser members of the society and ruling class...
, the founding of a single-party (the National Republican Party), and the attribution of a mobilising function to the leader. The state carved out an economically interventionist role for itself while, at the same time, repressing working-class movements and leftist republicans. Sidónio Pais also attempted to restore public order and to overcome some of the rifts of the recent past, making the republic more acceptable to monarchists and Catholics.
The vacuum of power created by Sidónio Pais’ murder on 14 December 1918, led the country to a brief civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
. The monarchy’s restoration was proclaimed in the north of Portugal on 19 January 1919, and four days later a monarchist insurrection broke out in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
. A republican coalition government, led by José Relvas
José Relvas
José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas José Maria Mascarenhas Relvas (Golegã, Golegã, March 5, 1858 - Alpiarça, Casa dos Patudos, October 31, 1929; , was a Portuguese politician.-Political career:...
, coordinated the struggle against the monarchists by loyal army units and armed civilians. After a series of clashes the monarchists were definitively chased from Oporto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
on 13 February 1919. This military victory allowed the PRP to return to government and to emerge triumphant from the elections held later that year, having won the usual absolute majority.
It was during this restoration of the ‘old’ republic that an attempted reform was carried out in order to provide the regime with greater stability. In August 1919 a conservative president was elected – António José de Almeida
António José de Almeida
António José de Almeida, GCTE, GCA, GCC, GCSE, , son of José António de Almeida and wife Maria Rita das Neves, was a Portuguese political figure...
(whose Evolutionist party had come together in wartime with the PRP to form a flawed, because incomplete, Sacred Union) – and his office was given the power to dissolve parliament. Relations with the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
, restored by Sidónio Pais, were preserved. The president used his new power to resolve a crisis of government in May 1921, naming a liberal
Partido Liberal
Partido Liberal may refer to:* Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party * Liberal Party...
government (the Liberal party being the result of the postwar fusion of Evolutionists and Unionists) to prepare the forthcoming elections. These were held on 10 July 1921, with victory going, as was usually the case, to the party in power. However, liberal government did not last long. On 19 October a military pronunciamento was carried out during which – and apparently against the wishes of the coup’s leaders – a number of prominent conservative figures, including Prime Minister António Granjo
António Granjo
António Joaquim Granjo was a Portuguese lawyer and politician.He was a republican from his youth, and was a member of the National Constituent Assembly, elected on 28 May 1911...
, were assassinated. This event, known as the ‘night of blood’ left a deep wound among political elites and public opinion. There could be no greater demonstration of the essential fragility of the Republic’s institutions and proof that the regime was democratic in name only, since it did not even admit the possibility of the rotation in power characteristic of the elitist regimes of the nineteenth century.
A new round of elections on 29 January 1922 inaugurated a fresh period of stability: the PRP once again emerged from the contest with an absolute majority. Discontent with this situation had not, however, disappeared. Numerous accusations of corruption, and the manifest failure to resolve pressing social concerns wore down the more visible PRP leaders while making the opposition’s attacks more deadly. At the same time, moreover, all political parties suffered from growing internal factionalism, especially the PRP itself. The party system was fractured and discredited. This is clearly shown by the fact that regular PRP victories at the ballot box did not lead to stable government. Between 1910 and 1926 there were forty-five governments. The opposition of presidents to single-party governments, internal dissent within the PRP, the party’s almost non-existent internal discipline, and its desire to group together and lead all republican forces made any government’s task practically impossible. Many different formulas were attempted, including single-party governments, coalitions, and presidential executives, but none succeeded. Force was clearly the sole means open to the opposition if the PRP wanted to enjoy the fruits of power.
By the mid-1920s the domestic and international scenes began to favour another authoritarian solution, wherein a strengthened executive might restore political and social order. Since the opposition’s constitutional route to power was blocked by the various means deployed by the PRP to protect itself, it turned to the army for support. The political awareness of the armed forces had grown during the war, and many of whose leaders had not forgiven the PRP for sending it to a war it did not want to fight. They seemed to represent, to conservative forces, the last bastion of ‘order’ against the ‘chaos’ that was taking over the country. Links were established between conservative figures and military officers, who added their own political and corporative demands to the already complex equation. The pronunciamento of 28 May 1926 enjoyed the support of most army units and even of most political parties. As had been the case in December 1917, the population of Lisbon did not rise to defend the Republic, leaving it at the mercy of the army. There are few global and up-to-date studies of this turbulent third phase of the Republic’s existence. Nevertheless, much has been written about the crisis and fall of the regime and the 28 May movement. The First Republic continues to be the subject of an intense debate. A recent historiographical balance sheet, elaborated by Armando Malheiro da Silva (2000,) is a good introduction into this debate. Three main interpretations can be identified. For some historians the First Republic was a progressive and increasingly democratic regime. For others it was essentially a prolongation of the liberal and elitist regimes of the 19th century. A third group chooses to highlight the regime’s revolutionary, Jacobin and dictatorial nature.
New State (Estado Novo)
Portugal in the Great War
Despite its old alliance with Britain started with the Treaty of Windsor in 1386 , Portugal did not initially form part of the system of alliances involved in World War I and thus initially kept its neutrality...
led to the military 28 May 1926 coup d'état. This coup installed the "Second Republic" that would become the Estado Novo in 1933, led by António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo , the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal...
, which transformed Portugal into a proto-Fascist Axis-leaning state. This later evolved into some mixture of single-party corporative regime. In 1961 the Portuguese army was involved in armed action in its colony in Goa against an Indian invasion (See Operation Vijay). The operations resulted in a humiliating Portuguese defeat and the loss of the colonies in India. Independence movements also became active in Portuguese Angola, Portuguese Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea
Portuguese Guinea
Portuguese Guinea was the name for what is today Guinea-Bissau from 1446 to September 10, 1974.-History:...
; the Portuguese Colonial War
Portuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
started. Portugal, during this period, was never an outcast, and was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Free Trade Association
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association or EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union . EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to,...
(EFTA).
After the death of Salazar in 1970, his replacement by Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano, GCTE, GCC, also spelled Marcello Caetano , was a Portuguese politician and scholar, who was the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime, from 1968 until his overthrow in the Carnation Revolution of 1974....
offered a certain hope that the regime would open up, the primavera marcelista (Marcelist spring). However the colonial wars in Africa continued, political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s remained incarcerated, freedom of association was not restored, censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
was only slightly eased and the election
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
s remained tightly controlled. The regime retained its characteristic traits: censorship, corporativeness, with a market economy dominated by a handful of economical groups, continuous surveillance and intimidation of several sectors of society through the use of a political police and techniques instilling fear (such as arbitrary imprisonment, systematic political persecution and even assassination of anti-regime insurgents).
The Third Republic
The "Carnation RevolutionCarnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
" of 1974, an effectively bloodless left-wing military coup, installed the "Third Republic". Broad democratic reforms were implemented. In 1975, Portugal granted independence to its Overseas Provinces
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
(Províncias Ultramarinas in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
) in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
(Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Guinea-Bissau
Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....
, Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
and São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...
). Nearly 1 million Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
or persons of Portuguese descent left these former colonies as refugees. In that same year, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
invaded and annexed the Portuguese province of Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....
(East Timor) in Asia before independence could be granted. The massive exodus of the Portuguese military and citizens from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique, would prompt an era of chaos and severe destruction in those territories after independence from Portugal in 1975. From May 1974 to the end of the 1970s, over a million Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique) left those territories as destitute refugees - the retornados. The newly-independent countries were ravaged by brutal civil wars in the following decades - the Angolan Civil War
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War was a major civil conflict in the Southern African state of Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with some interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. Prior to this, a decolonisation conflict had taken...
(1975–2002) and Mozambican Civil War
Mozambican Civil War
The Mozambican Civil War began in 1977, two years after the end of the war of independence. The ruling party, Front for Liberation of Mozambique , was violently opposed from 1977 by the Rhodesian- and South African-funded Mozambique Resistance Movement...
(1977–1992) - responsible for millions of deaths and refugees. The Asian dependency of Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
, after an agreement in 1986, was returned to Chinese
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
sovereignty in 1999. Portugal applied international pressure to secure East Timor's independence from Indonesia, as East Timor was still legally a Portuguese dependency, and recognized as such by the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. After a referendum in 1999, East Timor voted for independence and Portugal recognized its independence in 2002.
With the 1975–76 independence of its colonies, other than Macau, the 560 year old Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
effectively ended. Simultaneously 15 years of war effort also came to an end; many Portuguese returned from the colonies (the retornados) and came to comprise a sizeable section of the population. This opened new paths for the country's future just as others closed. In 1986, Portugal entered the European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
and left the European Free Trade Association
European Free Trade Association
The European Free Trade Association or EFTA is a free trade organisation between four European countries that operates parallel to, and is linked to, the European Union . EFTA was established on 3 May 1960 as a trade bloc-alternative for European states who were either unable to, or chose not to,...
which was founded by Portugal and its partners in 1960. The country joined the Euro in 1999. The Portuguese empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
ended de facto in 1999 when Macau was returned to China, and de jure in 2002 when East Timor
East Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
was independent.
See also
- Economic history of PortugalEconomic history of PortugalThe economic history of Portugal covers the development of the economy throughout the course of Portuguese history. It has its roots prior to nationality, when Roman occupation developed a thriving economy in Hispania, in the provinces of Lusitania and Gallaecia, as producers and exporters to the...
- History of EuropeHistory of EuropeHistory of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...
- History of European Union
- History of MoroccoHistory of MoroccoThe History of Morocco spans over 12 centuries, without considering the Classical antiquity. The country was first unified by the Idrisid dynasty in 780, representing the first Islamic state in Africa autonomous from the Arab Empire. Under the Almoravid dynasty and the Almohad dynasty, Morocco...
- History of Portugal (711–1112)
- History of SpainHistory of SpainThe history of Spain involves all the other peoples and nations within the Iberian peninsula formerly known as Hispania, and includes still today the nations of Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain...
- List of Portuguese Cortes
- List of Portuguese monarchs
- List of Prime Ministers of Portugal
- Monuments of PortugalMonuments of PortugalThe Monuments of Portugal were constructed throughout the Portuguese territory, and date back to the period of pre-historic settlement of occupation. Subsequently, the region that is today Portugal has been colonized by many civilizations, which have left marks in the territory, constructing...
- Presidents of Portugal
- Timeline of Portuguese historyTimeline of Portuguese historyThis is a historical timeline of Portugal.*Timeline of Iberian prehistory*Pre-Roman Iberia *Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia *Germanic Kingdoms...
- Timeline of Iberian prehistory
- Pre-Roman Iberia (Before the 3rd century BC)Timeline of pre-Roman Iberian historyThis section of the timeline of Iberian history concerns events from before the Carthaginian conquests .-Bronze Age:*2nd millennium BC** c. 1800 BC – The El Argar civilization appears in Almería, south-east of Spain, replacing the earlier civilization of Los Millares. The adoption of bronze...
- Roman Lusitania and Gallaecia (3rd century BC to 4th century AD)Timeline of Portuguese history (Lusitania and Gallaecia)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-3rd century BC:*237 BC - The Carthaginian General Hamilcar Barca enters Iberia with his armies through Gadir.*228 BC - Hamilcar Barca dies in battle...
- Germanic Kingdoms (5th to 8th century)
- Al' Garb Al'Andalus and the beginning of the Reconquista (8th to 9th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Reconquista)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-8th Century:*711, March 15 – Muslim Umayyads This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-8th Century:*711, March 15 – Muslim Umayyads This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-8th Century:*711, March 15 – Muslim Umayyads (Moors: mainly Berber with some...
- First County of Portugal (9th to 11th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (First County)-9th century:*868 - Establishment of the 1st County of Portugal, a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Asturias, by count Vímara Peres, after the reconquest from the Moors of the region between the Minho and Douro Rivers...
- Second County of Portugal (11th to 12th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Second County)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-11th century:*1077 - Alfonso VI of Castile and León proclaimes himself Emperor of all Spains.*1080**Coimbra is again a Diocese.**Count Sisnando Davides of Coimbra takes part in the invasion of Granada....
- First Dynasty: Burgundy (12th to 14th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (First Dynasty)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-12th century:*1128, July 24 – Count Afonso Henriques defeats his mother, Theresa, Countess of Portugal, in the Battle of São Mamede and becomes sole ruler after demands for independence from the county's people, church and nobles.*1129 - April 6, Afonso...
- Second Dynasty: Aviz (14th to 16th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Second Dynasty)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-14th century:*1385**April – João I of Portugal acclaimed king by the Portuguese; Castilians do not accept this claim....
- Third Dynasty: Habsburg (Spanish rule) (16th to 17th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Third Dynasty)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-16th Century:*1580**Invasion of Portugal by a Spanish army commanded by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba.**Battle of Alcântara between Portuguese and Spanish forces.**The Fortress of St...
- Fourth Dynasty: Bragança (17th to 20th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Fourth Dynasty)-17th Century:*1640, December 1: a small group of conspirators storms the Palace in Lisbon and deposes the Spanish Governor, the Duchess of Mantua. The Duke of Bragança, head of the senior family of the Portuguese nobility , accepts the throne as Dom João IV of Portugal, despite deep personal...
- First Republic (20th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (First Republic)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-1910:*October 4 - Beginning of the Republican Revolution. The Republic is proclaimed in Loures, just north of Lisbon.*October 5...
- Second Republic: Authoritarian Estado Novo (20th century)Timeline of Portuguese history (Second Republic)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-1926:*May 27, The General Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa arrives at Braga with the purpose of initiating a Coup d'état....
- Third Republic: Democracy (20th century to present)Timeline of Portuguese history (Third Republic)This is a historical timeline of Portugal.-1974:*April 25, The Carnation Revolution puts an end to the authoritarian regime of Estado Novo...