Portugal

Lore & Background

The western Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited since prehistory, with the earliest signs of settlement dating to between 5500BC and 5300BC. Muslims had occupied the Iberian Peninsula since 711. As a result of the Reconquista against them, Portugal was established as a county of the Kingdom of León in 868 and formally as a kingdom in 1139. During the Age of Discovery, the kingdom made several advancements in nautical science and maritime exploration to discover new territories and sea routes, which led to the establishment of the Portuguese Empire. The kingdom became a republic in 1910, before becoming a dictatorship in 1926, whose 1974 overthrow enabled democracy to be established in 1976.

In Their Own Story

The salt air of Lisbon stings your eyes as you watch the caravels slip through the Tagus estuary at dawn. In the council chamber above, the king traces a finger along a chart where the coast of West Africa is still half-erased, half-imagined. A merchant kneels before him, offering a cut of the pepper trade that would fill the treasury for a decade. Outside, the bells of the Sé cathedral ring the hour, and somewhere in the shipyards, a carpenter is driving the last peg into a hull that will carry men to shores no European has yet named. The empire is not yet built. It is a single ship, a single trade node, a single decision made in a small room above the river. But the sea is patient, and Portugal has time.

Reader's Guide

Portugal is a unitary republic and multi-party representative democracy with four separate sovereignty organs: president, government, parliament, and judiciary. It has a unicameral national legislature known as the Assembly of the Republic. Portugal is divided into seven mainland regions and two autonomous overseas regions, though it remains a highly centralised country. A developed country, Portugal has an advanced economy that chiefly relies upon services, industry, and tourism. Shaped by the various civilisations that have inhabited its territory, such as the Carthaginians and the Romans, Portugal developed a culture with a worldwide influence that allowed Portuguese to become the world's fifth-most spoken native language with more than 250 million native speakers. With a stable foreign policy shaped by its colonial and diplomatic history and location, Portugal is a member of multiple international organisations and forums.

Did You Know?

• The name Portugal derives from Latin Portus Cale, a Roman name meaning 'port of Cale'.
• The earliest signs of settlement in the region date to between 5500BC and 5300BC.
• Portugal's exclusive economic zone is one of Europe's largest.
• Portuguese is the world's fifth-most spoken native language with more than 250 million native speakers.