Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it shares the longest uninterrupted border in the European Union; to the south and the west is the North Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and southwest lie the Macaronesian archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, which are the two autonomous regions of Portugal. Lisbon is the capital and largest city, followed by Porto, which is the only other metropolitan area.

The western Iberian Peninsula has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times, with the earliest signs of settlement dating to 5500 BC. Celtic and Iberian peoples arrived in the first millennium BC. The region came under Roman control in the second century BC. A succession of Germanic peoples and the Alans ruled from the fifth to eighth centuries AD. Muslims invaded mainland Portugal in the eighth century, but were gradually expelled by the Christian ''Reconquista'', culminating with the capture of the Algarve between 1238 and 1249. Modern Portugal began taking shape during this period, initially as a county of the Christian Kingdom of León in 868, and formally as a sovereign kingdom with the '' Manifestis Probatum'' in 1179.Brian Jenkins, Spyros A. Sofos
''Nation and identity in contemporary Europe''
, p. 145, Routledge, 1996,

As one of the earliest participants in the Age of Discovery, Portugal made several seminal advancements in nautical science. The Portuguese subsequently were among the first Europeans to explore and discover new territories and sea routes, establishing a maritime empire of settlements, colonies, and trading posts that extended mostly along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts. A dynastic crisis in the early 1580s resulted in the Iberian Union (1580–1640), which unified Portugal under Spanish rule, marking its gradual decline as a global power. Portuguese sovereignty was regained in 1640 and was followed by a costly and protracted war lasting until 1688, while the 1755 Lisbon earthquake destroyed the city and further damaged the empire's economy.

The Napoleonic Wars drove the relocation of the court to Brazil in 1807, leading to its elevation from colony to kingdom, which culminated in Brazilian independence in 1822; this resulted in a civil war (1828–1834) between absolutist monarchists and supporters of a constitutional monarchy, with the latter prevailing. The monarchy endured until the 5 October 1910 revolution, which replaced it with the First Republic. Wracked by unrest and civil strife, the republic was replaced by the authoritarian Ditadura Nacional and its successor, the Estado Novo. Democracy was restored in 1974 following the Carnation Revolution, which brought an end to the Portuguese Colonial War and allowed the last of Portugal's African territories to achieve independence.

Portugal's imperial history has left a vast cultural legacy, with around 300 million Portuguese speakers around the world. The country is a developed and advanced economy relying chiefly upon services, industry, and tourism. Portugal is a member of the United Nations, European Union, Schengen Area, and Council of Europe, and one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

Etymology

The word ''Portugal'' derives from the combined Roman-Celtic place name Portus Cale (present-day's conurbation of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia). Porto stems from the Latin for port, ; ''Cale''s meaning and origin is unclear. The mainstream explanation is an ethnonym derived from the Callaeci, also known as the Gallaeci peoples, who occupied the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. One theory proposes ''Cale'' is a derivation of the Celtic word for 'port'. Another is that ''Cala'' was a Celtic goddess. Some French scholars believe it may have come from , the port of the Gauls.

Around 200 BC, the Romans took Iberia from the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War. In the process they conquered Cale, renaming it ('Port of Cale') and incorporating it into the province of Gallaecia. During the Middle Ages, the region around Portus Cale became known by the Suebi and Visigoths as ''Portucale''. The name ''Portucale'' changed into ''Portugale'' during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, it was used to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho. By the 11th and 12th centuries, ''Portugale'', ''Portugallia'', ''Portvgallo'' or ''Portvgalliae'' was already referred to as ''Portugal''.

History

Prehistory

The region has been inhabited by humans since circa 400,000 years ago, when Homo heidelbergensis entered the area. The oldest human fossil found in Portugal is the 400,000-year-old '' Aroeira 3'' ''H. Heidelbergensis'' skull discovered in the Cave of Aroeira in 2014. Later Neanderthals roamed the northern Iberian peninsula and a tooth has been found at Nova da Columbeira cave in Estremadura.David Birmingham (2003), p.11 Homo sapiens sapiens arrived in Portugal around 35,000 years ago and spread rapidly. Pre-Celtic tribes inhabited Portugal. The Cynetes developed a written language, leaving stelae, which are mainly found in the south.

Early in the first millennium BC, several waves of Celts arrived in Portugal from Central Europe and intermarried with the local populations to form several different ethnic groups. The Celtic presence is patent in archaeological and linguistic evidence. They dominated most of northern and central Portugal, while the south maintained its older character (believed non-Indo-European, likely related to Basque) until the Roman conquest. In southern Portugal, some small, semi-permanent commercial coastal outposts were also founded by Phoenicians and Carthaginians.

Roman Portugal

Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC. The Carthaginians, Rome's opponent in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies. During Julius Caesar's rule, almost the entire peninsula was annexed to Rome. The conquest took two hundred years and many died, including those sentenced to work in slave mines or sold as slaves to other parts of the empire. The Roman occupation suffered a setback in 155 BC, when a rebellion began in the north. The Lusitanians and other native tribes, under the leadership of Viriathus, wrested control of all of western Iberia. Rome sent legions to quell the rebellion but were unsuccessful. Roman leaders bribed Viriathus's allies to kill him in 139 BC; he was replaced by Tautalus.

In 27 BC, Lusitania gained the status of Roman province. Later, a northern province was separated from the province of Tarraconensis, under Emperor Diocletian's reforms, known as Gallaecia. There are numerous ruins of castros ( hill forts) and remains of the Castro culture, like the Mozinho, Zambujal, Cidadelhe, Conímbriga, Mirobriga, Briteiros archaeological sites.

Germanic kingdoms

In 409, with the decline of the Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula was occupied by Germanic tribes. In 411, with a federation contract with Emperor Honorius, many of these people settled in Hispania. An important group was made up of the Suebi, Buri, Vandals in Gallaecia, who founded a Suebi Kingdom with its capital in Braga. They came to dominate central Portugal, including Aeminium (Coimbra) all the way to the Tagus, while the Visigoths occupied the south.
The Suebi and the Visigoths were the Germanic tribes who had the most lasting presence in the territories corresponding to modern Portugal. As elsewhere in Western Europe, there was a sharp decline in urban life during the Dark Ages.

Roman institutions disappeared in the wake of the Germanic invasions with the exception of ecclesiastical

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