Baltic Travel Agent Specialists
Portugal,
officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa:
is a country in southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula. Being
the westernmost country of mainland Europe, Portugal is bordered by
the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and
east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part
of Portugal.
The land within the borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been
continuously settled since prehistoric times. Some of the earliest civilizations
include Lusitanians and Celtic societies. Incorporation into the Roman
Republic dominions took place in the 2nd century BC. The region was
ruled and colonized by Germanic peoples, such as the Suebi and the Visigoths,
from the 5th to the 8th century. The Muslim Moors arrived in the early
8th century and conquered the Christian Germanic kingdoms, eventually
occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula. In the early 1100s, during
the Christian Reconquista, Portugal appeared as a kingdom independent
of its neighbour, the Kingdom of León and Galicia. In a little
over a century, in 1249, Portugal would establish almost its entire
modern-day borders by conquering territory from the Moors.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, with a global empire that included
possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the
world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. In the 17th
century, the Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain ended
the sixty year period of the Iberian Union (1580-1640). In the 19th
century, armed conflict with French and Spanish invading forces and
the loss of its largest territorial possession abroad, Brazil, disrupted
political stability and potential economic growth. After the Portuguese
Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution coup d'état in 1974,
the ruling regime was deposed in Lisbon and the country handed over
its last overseas provinces in Africa. Portugal's last overseas territory,
Macau, was handed over to the P. R. China in 1999.
Portugal is a developed country, and although having one of the lowest
GDP per capita of Western European countries, it has a high Human Development
Index and is among the world's 20 highest rated countries in terms of
quality of life. It is a member of the European Union (since 1986) and
the United Nations (since 1955); as well as a founding member of OECD,
NATO, CPLP (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
— Community of Portuguese Language Countries), and the European
Union's Eurozone.
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