Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country in 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 part of the 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, followed by a succession of Germanic peoples and the Alans 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 AD. Modern Portugal began taking shape during this period, initially as a county of the Christian Kingdom of León in 868 and recognized unequivocally as a kingdom with Manifestis Probatum in 1179. As one of the earliest participants in the Age of Discovery, Portugal made several advancements in nautical science, the discovery of the volta do mar, which unlocked safe round-trip voyages enabling deep-sea travel, stands out as a major turning point in world's history. It settled Madeira and the Azores, and established itself as a major economic and political power, largely through a maritime empire that extended mostly along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts. The Portuguese were among the first Europeans to explore and discover new territories and sea routes establishing a global commercial network of settlements, colonies, and trading posts. 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 with its independence in 1822, triggering a civil war (1828–1834) between supporters for a constitutional monarchy and absolutist monarchists. The monarchy endured until the 5 October 1910 revolution, which replaced it with the First Republic. A phase of unrest ultimately led to its replacement with the authoritarian Ditadura Nacional and then turned into 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. Today, it is a developed country with an advanced economy relying chiefly upon services, industry, and tourism. Portugal, a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area, and the Council of Europe, was one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.