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. 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 has 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.