Portugal



"Portugal is home to the finest sad music that most of its residents can hear. Also, they are very good at football. I know that Portugal is being annexed in process by Spain. But now, well, I must save it."

--Su Ji-Hoon, The Battle of Portugal

Portugal (Portuguese: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa [ʁɛ'puβlikɐ puɾtu'ɣezɐ]), is a sovereign state located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, being bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain. Its territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. At 1.7 million km2, its exclusive economic zone is the 3rd largest in the European Union and the 11th largest in the world.

Portugal is the oldest state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest European nation-states, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigoths and Suebi Germanic peoples. Portugal as a country was established in the aftermath of the Christian Reconquista against the Muslim Moors who had invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD. After the Battle of São Mamede, where Portuguese forces led by Afonso Henriques defeated forces led by his mother, Theresa of Portugal, the County of Portugal affirmed its sovereignty and Afonso Henriques styled himself Prince of Portugal. He would later be proclaimed King of Portugal at the Battle of Ourique in 1139 and was recognised as such by neighboring kingdoms in 1143.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. During this period, today referred to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration, notably under royal patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator and King John II, with such notable voyages as Bartolomeu Dias' sailing beyond the Cape of Good Hope (1488), Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India (1497–98) and the European discovery of Brazil (1500). Portugal monopolized the spice trade during this time, and the empire expanded with military campaigns in Asia. However, events such as the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, the country's occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of Brazil (1822), left Portugal crippled from war and diminished in its world power.

After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, later being superseded by the Estado Novo right-wing authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Carnation Revolution in 1974, ending the Portuguese Colonial War. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories. The handover of Macau to China in 1999 marked the end of the longest-lived colonial empire. Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe, a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers, and many Portuguese-based creoles. A member of the United Nations and the European Union, Portugal was also one of the founding members of NATO, the Eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

Portugal is a developed country with a high-income advanced economy, a developed market, and high living standards. It is ranked highly in terms of environmental performance (7th), LGBTI rights (6th in Europe), press freedom (18th), social progress (20th) and prosperity (25th), and has one of the best road networks in the world. With its political stability and low crime rates, it is ranked as the most peaceful country in the EU and the 3rd in the world. Additionally, it is recognized as one of the fifteen sustainable states, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republic. Portugal ranks above the OECD average in Mathematics, Science, and Reading, having been the country with the most expressive positive evolution throughout PISA's studies. Although historically a Catholic-majority country, in the last decades Portugal has transformed itself into a secular state with one of the world's highest rates of moral freedom. It was the first country to abolish life imprisonment and one of the earliest to abolish capital punishment. Practices such as abortion, same-sex marriage and adoption, medically assisted insemination for single women and lesbian couples, and altruistic surrogacy have been legalized. In 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize the possession and consumption of all illicit drugs, focusing on treatment and harm reduction, with significant public health gains.

Etymology
The word Portugal derives from the Roman-Celtic place name Portus Cale. Cala or Cailleah was the name of a Celtic god and also the name of an early settlement located at the mouth of the Douro River (present-day Vila Nova de Gaia) which flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the north of what is now Portugal. Some French scholars believe it may have come from 'Portus Gallus,' the port of the Gauls or Celts. Around 200 BC, the Romans took the Iberian Peninsula from the Carthaginians during the Second Punic War, and in the process conquered Cale and renamed it Portus Cale (Port of Cale). During the Middle Ages, the region around Portus Cale became known by the Suebi and Visigoths as Portucale. The name Portucale evolved into Portugale during the 7th and 8th centuries, and by the 9th century, that term was used extensively to refer to the region between the rivers Douro and Minho, the Minho flowing along what would become the northern Portugal-Spain border. By the 11th and 12th centuries, Portugale was already referred to as Portugal.