Portugal

For other uses, see Portugal (disambiguation).

Portuguese Republic
República Portuguesa (Portuguese)
Anthem: 
A Portuguesa
"The Portuguese"
Location of Portugal (dark green)

– in Europe (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union (green)

Capital
and largest city
Lisbon
38°46′N 9°9′W / 38.767°N 9.150°W / 38.767; -9.150
Official languagesPortuguese
Recognised regional languagesMirandese[a]
Nationality (2023)[3]
Religion
(2021)[4]
  • 14.1% no religion
  • 1.1% other
Demonym(s)Portuguese
GovernmentUnitary semi-presidential republic[5][b]
• President
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
Luís Montenegro
• Speaker
José Pedro Aguiar-Branco
LegislatureAssembly of the Republic
Establishment
• County
868
24 June 1128
• Kingdom
25 July 1139
5 October 1143
23 May 1179
23 September 1822
• Republic
5 October 1910
25 April 1974
25 April 1976[c]
Area
• Total
92,230 km2 (35,610 sq mi)[7][8] (109th)
• Water (%)
1.2 (2015)[6]
Population
• 2023 estimate
Neutral increase 10,639,726[9] (88th)
• 2021 census
Neutral decrease 10,343,066[10]
• Density
115.4/km2 (298.9/sq mi)
GDP (PPP)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $508.508 billion[11] (51st)
• Per capita
Increase $49,237[11] (40th)
GDP (nominal)2024 estimate
• Total
Increase $303.032 billion[11] (47th)
• Per capita
Increase $29,341[11] (41st)
Gini (2023)Negative increase 33.7[12]
medium inequality
HDI (2022)Increase 0.874[13]
very high (42nd)
CurrencyEuro[d] (€) (EUR)
Time zoneUTC (WET)
UTC−1 (Atlantic/Azores)
• Summer (DST)
UTC+1 (WEST)
UTC (Atlantic/Azores)
Note: Continental Portugal and Madeira use WET/WEST; the Azores are 1 hour behind.
Drives onright
Calling code+351
ISO 3166 codePT
Internet TLD.pt

Portugal,[e] officially the Portuguese Republic,[f] is a country in the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring the westernmost point in continental Europe, to its north and east is Spain, 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 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 BCE.[14] Celtic and Iberian peoples arrived in the first millennium BCE, with Phoenician and later Punic influence reaching the south during the same period. The region came under Roman control in the second century BCE, followed by a succession of Germanic peoples and the Alans from the fifth to eighth centuries CE. Muslims conquered most of the Iberian Peninsula in the eighth century CE, but were gradually expelled by the Christian Reconquista over the next several centuries. Modern Portugal began taking shape during this period, initially as a county of the Christian Kingdom of León in 868, and ultimately as an independent Kingdom with the Treaty of Zamora in 1143.[15]

During the Age of Discovery, the Kingdom of Portugal established itself as a major economic and political power, largely through its maritime empire, which extended mostly along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts.[16] Portuguese explorers and merchants were instrumental in establishing trading posts and colonies that enabled control over spices and slave trades.[17] While Portugal expanded its influence globally, its political and military power faced internal and external challenges towards the end of the 16th century. The dynastic crisis marked the beginning of the country's political decline that led to the Iberian Union (1580-1640), a period in which Portugal was united under Spanish rule.[18] While maintaining a degree of self-governance, the union strained Portugal’s autonomy and drew it into conflicts with European powers which targeted Portuguese territories and trade routes.[19] Portugal's prior opulence was further exacerbated by a series of events, such as the Portuguese Restoration War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which destroyed the city and damaged the empire's economy.[20]

The Napoleonic Wars motivated the Portuguese royal family to relocate to Brazil in 1807. This event reshaped the relationship between Portugal and Brazil, culminating in Brazilian independence in 1822.[21] Following the liberation during the Peninsular War, Portugal endured a period marked by a civil war between liberals and absolutists from 1828 to 1834.[22] The monarchy was overthrown in the 1910 revolution, which led to the establishment of the Portuguese First Republic. A phase of unrest ultimately led to the rise of authoritarian regimes of the Ditadura Nacional and the Estado Novo.[23] Democracy was finally restored following the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and brought an end to the Portuguese Colonial War, allowing the last of Portugal’s African territories to achieve independence.[24]

Portugal's imperial history has left a 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 is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area, and the Council of Europe, as well as a founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.

  1. ^ "Reconhecimento oficial de direitos linguísticos da comunidade mirandesa (Official recognition of linguistic rights of the Mirandese community)". Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa (UdL). Archived from the original on 18 March 2002. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  2. ^ The Euromosaic study, Mirandese in Portugal Archived 5 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine, europa.eu – European Commission website. Retrieved January 2007. Link updated December 2015
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference aima was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Censos2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Constitution of Portugal, Preamble" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Surface water and surface water change". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Archived from the original on 24 March 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Statistics Portugal - Web Portal". ine.pt. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Portugal country profile". BBC News. 24 February 2020. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  9. ^ "População residente ultrapassa os 10,6 milhões - 2023". ine.pt. INE. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Censos 2021 - Principais tendências ocorridas em Portugal na última década". Statistics Portugal - Web Portal. 23 November 2022. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d "World Economic Outlook Database, October 2024 Edition. (Portugal)". www.imf.org. International Monetary Fund. 22 October 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  12. ^ "A taxa de risco de pobreza aumentou para 17,0% em 2022 - 2023". www.ine.pt. INE. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  13. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/24" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. p. 288. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  14. ^ "The World Factbook". cia.gov. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
  15. ^ Brian Jenkins, Spyros A. Sofos, Nation and identity in contemporary Europe Archived 5 April 2023 at the Wayback Machine, p. 145, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-12313-5
  16. ^ Axelson, Eric; Boxer, C. R. (June 1970). "The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415-1825". The Geographical Journal. 136 (2): 296. doi:10.2307/1796339. ISSN 0016-7398. JSTOR 1796339.
  17. ^ Russell-Wood, A. J. R. (1998). The Portuguese Empire, 1415-1808. Johns Hopkins University Press. doi:10.1353/book.77743. ISBN 978-1-4214-4120-7.
  18. ^ António Henrique R. de Oliveira Marques, History of Portugal. 1972, p. 322. Boris Fausto, A Concise History of Brazil, p. 40.
  19. ^ Newitt, Malyn (5 November 2004). A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668. doi:10.4324/9780203324042. ISBN 978-1-134-55304-4.
  20. ^ Maxwell, Kenneth (1990), "Pombal: the Paradox of Enlightenment and Despotism", Enlightened Absolutism, London: Macmillan Education UK, pp. 75–118, doi:10.1007/978-1-349-20592-9_4, ISBN 978-0-333-43961-6, retrieved 13 November 2024
  21. ^ Dean, Warren; Barman, Roderick J. (December 1990). "Brazil: The Forging of a Nation, 1798-1852". The American Historical Review. 95 (5): 1663. doi:10.2307/2162941. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 2162941.
  22. ^ Birmingham, David (28 March 2018). A Concise History of Portugal. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108539951. ISBN 978-1-108-42419-6.
  23. ^ "Portugal", Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, pp. 45–46, 11 June 2014, doi:10.4324/9781315845296-16, ISBN 978-1-315-84529-6, retrieved 13 November 2024
  24. ^ Minter, William; Cann, John P. (September 1998). "Counterinsurgency in Africa: The Portuguese Way of War, 1961-1974". African Studies Review. 41 (2): 182. doi:10.2307/524850. ISSN 0002-0206. JSTOR 524850.


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