Portugal
Fast facts
- Capital
- Lisbon
- Largest city
- Lisbon
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Time zone
- WET) UTC−1 (Atlantic/Azores
- Drives on
- Right
- Calling code
- +351
Facts from Wikipedia’s “Portugal” page (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Portugal (República Portuguesa) is a country in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. It is part of the Mediterranean area. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. Its capital city is Lisbon. It has been a member of the European Union since 1986.
Portugal was under a dictatorship between 1926 and 1974 called Estado Novo. This dictatorship was ended by a peaceful revolution called the Carnation Revolution. The Portuguese economy has been very good since then although it was hit hard by the recession of 2007-2008.
It once had an empire called the Portuguese Empire, and was a powerful maritime nation from the 1500s to the 1800s, being the tenth-largest empire, with a maximum land area of 10.4 million km² which included Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, East Timore, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka), as well as Macau in China (until 2002).
Portugal is a popular holiday destination but is sometimes overlooked in favor of larger countries like France, Spain and Italy. The Algarve region in the south and the capital Lisbon are the most popular destinations.
The country has a national football team. Portugal won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017, and hosted the contest the following year.
Geography
Three groups of islands in the Atlantic Ocean are also part of Portugal: the Azores (Açores), Madeira and the Savage Isles (Ilhas Selvagens). The Savage Isles are a small group of uninhabited islands, administered by Madeira. Portugal claims that Olivença is also part of its territory, but it is controlled by Spain.
Kingdom of Portugal
Portugal became a kingdom in 1139 but was not officially recognized until 1143. It has had links with England since the 1100s by a treaty. The border with Spain has been almost the same since the 13th century. Fishing and trading with other countries were important here.
Portugal was important in world exploration for two reasons. Firstly, Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal was very interested in exploration. Secondly, inventions in navigation led to a greater knowledge of geography.
This exploration of the world began the Portuguese Empire. The country was a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries. It tried to colonize Canada in the 16th century. However, it lost a lot of money soon after this. Portugal and Spain were in the Iberian Union from 1580 to 1640. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake devastated the capital and weakened the aristocracy. The country was occupied during the Peninsular War during the early 1800s. It lost its largest colony, Brazil, in 1822.
Portuguese Republic
In 1910, the Kingdom of Portugal ended and the nation became a republic. Eight years after Portugal’s involvement in World War I, a military group took control of the country from the Portuguese First Republic in the 28 May coup d’état. This began a time of rule by authoritarian governments called Ditadura Nacíonal that later became known as Estado Novo. During World War II Portugal remained neutral but friendly to Britain and Spain.
In 1974, a peaceful left-wing army coup, called the Carnation Revolution took place that overthrew the military dictatorship and ended the Portuguese Colonial War. Political prisoners and opponents of António de Oliveira Salazar were freed. The coup was an important part of Portugal’s transition to democracy and changed the way the country was run.
In 1975, Portugal allowed its colonies in Africa to become independent: Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe.
East Timor in Asia declared itself independent from Portugal on 28 November 1975, and was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces nine days later. Another Asian colony, Macau, became part of China.
Portugal joined the European Union in 1986. The main language of Portugal is Portuguese.
Some famous Portuguese people are D. Afonso Henriques, Henry the Navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Ferdinand Magellan, Luís de Camões, Fernando Pessoa, Amália Rodrigues, Álvaro Siza Vieira, and Eduardo Souto de Moura.
Luís de Camões wrote the national poem of Portugal. It is called Os Lusíadas and was written in 1572.
Written for younger readers
Portugal, in simpler words
This version comes from Wikijunior, a set of books written for children aged 8 to 11. It is shorter and uses plainer language than the article above.
From Wikijunior: Europe
Portugal is a country in south western Europe. It shares borders with Spain only. The capital city is Lisbon. The other big city in Portugal is Porto. Portugal has been a member of the European Union since 1986 and uses the Euro as its currency.
The history of Portugal is much intertwined with Spain’s except for a few but important differences. The Romans first ruled Iberia (the peninsula that is now the main territory of Portugal and Spain), one could attribute first nationalistic movement of that part of Iberia to a group of tribes that lived on what is today Portugal and Galicia (a region of Spain) that actively opposed Roman occupation over that territory, their leader was called Viriathus, he was later assassinated and Rome was then able to take over, until collapse of the Roman Empire. Iberia, especially what is now Portugal due to the large coastline, was then prey to a succession of invasion by barbaric tribes. The Visigoths took control of Iberia but it was then invaded by the moors (a group of North Africans, mostly Muslims) in 711. They completely conquered Portugal but they did not conquer Northern Spain (mostly Christian). Soon these tiny kingdoms would start to push into Moorish Spain this reconquest would be called “la Reconquista”. Portugal was created by his first King, Afonso Henrique Henriques in recent reclaimed territory, by revolting against his mother Queen Teresa, finally leading to Portugal’s independence in 1139, but the Reconquista didn’t end till 1492. Due to the close family tree of the monarchs, Portugal was several times under the same ruler as Spain (most leading to active opposition and armed conflict). Between 1595 and 1663 it was one of the greatest empires. In 1663, Portugal was again independent. Later its colonies would gain independence. First Brazil in 1825 then Angola, Guinea and Mozambique in 1974 followed by East Timor in 1975 and finally Macao was returned to China in 1999.
Portugal has a Mediterranean climate with warm winters and hot summers.
Mount Pico at 2,351 metres is the country’s highest mountain. It is located on Pico, one of the islands of The Azores. There are a number of mountains in the north of the country and the Portuguese like to go skiing in the region during the winter months.
Animals which exist in Portugal but are rare in the rest of Europe include the Iberian lynx and the Iberian wolf.
The majority of people living in Portugal are ethnic Portuguese but nowadays there are small minorities of people from Brazil, Ukraine, Romania, Russia as well as many people from former Portuguese colonies in Asia and Africa (Cape Verde, Angola).
The language of Portugal is Portuguese.
Although Portugal has one of the lowest incomes in the European Union (lower than many newer EU countries), it has a very high standard of living. The majority of people in Portugal are Christian, mostly Roman Catholic.
Portugal is a very popular tourist destination partly because of its hot summer climate. Over 12 million tourists visit the country every year with most coming from Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany. The Algarve region and the capital, Lisbon, are the country’s most popular destinations for foreign visitors. Lisbon is Europe’s second most popular city for tourists (after Barcelona in Spain).
Portugal has thirteen UNESCO World Heritage Sites. These sites are considered places that are especially important in the world for cultural, scientific, historical or geographical reasons. Some of the sites include the historical centres of Évora and Porto and the Monastery of the Hieronymites in Lisbon.
Where this page comes from
The article above is adapted from “Portugal” on Simple English Wikipedia, by its contributors. We removed reference markers, navigation boxes and tables, expanded measurement templates into readable numbers, and kept the prose otherwise intact. The simpler version is adapted from Wikijunior on Wikibooks.
Both sources are published under CC BY-SA 4.0, so this page is published under the same licence. You may share and adapt it, including commercially, as long as you credit the original and keep the same licence.
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