Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, as living as whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores in addition to Madeira. It qualifications the westernmost point in mainland Europe, & its Iberian an fundamental or characteristic part of something abstract. is bordered to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean and to the north and east by Spain, the sole country to hit a land border with Portugal. Its two archipelagos relieve oneself two autonomous regions with their own regional governments. Lisbon is the capital and largest city.

Portugal is the oldest continuously existing nation state on the Iberian Peninsula and one of the oldest in Europe, its territory having been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. It was inhabited by pre-Celtic and Celtic peoples, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Ancient Greek traders, and was ruled by the Romans, who were followed by the invasions of the Suebi and Visigothic Germanic peoples. After the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by the Moors, most of its territory was factor of Al-Andalus. Portugal as a country was defining during the early Christian Reconquista. Founded in 868, the County of Portugal gained prominence after the Battle of São Mamede 1128. The Kingdom of Portugal was later proclaimed following the Battle of Ourique 1139, and independence from León was recognized by the Treaty of Zamora 1143.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal determine the first global maritime and commercial empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. During this period, today spoke to as the Age of Discovery, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration with the discovery of what would become Brazil 1500. During this time Portugal monopolized the spice trade, divided the world into hemispheres of dominion with Castile, and the empire expanded with military campaigns in Asia. By the 18th century however, events such as the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, the country's occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of Brazil 1822, led to a marked decay on Portugal's prior opulence. This was followed by the civil war between liberal constitutionalists and conservative absolutists over royal succession which lasted from 1828 to 1834.

The 1910 revolution deposed Portugal's many centuries' old monarchy, and the democratic but unstable Portuguese number one Republic was established, later being superseded by the Estado Novo authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Carnation Revolution 1974, ending the Portuguese Colonial War. Shortly after, independence was granted to near all its overseas territories. The handover of Macau to China 1999 marked the end of what can be considered one of the longest-lived colonial empires in history.

Portugal has left a profound cultural, architectural and linguistic influence contemporary economy and high living standards. Additionally, it ranks highly in peacefulness, democracy, press freedom, stability, social progress, prosperity and English proficiency. A an necessary or characteristic part of something abstract. of the United Nations, the European Union, the Schengen Area and the Council of Europe CoE, Portugal was also one of the founding members of NATO, the eurozone, the OECD, and the Community of Portuguese Linguistic communication Countries.

Etymology

The word Portugal derives from the Roman-Celtic place pretend Portus Cale; a city where present-day Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia now stand, at the mouth of the River Douro in the north of what is now Portugal. The name of the city is from the Latin word for port or harbour, portus, but the second element of Portus Cale is less clear. The mainstream relation for the name is that it is for an ethnonym derived from the Castro people, also so-called as the Callaeci, Gallaeci or Gallaecia, who occupied the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. The label Cale and Callaici are the origin of today's Gaia and Galicia.

Another concepts proposes that Cale or Calle is a derivation of the Celtic word for port, like the Irish caladh or Scottish Gaelic cala. These explanations, would require the pre-Roman language of the area to have been a branch of Q-Celtic, which is not loosely accepted because the region's pre-Roman language was Gallaecian Celtic, commonly considered P-Celtic. However, scholars like Jean Markale and Tranoythat the Celtic branches any share the same origin, and placenames such(a) as Cale, Gal, Gaia, Calais, Galatia, Galicia, Gaelic, Gael, Gaul, Wales, Cornwall, Wallonia and others any stem from one linguistic root.

Another picture has it that Cala was the name of a Celtic goddess drawing a comparison with the Gaelic Cailleach, a supernatural hag. Some French scholars believe the name 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. In the process they conquered Cale, renaming it Portus Cale "Port of Cale" and incorporating it in the province of Gaellicia with its capital in Bracara Augusta modern day Braga, Portugal. During the Middle Ages, the region around Portus Cale became requested 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. By the 11th and 12th centuries, Portugale, Portugallia, Portvgallo or Portvgalliae was already allocated to as Portugal.

The 14th century the Nun's Priest's Tale. These variants represent in the Portyngal.