Portugal,

The frontiers of Portugal are defined by mountains and rivers,and the interior is largely mountainous. In the west and south the mountainsdescend to a large coastal plain that is intensively cultivated. The highestrange is the Estrela Mountains in central Portugal, rising to almost 2000 m(almost 6562 ft). Portugal is traversed by three great rivers, which rise inSpain and empty into the Atlantic Ocean. The Tagus(Tejo), with Lisbon situated at its mouth, is the largest river; followed by theDouro(Duero), with Oporto at its mouth; and the Guadiana,which forms part of the eastern frontier. A fourth river, the Minho, forms partof the northern frontier.

Principal Cities

Lisbon(population, 1981 preliminary, 812,385), the capital and largest city, is aleading seaport of Portugal. Other important cities include Oporto(329,104), the second-largest city and seaport; Coimbra(56,568), an industrial center; and Faro (20,687), in the Algarve resort area.

Roman Catholicism is the faith of more than 94 percent of thePortuguese people. The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and someProtestant churches have been established. The official language of the countryis Portuguese (see PortugueseLanguage).

Portuguese culture is closely related to Spanish culture and hasbeen influenced by the three primary cultures from which it derives: the Latin,the Visigoth (see Goths),and the Muslim (see Islam).

Lisbon has a number of important libraries, including theLibrary of the Academy of Sciences, the Ajuda Library, the National Library, andthe Military Historical Archives. The National Archives of Torre do Tombo, alsoin Lisbon, is noteworthy for its collection of historical documents dating fromthe 9th century. The provincial libraries in Oporto, Évora, Braga, and Mafracontain many rare old books and large manuscript collections. Variousspecialized libraries are attached to the universities.

Museums of archaeology, art, and ethnography are found in theprincipal cities and towns of each district. The art museum in Coimbra is famousfor its collection of 16th-century sculpture; the museum in Évora is known forRoman sculpture and 16th-century paintings. The National Museum of Ancient Art,in Lisbon, houses decorative art and paintings from the 12th to the 19thcentury. Also in Lisbon are the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which wasreopened as the Chiado Museum in early 1995; the National Museum of NaturalHistory; the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, with a collection of fine art datingfrom 2800 BC to the 20th century; the Ethnographical Museum; and theArchaeological Museum.

Some of the relics found in Portugal date from prehistorictimes. Dolmens, ancient stone burial chambers, have been found along theAtlantic coast, and in the Algarve region, tombs dating from the Iron Age havebeen discovered. Some of the country’s most important monuments wereconstructed during the Roman occupation of the Iberian Peninsula (2nd centuryBC-5th century AD). The so-called Temple of Diana in the southeast, the ruins ofthe city of Conimbriga on the western coast, and the bridge of Chaves inTrás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in the east are fine examples of Romanarchitecture. Subsequent occupation by the Visigoths in the 5th century and bythe Muslim Moors in the 8th century can be discerned in the styles of many ofPortugal’s buildings and churches.

The 14th century was the golden age of Portuguese sculpture, atwhich time such notable monuments as the tombs of the kings at Alcobaça wereproduced. The sculptors of the Renaissance and baroque periods in Portugal didtheir finest work for the church.

The Portuguese are a musical people, and their folk music rangesfrom very lively songs and dances to sad laments. Similar to other music of theIberian Peninsula, Portugese music reflects three major influences: the RomanCatholic church, the troubadours of the kings, and the wandering minstrels whosang their stories across the countryside.

For a discussion of the literature of the country, see PortugueseLiterature.

Up to the Middle Ages, the history of Portugal is inseparablefrom that of Spain. Present-day Portugal became a part of the Roman province ofLusitania in the 2nd century BC. In the 5th century AD control of the regionpassed to the Visigoths, and in the 8th century it was included in the area ofMoorish Muslim conquest. In 997 the territory between the Douro and Minho rivers(now northern Portugal) was retaken from the Moors by Bermudo II, king of León,and in 1064 the reconquest was completed as far south as present-day Coimbra by FerdinandI, king of Castile and León.The reconquered districts were then organized into a feudal county, composed ofSpanish fiefs. Portugal later derived its name from the northernmost fief, theComitatus Portaculenis, which extended around the old Roman seaport of PortusCale (present-day Oporto).

In 1093 Henry of Bourgogne came to the assistance of Castilewhen it was invaded by the Moors. In gratitude AlfonsoI of Castile made Henry countof Portugal. On the death of Alfonso in 1109, Count Henry, and later his widow,Teresa, refused to continue feudal allegiance to León. He invaded León andbegan a series of peninsular wars, but with little success. In 1128 his son,Afonso Henriques, rebelled against his mother. In 1139 Afonso Henriques declaredPortugal independent from the Spanish kingdom of Castile and León, and took thetitle Afonso I. Four years later, through the Treaty of Zamora, King Alfonso VIIof León accepted Portugal’s sovereignty and Afonso’s position as king.Portugal was recognized as independent by the pope in 1179.

Afonso I, aided by the Templars and other military orders swornto fight the Moors, extended the border of the new kingdom as far south as theTagus River. His son Sancho I, who reigned from 1185 to 1211, encouragedChristians to settle in the reconquered area by establishing self-governingmunicipalities there. The Cistercian monks occupied the land and promotedefficient agricultural methods. In the late 12th century, the Almohads,a Muslim dynasty from North Africa, temporarily halted the Christians’southward movement, but after their defeat in 1212 at Las Navas de Tolosa inCastile the reconquest continued.

King AlfonsoIII, who reigned from 1248 to1279, completed the expulsion of the Moors from the Algarve and moved thecapital of Portugal from Coimbra to Lisbon. He also began the practice ofgoverning with the aid of a Cortes (representative assembly), which includedmembers of the nobility, the clergy, and the citizens, and he increased thepower of the monarchy at the expense of the church. His son Diniz,called the Farmer King because of his encouragement of agriculture, founded thenation’s first university at Coimbra and was responsible for the developmentof the Portuguese navy. In 1294 he signed a commercial treaty with England,beginning a sequence of alliances between the two countries. Diniz’ssuccessor, Alfonso IV,joined with Alfonso XIof Castile to win a major victory over the Moors at the Battle of the SaladoRiver in 1340. In this period the royal houses of Castile and Portugalfrequently intermarried, repeatedly raising the possibility that one of thekingdoms might be absorbed by the other.

After the death of FerdinandI, the last of the legitimatedescendants of Henry of Burgundy, his illegitimate half brother JohnI secured the Portuguesethrone in 1385, after two years of civil war. His branch of the Bourguignon linebecame known as the house of Aviz. John’s reign was one of the most notable inPortuguese history. He successfully defended the kingdom against Castilianattack and in 1385 defeated Castile decisively in the Battle of Aljubarrota. In1386 England and Portugal allied themselves permanently by the Treaty ofWindsor. The greatest fame of John’s reign, however, rests on the work doneunder the direction of his son Henrythe Navigator, prince ofPortugal, in exploring the African coast for an eastward route to the Indies. Acentury of exploration and conquest began, which made Portugal one of thegreatest colonial powers in the world. In 1418 and 1419 Portuguese navigatorsexplored Madeira and in 1427 discovered the Azores. A successful Portuguesemilitary campaign in Morocco resulted in the capture of Ceutain 1415.

King John IIrestored the prestige the monarchy had lost at home during the reigns of his twopredecessors, subjecting the turbulent nobles to his authority. Abroad, hefounded (1482) a Portuguese stronghold at Elmina, in present-day Ghana, andestablished relations with the kingdom of the Kongo (in present-day Angola). In1488, Bartholomeu Diasbecame the first to sail around the southern end of Africa, opening the searoute to the Orient. After Christopher Columbus’s voyage to America in 1492,Portugal and Spain concluded the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), allocating toPortugal all undiscovered lands east of a line 370 leagues west of the CapeVerde Islands. See Demarcation,Line of.

Under King Emanuel,Portuguese power reached its height. From 1497 to 1499 Vascoda Gama made the first voyageto India following the route discovered by Dias, and inaugurated a lucrativetrade in spices and other luxuries between Europe and South Asia. Led by Afonsode Albuquerque, thePortuguese occupied Goa, India, in 1510, Malacca (now Melaka, Malaysia) in 1511,the Moluccas (in present-day Indonesia) in 1512-14, and Hormuz Island in thePersian Gulf in 1515. During the same period they opened up trade with China andestablished relations with Ethiopia. As other Portuguese kings had done, Emanueldreamed of uniting Portugal and Spain under his rule and successively marriedtwo daughters of King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella I. Under pressure from hisSpanish relations, he followed their example by expelling Jews and Muslims fromhis domains in 1497, thus depriving Portugal of much of its middle class. Hisson, John III,promoted the settlement of Brazil and (again influenced by the example of Spain)introduced (1536) the Inquisition into Portugal to enforce religious uniformity.By the time he died in 1557, Portugal had begun to decline as a political andcommercial power. This trend continued under King Sebastian, who was killedduring another expedition against Morocco in 1578. On the death of hissuccessor, King Henry,in 1580, the Aviz dynasty came to an end.

When Henry died, seven claimants disputed the succession to thethrone. The most powerful was PhilipII, king of Spain, who in1580 became Philip I of Portugal. The annexation of Portugal to the SpanishHabsburg monarchy subjected it to the heavy expenses of Spanish wars in a periodknown as the Sixty Years’ Captivity. After 1600, Portuguese domination oftrade with the East Indies was lost to the Dutch and the English. Under PhilipI, Portugal enjoyed considerable autonomy, but his successors, Philip II (PhilipIII of Spain) and Philip III (Philip IV of Spain), treated it as a Spanishprovince, provoking widespread discontent. After unsuccessful revolts in 1634and 1637, Portuguese conspirators with the support of France won independencefor their kingdom in 1640. John, duke of Braganza, was elected JohnIV, first king of the houseof Braganza, which ruled Portugal as long as the monarchy endured.

King John expelled the Dutch from Brazil, which they hadoccupied in 1630, and renewed the traditional tie with England. Although furtherweakened by conflicts with Spain in the second half of the 17th century,Portugal recovered a measure of prosperity in the 18th century, after gold anddiamonds were discovered in Brazil. Between 1683 and 1750, during the reigns ofPedro II and John V, British merchants came to dominate Portuguese trade; themonarchy became more despotic and the Cortes fell into disuse. During the reign(1750-77) of Joseph Emanuel, the kingdom was controlled by the chief-minister, SebastiãoJosé de Carvalho e Mello, marquês de Pombal,considered one of the greatest statesmen in modern Portuguese history. Althougha ruthless dictator, he worked to weaken the power of the privileged nobilityand the church, encouraged industry and education, and ended the foreignmonopoly of trade. Pombal was dismissed, however, at the accession of JosephEmanuel’s daughter Maria I in 1777. During the French revolutionary andNapoleonic wars, Portugal sided with Britain against France.

In 1807, when the armies of Napoleon threatened Portugal, theroyal family withdrew to Brazil and made Rio de Janeiro the seat of government.A French army occupied Portugal but was defeated in 1808 by a British army underSir Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington. By the Convention of Sintra(August 30, 1808), the French left the country, but they reinvaded a year later.Wellington again checked the French advance, and by 1811 Portugal was free ofFrench influence. The Portuguese royal family chose, however, to remain inBrazil, which in 1815 was made a separate kingdom. In 1816 JohnVI succeeded to the twothrones, ruling Portugal through a council of regency.

In 1820 the Portuguese army headed a revolution designed tobring about a constitutional government. King John, who agreed to return toPortugal as constitutional monarch, made his son, Dom Pedro, regent of Brazil.Brazil proclaimed itself independent in 1822, and Pedro was made constitutionalemperor Pedro Iof that country. In Portugal, meanwhile, Pedro’s brother, Dom Miguel, appealedto the supporters of absolute monarchy to overthrow the constitutionalists, andan insurrection led by the prince almost succeeded on April 30, 1824. King Johnmanaged to remain in power, however, and Miguel went into exile in Vienna.

In 1826 Pedro I of Brazil succeeded to the throne of Portugal asPedro IV. He put into effect a constitutional charter, providing for aparliamentary regime based on authorization of the monarchy rather than onpopular will. He then abdicated in favor of his daughter, Maria II, called Mariada Gloria, a 7-year-old child. Miguel returned from Vienna in 1828 and, rulingas regent for Maria II, seized the throne. A period of acute civil strifefollowed. With the help of England, France, and Spain, Maria was restored to thethrone in 1834.

Political conflict characterized her reign as the Liberals, whosupported the 1822 constitution, opposed the Chartists, who supported the 1826charter. Under her successors—Pedro V, who reigned from 1853 to 1861, andLouis, who reigned from 1861 to 1889—political strife became less pronounced.

Republican and radical movements grew during the reign of CarlosI, and the appointment ofJoão Franco, an antirepublican dictator, as prime minister in 1906 served toincrease their strength. In 1908 Carlos and his eldest son were assassinated inLisbon. The second son of Carlos ascended the throne as ManuelII, and although he restoredconstitutional government, his corruption equaled that of his father. In October1910 the army and navy led a revolution that deposed Manuel and established arepublic. A liberal constitution was put into effect in 1911, and one of itsprovisions separated church from state. Manuel José de Arriaga was electedfirst president of the Portuguese republic.

For the next 15 years Portugal was shaken by political chaos.Ministry succeeded ministry, with an average duration of four months in office.Early in 1916 during World War I, Portugal, honoring its alliance with GreatBritain, seized German ships in the harbor of Lisbon. On March 9 Germanydeclared war. Portuguese troops fought in France and in Africa. Internaldisorder and political turbulence, however, continued, and in 1919 a Royalistuprising added to the confusion. In May 1926, an army coup deposed the 40thministry since the proclamation of the republic. Within a few days of theirsuccess the military leaders selected General Antóniode Fragoso Carmona to headthe new government. In 1928 Carmona was elected president in an election inwhich he was the sole candidate. In the same year he appointed Antóniode Oliveira Salazar, aprofessor of economics at the University of Coimbra, as minister of finance.Salazar was given extraordinary powers in order to put Portuguese finances on asound basis.

The planned economy was considerably disturbed during the waryears. The fishing industry declined, exports lessened, and refugees crowded thecountry. Moreover, the Japanese advance in the East Indies threatened Portugueseoverseas territories in Asia, and Timorwas captured in 1942. By the end of the war, unemployment and poverty werewidespread. Political opposition to Salazar was suppressed, however, andNational Union candidates monopolized the elections of November 1945. In May1947, after crushing an attempted revolt, the government deported numerous laborleaders and army officers to the Cape Verde Islands. Marshal Carmona wasreelected to the presidency without opposition in February 1949. He died inApril 1951 and was succeeded in July by General Francisco Lopes, a supporter ofSalazar.

During the 1950s, Portugal developed close relations with theUnited States, and in 1958 Salazar allowed an opposition candidate, HumbertoDelgado, to run for the presidency, but he was defeated by the government’scandidate, Rear Admiral Américo Deus Tomás. Tomás was reelected in 1965 and1971.

In the 1960s, Portugal faced opposition to its rule in theoverseas territories. India annexed Portuguese Goa in 1961. In Africa, rebellionbroke out in Angolain early 1961, in Portuguese Guinea in late 1962, and in Mozambiquein the fall of 1964. The government mounted intensive military campaigns againsteach African rebellion. It also passed measures to improve political andeconomic conditions within the territories. In 1961 Portugal extended Portuguesecitizenship to Africans in the territories; however, heavy fighting continuedthroughout the decade and into the 1970s. During these years the United Nationscondemned Portugal for waging "colonial wars."

In the mid-1960s a number of foreign loans helped to financemajor irrigation and construction projects, and some economic growth wasgradually realized. Although several student demonstrations occurred during thisperiod, political opposition to the Salazar regime remained uncoordinated.

A series of military and political advances made by Africanliberation movements threatened Portugal’s economic stability and led to theoverthrow of the Caetano government by a group of Portuguese army officers onApril 25, 1974. A seven-man junta, under Gen António de Spinola, was installedand promised democracy at home and peace for the African territories. During1974 and 1975, Guinea-Bissau,Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, SãoTomé and Príncipe, andAngola became independent, and in 1975 and 1976 Portuguese Timor was occupied byIndonesian forces. The return of troops and European settlers to Portugal fromthe newly independent nations aggravated Portugal’s own problems ofunemployment and political unrest.

On September 30, 1974, Spinola resigned the presidency, warningof growing Communist influence. He was replaced by General Francisco da CostaGomes. Vasco Gonçalves, who had become prime minister in July, remained inoffice. Early in 1975, the Movement of the Armed Forces (Movimento das ForçasArmadas, or MFA) assumed a formal role in the government, and steps were takento reorganize the armed forces. The provisional government passed a lawestablishing a single trade union confederation and began to reform the economicand social life of Portugal. Among the first actions to be undertaken were thenationalization of certain types of heavy industry and banking, and theexpropriation and redistribution of large agricultural holdings. In March aright-wing coup attempt, reportedly directed by Spinola, was suppressed. InApril the Socialists led in the voting for a constituent assembly.

Gonçalves formed a new government, but it proved unstable.After a series of clashes between Socialists and Communists, followed by violentanti-Communist demonstrations, especially in the north, the MFA established atriumvirate consisting of Costa Gomes, Gonçalves, and General Otelo de Carvalho,Portugal’s security chief. In September, at the army’s insistence,Gonçalves was replaced as prime minister by Vice Admiral José de Azevedo.Under the Azevedo government, relative stability was restored, and a newinvestment code was adopted to attract foreign capital. In parliamentaryelections in April 1976, the Socialists won a plurality of the vote, and theirleader, Mário Soares,became prime minister. In June General António Ramalho Eanes was electedpresident of Portugal. The country experienced severe economic problems duringthe next two years, and in mid-1978 Soares was dismissed. After the fall of twosuccessive interim governments, the conservative Democratic Alliance, headed byFrancisco Manuel de Sá Carneiro, won a clear majority in parliamentaryelections held in December 1979. Sá Carneiro took office as premier in January1980, but was killed in a plane crash the following December. He was succeededin January 1981 by Francisco Pinto Balsemão, another conservative. On hisinitiative, the military Council of the Revolution was abolished in 1982 byconstitutional amendment. Parliamentary elections in April 1983 brought Soaresback into power as prime minister. Soares’s government introduced an austerityprogram and conducted negotiations leading toward Portugal’s entry into theEuropean Community (now called the EuropeanUnion). Elections in October1985 led to the formation of a minority government under a Social Democrat,Aníbal Cavaco Silva. Soares returned as president following elections in 1986;Portugal entered the European Community the same year. In the 1987 elections theSocial Democrats won control of parliament, the first time a single party heldthe majority since 1975. President Soares won another term in January 1991, andthe Social Democrats held their majority in parliamentary elections in October.In 1992 mass student demonstrations against university entrance examinationsresulted in the resignation of the minister of education, public-serviceemployees struck for wage increases, and doctors staged a two-day strike toprotest government plans to privatize some health services.

The popularity of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) graduallydeclined in 1993 and 1994, until it lost its majority to the Socialist Party inthe general elections of October 1995. Socialist Party leader Antonio Guterresbecame premier, ending the ten-year rule of the PSD. In January 1996 formerpremier Aníbal Cavaco Silva ran for president on the PSD ticket and was soundlydefeated by the Socialist candidate Jorge Sampaio, marking the first time sincethe democratic reforms of 1974 that both premier and president had representedthe same party.

In foreign affairs, Portugal improved its relations with thegovernment of Spain in the late 1980s. Negotiations with the People’s Republicof China resulted in a 1987 agreement to transfer Macau, Portugal’s overseasterritory, to Chinese control in December 1999; Portugal had given Macauincreased administrative and economic independence in the late 1970s. Beginningin 1988, Portugal played a significant role in the effort to restore peace toAngola, a former Portuguese possession, and participated in negotiations forpeace in Mozambique. In April 1993 foreign ministers of Portugal and Indonesiamet with mediators in Rome to begin discussions on the former Portuguese colonyof East Timor (see Timor).The Indonesian government, which annexed East Timor in 1976, considers it aprovince, while the Portuguese government insists that East Timor is entitled toself-determination.

In July 1996 Portugal and six of its former colonies formed theCommonwealth of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (known by its Portuguese acronym,CPLP) in Lisbon. The CPLP seeks to preserve the Portuguese language, coordinatediplomatic efforts, and improve cooperation among its members. Many observersbelieved that a significant factor motivating its creation was Portugal’sdesire to maintain influence in its former colonies. The group’s members areAngola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and São Toméand Príncipe.