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Portuguese Republic
República Portuguesa
Anthem: "A Portuguesa"
"The Portuguese Anthem"
March: God Save the Queen
Location of  Portugal  (dark green) – on the European continent  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  —  [Legend]
Location of  Portugal  (dark green)

– on the European continent  (green & dark grey)
– in the European Union  (green)  —  [Legend]

and largest city
National languagePortuguese
Regional languageMirandese
Ethnic groups
96.87% Portuguese and 3.13% other ethnicities (Cape Verdeans, Brazilians, Ukrainians, Goans, Angolans, etc.)
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary republic
• President
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (PSD)
António Costa (PS)
Ferro Rodrigues (PS)
Conventional date for Independence is 1139
• Founding
24 June 1128
• Kingdom
25 July 1139
5 October 1143
23 May 1179
1 December 1640
13 February 1668
• Republic
5 October 1910
• Coup
28 May 1926
• Democracy
25 April 1974
• Total
92,090 km2 (35,560 sq mi) (110th)
• Water (%)
• 2011 estimate
10,647,763[1] (77th)
• 2011 census
• Density
115/km2 (297.8/sq mi) (96th)
GDP (PPP)2010 estimate
• Total
$247.037 billion[3] (48th)
• Per capita
$23,222[3] (39th)
GDP (nominal)2010 estimate
• Total
$229.336 billion[3] (37th)
• Per capita
$21,558[3] (32nd)
Gini (2009)33.7[4]
HDI (2011)Increase 0.809[5]
very high · 41st
CurrencyEuro ()2 (EUR)
Time zoneUTC+0 (WET)
• Summer (DST)
Date formatdd-mm-yyyy, yyyy-mm-dd, yyyy/mm/dd
Driving sideright
Calling code351
ISO 3166 codePT
Internet TLD.pt
  1. Mirandese, spoken in some villages of the municipality of Miranda do Douro, was officially recognized in 1999 (Lei n.° 7/99 de 29 de Janeiro), since then awarding an official right-of-use Mirandese to the linguistic minority it is concerned.[6] The Portuguese Sign Language is also recognized.
  2. Before 1999: Portuguese escudo.

Portugal is a country in Southern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe and part of the Mediterranean. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. It has been a member of the European Union since 1986. It was under a dictatorship between 1926 and 1974. It has since prospered but was hit hard by the 2007-2008 recession.

It has a football team and won the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 and hosted the event in 2018.

It once had an empire and was a powerful maritime nation from 1500s–1800s, the 10th-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, Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and even Macau in China (until 2002).

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.

It is a popular holiday destination but is sometimes overlooked in favour of larger countries like France, Spain and Italy. The Algarve region in the south and capital Lisbon are the most popular.

History[change | change source]

Portugal became its own kingdom in 1139 but was not officially recognized until 1143. Portugal has had links with England since the 1100s via a treaty. The border with Spain has been almost the same since the 13th century. Fishing and trade with other countries are important here.

Portugal was important in world exploration for two reasons. Henry the Navigator, a prince from Portugal, was very interested in exploration. Inventions in navigation led to a bigger knowledge of geography.

This world exploration began the Portuguese Empire. Portugal 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 city of Lisbon was destroyed in an earthquake in 1755. The country was occupied during the Napoleonic Wars. It lost its largest colony, Brazil, in 1822.

In 1910, Portugal became a Republic, and in 1926, a military group took control of the country from the Portuguese 1st Republic. This began a time of rule by authoritarian governments. During World War II they were neutral but friendly to Britain. In 1974 a peaceful left-wing army coup, called the Carnation Revolution, happened. The coup changed how the country was run.

The next year, Portugal allowed its colonies in Africa to be on their own: 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.

Portugal went into the European Union in 1986. Another Asian colony, Macau, became part of China

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, Eduardo Souto de Moura.

Luís de Camões wrote the national poem of Portugal. It is called Os Lusíadas and was written in 1572.[7]

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. Pordata, "Base de Dados Portugal Contemporâneo". Accessed on March 7, 2011.
  2. http://www.ine.pt/scripts/flex_v10/Main.html
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Portugal". International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  4. "Gini Index". Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
  5. "Human Development Report 2010" (PDF). United Nations. 2010. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
  6. "The Euromosaic study, Mirandese in Portugal". Europa. European Commission. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved January 2007. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. "The Lusiads". World Digital Library. 1800–1882. Retrieved 2013-09-02.CS1 maint: date format (link)