After beating the Visigoths in a striking conquest that took only a few months, the Umayyad Caliphate started expanding rapidly in the peninsula from The governors of the taifas proclaimed themselves each Emir of his province and established diplomatic relations with the Christian Kingdoms of the north.
Most of Portugal fell into the hands of the Taifa of Badajoz of the Aftasid Dynasty, and after a short spell of an ephemera taifa of Lisbon in , fell within the dominion of the Taifa of Seville of the Abbadids poets.
The Taifa period ended with the conquest of the Almoravids that came from Morocco in with a decisive victory in the Battle of Sagrajas followed one century later by the Almohads also coming from Marrakesh in after the second period of taifa.
Al-Andalus was divided into different districts called Kura. Gharb Al-Andalus at its largest was constituted of ten kuras, each with a distinct capital and governor. The Arabs were principally noblemen coming from Yemen, though they were only few in numbers they constituted the elite of the population. The Berbers were originally from the Atlas mountains and Rif mountains of North Africa and were essentially nomads. The Muslim conquerors, that were not of great numbers, stayed largely in the Algarve region, and in general south of the Tagus.
In , the First County of Portugal was formed. Henry, to whom the newly formed county was awarded by Alfonso VI for his role in reconquering land from the Moors, based his newly formed county in Bracara Augusta nowadays Braga , capital city of the ancient Roman province, and also previous capital of several kingdoms over the first millennia. Afonso Henriques officially declared Portugal's independence when he proclaimed himself king of Portugal on 25 July , after the Battle of Ourique.
Afonso Henriques and his successors, aided by military monastic orders, pushed southward to drive out the Moors, as the size of Portugal covered about half of its present area. In , this Reconquista ended with the capture of the Algarve on the southern coast, giving Portugal its present-day borders, with minor exceptions. In , Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world.
In , the king of Castile, husband of the daughter of the Portuguese king who had died without a male heir, claimed his throne. An ensuing popular revolt led to the Crisis. This celebrated battle is still a symbol of glory and the struggle for independence from neighboring Spain. In the following decades, Portugal spearheaded the exploration of the world and undertook the Age of Discovery. In , Portugal acquired the first of its overseas colonies by conquering Ceuta. It was the first prosperous Islamic trade center in North Africa.
There followed the first discoveries in the Atlantic: Madeira and the Azores, which led to the first colonization movements. Throughout the 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts for several common types of tradable commodities at the time, ranging from gold to slaves, as they looked for a route to India and its spices, which were coveted in Europe.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus, was signed on 7 June , and divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain along a meridian leagues west of the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa.
In , Vasco da Gama finally reached India and brought economic prosperity to Portugal and its population of 1. The Portuguese sailors set out to reach Eastern Asia by sailing eastward from Europe landing in such places as Taiwan, Japan, the island of Timor, they were also the first Europeans to discover Australia and even New Zealand.
The Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 22 April between Portugal and Spain, specified the antimeridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas. All these facts made Portugal the world's major economic, military, and political power from the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century. Portugal's sovereignty was interrupted between and Although Portugal did not lose its formal independence, it was governed by the same monarch who governed the Spains, briefly forming a union of kingdoms, as a personal union.
At this time Spain was a geographic territory The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and led to the involvement in the Eighty Years' War being fought in Europe at the time between the Spains and the Netherlands.
War led to a deterioration of the relations with Portugal's oldest ally, England, and the loss of Hormuz. From to the Dutch-Portuguese War primarily involved the Dutch companies invading many Portuguese colonies and commercial interests in Brazil, Africa, India and the Far East, resulting in the loss of the Portuguese Indian Sea trade monopoly. In , John IV spearheaded an uprising backed by disgruntled nobles and was proclaimed king. The Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and the Spains on the aftermath of the revolt, ended the sixty-year period of the Iberian Union under the House of Habsburg.
This was the beginning of the House of Braganza, which reigned in Portugal until Official estimates — and most estimates made so far — place the number of Portuguese migrants to Colonial Brazil during the gold rush of the 18th century at , Though not usually studied, this represented one of the largest movements of European populations to their colonies to the Americas during the colonial times. According to historian Leslie Bethell, "In Portugal had a population of about two million people.
John V died the following year and his son, Joseph I of Portugal was crowned. As the King's confidence in de Melo increased, the King entrusted him with more control of the state. Impressed by British economic success he had witnessed while Ambassador, he successfully implemented similar economic policies in Portugal.
He abolished slavery in Portugal and in the Portuguese colonies in India; reorganized the army and the navy; restructured the University of Coimbra, and ended discrimination against different Christian sects in Portugal. He demarcated the region for production of Port to ensure the wine's quality, and this was the first attempt to control wine quality and production in Europe. He ruled with a strong hand by imposing strict law upon all classes of Portuguese society from the high nobility to the poorest working class, along with a widespread review of the country's tax system.
These reforms gained him enemies in the upper classes, especially among the high nobility, who despised him as a social upstart. Disaster fell upon Portugal in the morning of 1 November , when Lisbon was struck by a violent earthquake with an estimated Richter scale magnitude of 9.
The city was razed to the ground by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami and ensuing fires. We bury the dead and take care of the living. Despite the calamity and huge death toll, Lisbon suffered no epidemics and within less than one year was already being rebuilt. The new downtown of Lisbon was designed to resist subsequent earthquakes. Architectural models were built for tests, and the effects of an earthquake were simulated by marching troops around the models.
The buildings and big squares of the Pombaline Downtown of Lisbon still remain as one of Lisbon's tourist attractions: They represent the world's first quake-proof buildings [ citation needed ]. As his power grew, his enemies increased in number, and bitter disputes with the high nobility became frequent. In Joseph I was wounded in an attempted assassination.
The Jesuits were expelled from the country and their assets confiscated by the crown. This was the final stroke that broke the power of the aristocracy and ensured the victory of the Minister against his enemies.
Based upon his swift resolve, Joseph I made his loyal minister Count of Oeiras in In Spain invaded Portuguese territory as part of the Seven Years' War, however by the status-quo between Spain and Portugal before the war had been restored. Pombal died peacefully on his estate at Pombal in In the autumn of , Napoleon moved French troops through Spain to invade Portugal.
From to , British-Portuguese forces would successfully fight against the French invasion of Portugal, while the royal family and the Portuguese nobility, including Maria I, relocated to the Portuguese territory of Brazil, at that time a colony of the Portuguese Empire, in South America.
This episode is known as the Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil. With the occupation by Napoleon, Portugal began a slow but inexorable decline that lasted until the 20th century. This decline was hastened by the independence in of the country's largest colonial possession, Brazil. Due to the change in its status and the arrival of the Portuguese royal family, Brazilian administrative, civic, economical, military, educational, and scientific apparatus were expanded and highly modernized.
However, the King of Portugal remained in Brazil until the Liberal Revolution of , which started in Porto, demanded his return to Lisbon in Thus he returned to Portugal but left his son Pedro in charge of Brazil. When the king attempted the following year to return the Kingdom of Brazil to subordinate status as a principality, his son Pedro; with the overwhelming support of the Brazilian elites, declared Brazil's independence from Portugal.
Cisplatina today's sovereign state of Uruguay , in the south, was one of the last additions to the territory of Brazil under Portuguese rule.
At the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had already lost its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. During this phase, Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-sized territories to compete with other European powers there. With the Conference of Berlin of , Portuguese Africa territories had their borders formally established on request of Portugal in order to protect the centuries-long Portuguese interests in the continent from rivalries enticed by the Scramble for Africa.
Learn more about Portugal and other European countries in our daily postcard e-letter. Skip to content. Where is Portugal?
Terrain and Climate Sinuous rivers, rugged mountains, wildflower-filled meadows, and glittering, sun-kissed beaches. Political Structure Portugal is a representative democratic republic with a multi-party system. Language Continental Portuguese is the official language of the country, although dialects differ from north to southern and central regions.
Braga: Ancient Roman roots and home to Minho University. Sintra : Fairy tale castles, palaces, souvenir shopping, and Madonna. Others of note: Elvas, Estremoz, Beja. Your email address email Sign Up. Lisbon was almost destroyed by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami 40 minutes later. Contemporary reports state the earthquake lasted between three and six minutes, causing fissures 5 meters 16 feet wide to open in the city centre. Approximately 40 minutes after the earthquake, a tsunami engulfed the harbour and downtown area, rushing up the Tagus river.
The speed this happened was so rapid people riding on horseback were forced to gallop as fast as possible to avoid being carried away. It was followed by two more waves. As the tsunami receded, the city began to burn furiously for hours, asphyxiating people up to feet from the blaze. The earthquake also had economic and political impacts. Having spent years building Lisbon up as a buzzing capital city, it was completely undone in a day and it took decades to rebuild into what it is today.
As a nation of book lovers, it comes as no surprise that the oldest bookstore in the world can be found in the city. Dating back to , Bertrand Chiado on Rua Garrett is the oldest bookstore still in operation, a record that was made official by the Guiness Book of Records in Many migratory birds stop in Portugal while on their journey to and from central Europe to Africa and beyond.
Portugal is a democratic republic and has been a member of the European Union since The country went through several forms of government in its history. In , Portugal became a separate kingdom from the rest of Iberia and was ruled by a king until when the country became a republic.
From and , Portugal had 44 governments, 20 military takeovers, and 12 presidents. The country was ruled by a dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar until his death in The Portuguese people didn't want another dictator and took to the street in a mass movement called the Carnation Revolution, because the rebels wore red carnations.
The country became democratic in Portugal adopted the Euro as its currency in The Moors were pushed out of Iberia by Christian armies, and by the 9th century, northern Portugal was under Christian rule. Portugal is one of the oldest nations in the world. Established in the 12th century, Portugal presided over a vast empire that had its roots in the seafaring explorations of the s. Ferdinand Magellan led the first voyage around the world between and
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