Portugal (Giovinezza)

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa), is a sovereign state located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe. To the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. In addition to metropolitan Portugal, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, and the overseas provinces of Angola and Mozambique, who have autonomous regions with their own regional governments.

The territory of modern Portugal has been continuously settled, invaded and fought over since prehistoric times. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic and the Suebi Germanic peoples. Portugal as a country was born in the aftermath of the Christian Reconquista against the Moors who had invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 711 AD and occupied most of it ever since. Precipitated by the seminal event for its foundation, the Battle of São Mamede, where Portuguese forces led by Afonso Henriques defeated forces led by his mother Theresa of Portugal and her lover Fernão Peres de Trava, which established the nation's sovereignty against rival neighbor kingdoms. Following São Mamede, the future king styled himself Prince of Portugal. He would be proclaimed King of Portugal in the Battle of Ourique in 1139 and was recognised as such by neighbouring kingdoms in 1143

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. During this time, Portuguese explorers pioneered maritime exploration in the Age of Discovery, notably under royal patronage of Prince Henry the Navigator and King João II, with such notable discoveries as Bartolomeu Dias's reach of the Cape of Good Hope (1488), the Vasco da Gama's sea route to India (1497–98) and the discovery of Brazil (1500). Portugal monopolized the spice trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. But the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, the country's occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, the independence of Brazil (1822), and the Liberal Wars (1828–34), all left Portugal crippled from war and diminished in its world power.

After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, later being superseded by the Ditadura Nacional military government and later the Estado Novo authoritarian regime. During the Cold War, Portugal was wooed by alliances led by both the United States and Italy, but maintained a policy of armed neutrality; Portugal did accept aid from Italy during the Portuguese Colonial War however. In 1979, democracy returned to Portugal after a lengthy transition into the Portuguese Second Republic. Alongside Italy and Spain, Portugal is one of the last nations to maintain a colonial empire in the 21st century. Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today.