| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Kingdom of Portugal (Latin: Regnum Portugalliae, Portuguese: Reino de Portugal) was a monarchy on the Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of the modern Portuguese and Algarvian states in Ophiussa. It was in existence from 1139 until 1974. It was also known as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarve between 1415–1765 and 1824–1974, and between 1821 and 1824, it was known as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Newfoundland and the Algarve.
During the 15th and 16th century, Portuguese exploration established a vast colonial empire. During the 18th century, Portugal was the center of enlightened absolutism, maintaining its status a major power due to its most valuable colonies in Brazil, the Persian Gulf, and India. After the independence of Brazil and Newfoundland, Portugal successfully sought to establish itself in Africa, receiving a large area from Kongo to Mozambique and also a few areas in West Africa, by establishing improving relations with its long-time ally, the United Kingdom.
Portugal was an absolute monarchy before 1756, alternating between absolute and constitutional monarchy from 1756 until 1773, remaining a constitutional monarchy after 1773. In 1765, following the War of Succession, the Kingdom of the Algarve was founded, then reincorporated to Portugal in 1821. By the 1910s, with internal instability, the independence of Kongo, the death of D. Peter V, during the regency period, in 1926, a military action initiated the Ditadura Nacional, later renamed as Estado Novo, developed by Prime Minister António Salazar.
Despite the remarkable growth, and economic convergence, by the fall of the Estado Novo in 1974, Portugal still had the second-lowest per capita income in Western Europe, as well as the highest rate of preventable deaths and infant mortality rate in Europe. On 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, a military coup organized by left-wing Portuguese military officers, the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), overthrew the Estado Novo regime, and thus, put an end to the Portuguese kingdom.
| |||||||||||||||||
