The western part of the Iberian Peninsula has been continuously inhabited since prehistoric times, with the earliest signs of settlement dating to 5500 BC. Celtic and Iberian peoples arrived in the first millennium BC. The region came under Roman control in the second century BC, followed by a succession of Germanic peoples and the Alans from the fifth to eighth centuries AD. Muslims conquered the entirety of Portugal's current mainland in the eighth century, but they were gradually expelled by the Christian Reconquista over the next several centuries. Modern Portugal began taking shape during this period, initially as a county of the Christian Kingdom of León in 868, officially declared a sovereign Kingdom with the Treaty of Zamora in 1143.
During the Age of Discovery, the Kingdom of Portugal settled Madeira and the Azores, and established itself as a major economic and political power, largely through its maritime empire, which extended mostly along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean coasts. Portuguese explorers and merchants were instrumental in establishing trading posts and colonies that enabled control over spices and slave trades. While Portugal expanded its influence globally, its political and military power faced internal and external challenges towards the end of the 16th century. The dynastic crisis marked the beginning of the country's political decline that led to the Iberian Union (1580-1640), a period in which Portugal was united under Spanish rule. While maintaining a degree of self-governance, the union strained Portugal’s autonomy and drew it into conflicts with European powers which targeted Portuguese territories and trade routes. Portugal's prior opulence was further diminished by a series of events, such as the Portuguese Restoration War and the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which destroyed the city and damaged the empire's economy. (Full article...)
Vila Nova de Gaia (European Portuguese:[ˈvilɐˈnɔvɐðɨˈɣajɐ]ⓘ; Proto-Celtic: *Cale), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a population of 178,255 in 2001. The municipality has an area of 168.46 square kilometres (65.04 sq mi) and a population of 303,824 inhabitants in 2021, making it the most populous municipality in Norte Region, and the third most populous in the country, after Lisbon and Sintra. Gaia along with Porto and 16 other municipalities make up the Porto metropolitan area.
The city contains many cellars (locally known as "caves") where port wine is stored and aged. These cellars have become a major tourist attraction. (Full article...)
Its presentation was done on 1 December 1910, after the downfall of the constitutional monarchy on 5 October 1910. However, it was only on 30 June 1911, that the official decree approving this flag as the official flag was published. This new national flag for the First Portuguese Republic, was selected by a special commission whose members included Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, João Chagas and Abel Botelho.
The conjugation of the new field color, especially the use of green, was not traditional in the Portuguese national flag's composition and represented a radical republican-inspired change that broke the bond with the former monarchical flag. Since a failed republican insurrection on 31 January 1891, red and green had been established as the colours of the Portuguese Republican Party and its associated movements, whose political prominence kept growing until it reached a culmination period following the Republican revolution of 5 October 1910. In the ensuing decades, these colours were popularly propagandised, green represented the hope of the nation and the colour red represented the blood of those who died defending it, this happened to endow them with a more patriotic and dignified, therefore less political, sentiment. (Full article...)
Image 9A bride and her groom in the carnival of Lazarim, Portugal (from Culture of Portugal)
Image 10Areas of the Roman province of Hispania occupied by the barbarian people c. 409–429 (from History of Portugal)
Image 11The arrival of the Portuguese in Japan, the first Europeans to reach it, initiating the Nanban ("southern barbarian") period of active commercial and cultural exchange between Japan and the West. (from History of Portugal)
Image 38The frontispiece of the 1826 Portuguese Constitution featuring King-Emperor Pedro IV and his daughter Queen Maria II (from History of Portugal)
Image 46Map of Spain and Portugal showing the conquest of Hispania from 220 B.C. to 19 B.C. and provincial borders. It is based on other maps; the territorial advances and provincial borders are illustrative. (from History of Portugal)
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Colonial era Map of the Jaffna kingdom c. 1619
The Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom occurred after Portuguese traders arrived at the rival Kotte kingdom in the southwest of modern Sri Lanka in 1505. Many kings of Jaffna, such as Cankili I, initially confronted the Portuguese in their attempts at converting the locals to Roman Catholicism, but eventually made peace with them.
By 1591, the king of Jaffna Ethirimanna Cinkam was installed by the Portuguese. Although he was nominally a client, he resisted missionary activities and helped the interior Kandyan kingdom in its quest to get military help from South India. Eventually, a usurper named Cankili II resisted Portuguese overlordship only to find himself ousted and hanged by Phillippe de Oliveira in 1619. The subsequent rule by the Portuguese saw the population convert to Roman Catholicism. The population also decreased due to excessive taxation, as most people fled the core areas of the former kingdom. (Full article...)
His initial voyage to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link Europe and Asia by an ocean route, connecting the Atlantic and the Indian oceans. This was a milestone in Portuguese maritime exploration which marked the beginning of a sea-based phase of globalization. Da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India opened the way for an age of global imperialism and enabled the Portuguese to establish a long-lasting colonial empire along the way from Africa to Asia. Traveling the ocean route allowed the Portuguese to avoid sailing across the highly disputed Mediterranean Sea and traversing the dangerous Arabian Peninsula. The sum of the distances covered in the outward and return voyages made this expedition the longest ocean voyage ever made until then. (Full article...)
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![Image 29Maios celebration in Madeira island [1] (from Culture of Portugal)](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/2011-03-05_03-13_Madeira_045_Santana_%285543431418%29.jpg/120px-2011-03-05_03-13_Madeira_045_Santana_%285543431418%29.jpg)
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