Portugal

Portugal began as the County of Portugal (Portucale), a march of the kingdom of Leon centred on the lands between the Minho and Douro rivers. Granted to Henry of Burgundy around the end of the eleventh century, the county passed to his son Afonso Henriques, who in the 1120s and 1130s asserted his own authority against his mother and against the Leonese crown. By tradition his victory over a Muslim army at Ourique on 25 July 1139 marked the moment he took the title of king, although the act was as much political as military.

Independence was won in stages. In 1143 Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile accepted Afonso Henriques's autonomy, a recognition associated with the meeting at Zamora. The decisive sanction, however, was ecclesiastical: on 23 May 1179 Pope Alexander III issued the bull Manifestis Probatum, recognising Afonso Henriques as king and confirming Portugal as an independent kingdom under papal protection. This is regarded as the founding charter of the Portuguese state, anchoring its sovereignty in the law of Latin Christendom rather than in the claims of neighbouring Iberian crowns.

Afonso Henriques and his successors carried the Reconquista southward. Santarem and Lisbon both fell in 1147, the latter taken with the aid of northern crusaders bound for the Holy Land, and the conquest of the Algarve was completed in 1249, giving Portugal its full mainland extent earlier than most European states reached their modern shape. In 1297 King Dinis concluded the Treaty of Alcanices with Ferdinand IV of Castile, confirming Portuguese possession of the Algarve and settling the land frontier; that boundary has remained almost unaltered for more than seven centuries, among the oldest continuous borders in the world.

Turning points

1. 25 Jul 1139Formation

   Battle of Ourique

   By tradition, Afonso Henriques took the title of king of Portugal after defeating a Muslim army at Ourique, asserting the county's break from the kingdom of Leon.

   [1] [2]

2. 1143Independence

   Recognition of autonomy at Zamora

   Alfonso VII of Leon and Castile accepted the autonomy of Afonso Henriques, an early step toward the recognised independence of Portugal.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [3]

3. 1147War & Rupture

   Capture of Lisbon

   Afonso Henriques took Santarem and then Lisbon from the Muslims, the latter with the help of crusaders sailing to the Holy Land, advancing the Reconquista to the Tagus.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

4. 23 May 1179Independence

   Papal recognition in Manifestis Probatum

   Pope Alexander III confirmed Afonso Henriques as king and recognised Portugal as an independent kingdom under the protection of the Holy See, the founding act of Portuguese sovereignty.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [2]

5. 1297Politics & Power

   Treaty of Alcanices

   King Dinis and Ferdinand IV of Castile confirmed Portuguese possession of the Algarve and fixed the frontier, creating one of the oldest stable borders in Europe.

   [4] [5]

Figures of the era

Portugal's overseas expansion began with the capture of the Moroccan port of Ceuta in 1415. Prince Henry, later called the Navigator, made himself the patron of systematic exploration, drawing pilots, cartographers and shipwrights to the south-western tip of the country near Sagres. Portuguese caravels colonised the uninhabited Madeira and Azores archipelagos, passed the feared Cape Bojador in 1434, and pushed steadily down the West African coast in search of gold, slaves and a route around the continent to the spice markets of Asia.

The great breakthroughs came at the end of the fifteenth century. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, proving that the Atlantic and Indian oceans were joined. Ten years later Vasco da Gama completed the passage, reaching Calicut in India in 1498 and opening direct maritime trade between Europe and Asia. In 1500 a fleet under Pedro Alvares Cabral, bound for India, made landfall on the coast of Brazil and claimed it for Portugal, extending the empire across the Atlantic.

Rival claims with Castile were settled by treaty rather than war. In 1494, building on papal bulls of the previous year, the Treaty of Tordesillas drew a line of demarcation from pole to pole 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands; lands to the east fell to Portugal, those to the west to Castile, a division that gave Portugal its claim to Brazil. The wealth of the spice trade and of Brazilian and African commerce flowed into Lisbon, and the monuments of the age, such as the Hieronymite monastery and the Tower of Belem, were raised at the river mouth from which the fleets had sailed.

Turning points

1. 1415War & Rupture

   Capture of Ceuta

   Portuguese forces took the North African port of Ceuta, the starting point of overseas expansion and of Prince Henry's interest in exploring the African coast.

   ↗See the data

   [6]

2. 1488Colonisation

   Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope

   Bartolomeu Dias led the first European expedition to round the southern tip of Africa, showing that the Atlantic and Indian oceans were connected and opening the route to Asia.

   ↗See the data

   [7]

3. 7 Jun 1494Politics & Power

   Treaty of Tordesillas

   Portugal and Castile divided the unexplored world along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, an agreement that underpinned Portugal's claim to Brazil.

   [10]

4. 1498Colonisation

   Vasco da Gama reaches India

   Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope to Calicut, completing the sea route from western Europe to India and inaugurating direct trade with Asia.

   ↗See the data

   [8]

5. 22 Apr 1500Colonisation

   Cabral reaches Brazil

   A fleet under Pedro Alvares Cabral, en route to India, made landfall on the coast of Brazil and claimed it for the Portuguese crown.

   ↗See the data

   [9]

Figures of the era

The death of the young King Sebastian in the Moroccan disaster at Alcacer Quibir in 1578, followed by that of his elderly successor, left the Portuguese throne without a direct heir. Philip II of Spain, with a strong dynastic claim, occupied the country in 1580 and was accepted as king by the Cortes at Tomar in 1581. For sixty years Portugal was joined to the Spanish monarchy in the Iberian Union, keeping its own laws and institutions but sharing a sovereign, while its overseas possessions were drawn into Spain's global wars and exposed to Dutch and English attack.

Resentment at heavier taxation, neglect of the empire and the demands of Spain's wars grew through the 1630s. On 1 December 1640, taking advantage of Spain's simultaneous wars with France and revolt in Catalonia, a group of nobles carried through a nationalist revolution in Lisbon and proclaimed the duke of Braganza king as John IV. The Restoration began a long war of independence; Spain recognised Portuguese sovereignty only in 1668, by the Treaty of Lisbon, securing the new dynasty that would reign until the fall of the monarchy.

The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw Portugal lean on its Atlantic empire and on alliance with England. The discovery of gold and later diamonds in Brazil from the 1690s brought a flood of wealth to the crown, funding the extravagant building projects of King John V. The Methuen Treaty of 1703 tied Portuguese trade closely to Britain, exchanging Portuguese wine for English cloth and binding the two states in a partnership that shaped Portugal's diplomacy for centuries.

Turning points

1. 1578War & Rupture

   Disaster at Alcacer Quibir

   King Sebastian was killed leading a crusade into Morocco, triggering the succession crisis that opened the way to Spanish rule.

   ↗See the data

   [12]

2. 1580-1581Politics & Power

   Iberian Union under Philip II

   Philip II of Spain occupied Portugal and was accepted as king by the Cortes at Tomar in 1581, uniting the two crowns for sixty years.

   [12]

3. 1 Dec 1640Independence

   Restoration and the House of Braganza

   A nationalist revolution proclaimed the duke of Braganza as King John IV, restoring Portuguese independence and founding the Braganza dynasty.

   ↗See the data

   [12]

4. 1668Independence

   Spain recognises independence

   By the Treaty of Lisbon, Spain at last acknowledged Portuguese sovereignty, ending the war of Restoration begun in 1640.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [3]

Figures of the era

On the morning of 1 November 1755 a massive earthquake struck Lisbon, followed by a tsunami and days of fire; perhaps a third of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands died. The king's chief minister, Sebastiao de Carvalho, later the Marquis of Pombal, took charge of relief and reconstruction, rebuilding the Baixa district on a regular grid and using the crisis to push through enlightened reforms, curbing the Inquisition and the Jesuits and asserting royal authority over the church and aristocracy.

Portugal's traditional alliance with Britain drew it into the Napoleonic Wars. In 1807 a French army under General Junot invaded to enforce Napoleon's blockade of Britain. Rather than submit, the prince regent, the future John VI, the royal family and court embarked for Brazil on 27 November 1807 under British naval escort, transferring the seat of the monarchy across the Atlantic. The Peninsular War that followed, fought by British, Portuguese and Spanish forces, eventually drove the French out, but the court remained in Rio de Janeiro for over a decade, raising Brazil to the status of a kingdom equal with Portugal in 1815.

The long absence of the crown had lasting consequences. When John VI finally returned to Lisbon in 1821 he left his son Pedro as regent in Brazil. The Portuguese parliament's attempt to reduce Brazil once more to colonial status provoked Pedro to declare Brazilian independence on 7 September 1822, and he was crowned emperor of Brazil. Portugal had lost by far its largest and richest overseas possession, a blow that deepened the political turmoil at home, which would soon erupt into civil war between liberal constitutionalists and absolutists.

Turning points

1. 1 Nov 1755Catastrophe

   The great Lisbon earthquake

   An earthquake, tsunami and fire destroyed much of Lisbon and killed tens of thousands, prompting the reconstruction and reforms directed by the Marquis of Pombal.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [14]

2. 27 Nov 1807War & Rupture

   Court flees to Brazil

   As a French army invaded, the prince regent and royal court sailed for Brazil under British escort, moving the seat of the Portuguese monarchy to Rio de Janeiro.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [16]

3. 1808-1814War & Rupture

   The Peninsular War

   British, Portuguese and Spanish forces fought the French in the Iberian Peninsula, eventually expelling Napoleon's armies from Portugal and Spain.

   ↗See the data

   [15]

4. 7 Sep 1822Colonisation

   Independence of Brazil

   Pedro, regent and son of John VI, declared Brazil independent and became its emperor, ending Portugal's rule over its largest and wealthiest colony.

   ↗See the data

   [17] [16]

Figures of the era

The monarchy was overthrown in 1910 and replaced by an unstable First Republic. A military coup in 1926 paved the way for Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, an economics professor appointed prime minister in 1932, to build the Estado Novo, a corporative, authoritarian and Catholic-influenced dictatorship that allowed only one political movement and relied on censorship and a political police. Salazar ruled for thirty-six years, keeping Portugal neutral in the Second World War but clinging to its African empire, and was succeeded in 1968 by Marcelo Caetano, who maintained the regime and its costly colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea.

On 25 April 1974 a group of officers of the Armed Forces Movement, weary of the unwinnable African wars, overthrew the Estado Novo in an almost bloodless coup that became known as the Carnation Revolution. The dictatorship fell with little resistance, and a turbulent transition led, after the contested events of 1974 and 1975, to a stable parliamentary democracy. Decolonisation followed rapidly: Portugal's African territories, including Angola and Mozambique, became independent in 1975, ending an overseas presence in Africa that reached back to the capture of Ceuta in 1415.

Anchoring its new democracy in Europe, Portugal joined the European Communities on 1 January 1986, alongside Spain, and later adopted the euro. Two territorial questions with Spain remain open. The town of Olivenca, Portuguese since the Treaty of Alcanices, was occupied by Spain in 1801 and ceded under the Treaty of Badajoz; the Congress of Vienna of 1815 recommended its return, and Portugal still regards the sovereignty as unresolved while Spain administers it. At sea, Spain has disputed the extent of the exclusive economic zone Portugal claims around the Savage Islands (Ilhas Selvagens), arguing they are mere rocks under the law of the sea rather than islands generating a full maritime zone.

Turning points

1. 1801 / 1815War & Rupture

   The Olivenca dispute

   Spain occupied Olivenca in 1801 and acquired it by the Treaty of Badajoz; the Congress of Vienna recommended its return to Portugal in 1815, but the sovereignty remains contested.

   ↗See the data

   [22] [4]

2. 1932-1968Politics & Power

   Salazar and the Estado Novo

   Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, prime minister from 1932, built an authoritarian corporative dictatorship, the Estado Novo, that ruled Portugal for over four decades.

   [18] [19]

3. 25 Apr 1974Politics & Power

   The Carnation Revolution

   Officers of the Armed Forces Movement overthrew the Estado Novo in a nearly bloodless coup, ending the dictatorship and beginning Portugal's transition to democracy.

   [20]

4. 1975Colonisation

   Decolonisation of the African empire

   Following the revolution, Portugal's African colonies, including Angola and Mozambique, became independent in 1975, ending an empire begun in 1415.

   ↗See the data

   [20] [19]

5. 1 Jan 1986Politics & Power

   Accession to the European Communities

   Portugal joined the European Communities on 1 January 1986, together with Spain, anchoring its democracy in European integration.

   [21]

6. 2013Politics & Power

   The Savage Islands maritime dispute

   Spain disputed the exclusive economic zone Portugal claims around the Savage Islands, contending that the islets are rocks under the law of the sea, an issue examined in US State Department maritime studies.

   [23]

Figures of the era