Portugal

Portugal is one of the oldest countries in Europe with roughly the same borders. It emerged in the twelfth century from the struggle between Christian and Muslim states in the Iberian peninsula, and its frontier with Castile, fixed in 1297, has barely changed since.

Before Portugal, the region was home to the Lusitanians, who resisted Rome under their leader Viriathus in the second century BCE. It became the Roman province of Lusitania, then part of the Suebian and Visigothic kingdoms. From 711 most of it was under Muslim rule, part of al-Andalus. Muslim rule left a lasting mark on the language, agriculture and architecture of southern Portugal, the Algarve, whose name comes from the Arabic al-Gharb, "the west".

In the eleventh century the County of Portugal, around Porto and the Douro river, was a dependency of the kingdom of León. Its count, Afonso Henriques, defeated his mother's forces in 1128, declared himself king after a victory over the Moors in 1139 and was recognised as king by León in 1143 and by the pope in 1179. With help from crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, he took Lisbon in 1147. The conquest of the Algarve in 1249 completed Portugal's mainland territory.

Afonso Henriques, the first king, belonged to a branch of the Burgundian ducal family. His dynasty ruled until 1383. King Dinis, who ruled from 1279 to 1325, founded the University of Coimbra, originally in Lisbon, in 1290, made Portuguese the official language of documents, planted pine forests to protect the coast and supply timber, and created the Order of Christ to replace the Templars.

When King Ferdinand I died in 1383, Castile claimed the throne through his daughter. John, master of the military order of Aviz, led resistance and was acclaimed king in 1385. With English archers, he defeated Castile at Aljubarrota. He married Philippa of Lancaster, daughter of John of Gaunt, sealing the alliance with England. Their sons, the "illustrious generation", included Prince Henry the Navigator.

Portugal's voyages of exploration in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries made Lisbon one of the richest cities in Europe. The Manueline style of architecture, named after King Manuel I, with maritime motifs such as ropes and shells, can be seen in the Jerónimos Monastery and the Tower of Belém in Lisbon. The poet Luís de Camões celebrated the voyages in The Lusiads, published in 1572. In 1496–1497, under Spanish pressure, Manuel I forced Portugal's Jews to convert, and the Inquisition was established in 1536.

In 1578 the young King Sebastian was killed in a crusade in Morocco, at the Battle of Alcácer Quibir, leaving no heir. Philip II of Spain took the throne in 1580. On 1 December 1640, Portuguese nobles rebelled and proclaimed the Duke of Braganza king as John IV. After a long war, Spain recognised Portuguese independence in 1668.

On 1 November 1755, a great earthquake, followed by a tsunami and fires, destroyed much of Lisbon and killed tens of thousands. The Marquis of Pombal, the king's chief minister, rebuilt the city's lower town, the Baixa, with earthquake-resistant buildings. He also expelled the Jesuits, reformed education and the economy, and ruled harshly.

Napoleon's invasion in 1807 sent the royal court to Brazil. After its return, Portugal saw liberal revolutions, a civil war between liberals and absolutists from 1828 to 1834, and economic difficulties. In 1908 King Carlos I and his heir were assassinated in Lisbon, and in 1910 a revolution established a republic.

The monarchy fell in 1910. After an unstable republic, António de Oliveira Salazar ruled as a dictator from 1932 to 1968, and his Estado Novo regime lasted until 1974, when army officers overthrew it in the almost bloodless Carnation Revolution. Portugal became a democracy, gave independence to its African colonies and joined the European Community in 1986.

Our maps label the mainland kingdom Portugal from 1200 to 1400, and again on the 2000 and 2010 maps. Its outline is about 90,000 square kilometres, all within today's Portugal, with Lisbon inside it from 1200. On the maps in between, from 1492 to the 1990s, the basemap shows the country as part of the Portuguese Empire. Before Portugal, our 1100 map shows the region under the Almoravids.