History of Portugal
Throughout the centuries which witnessed the conquer of Lusitania and destruction of Carthaginian power by Rome, the establishment and decline of Latin civilization, the invasion by Alani, Suevi and other barbarian races, the resettlement under Visigothic rule and the overthrow of the Visigoths by Arab and Berber tribes from Africa, Portugal remained an undifferentiated part of Hispania, without sign of national consciousness.
The Iberian Peninsula was one: and its common history is related under Spain. It is true that some Portuguese writers have sought to identify their race with the ancient Lusitani, and have claimed for it a separate and continuous existence dating from the 2nd century B.C. The revolt of Lusitania against the Romans has been regarded as an early manifestation of Portuguese love of liberty, Viriathus as a national hero. But this theory, which originated in the 15th century and was perpetuated in the title of The Lusiads, has no historical foundation.
In 1095 Portugal was an obscure border fief of the kingdom of Leon. Its territories, far from the centers of European civilization and consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest, were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego.
Its name (Portucelia, Terra portucalensis) was derived from the little seaport of Portus Cale or Vila Nova de Gaia, now a suburb of Oporto, at the mouth of the Douro. Its inhabitants, surrounded by Moorish or Spanish enemies and distracted by civil war, derived such rudiments of civilization as they possessed from Arabic or Leonese sources. But from these obscure beginnings Portugal rose in four centuries to be the greatest maritime, commercial and colonial power in Europe.
The history of the nation comprises eleven periods.
- 1095 - 1279 A Portuguese kingdom was established and extended until it reached its present continental limits.
- 1279 - 1415 The monarchy was gradually consolidated in spite of resistance from the Church, the nobles and the rival kingdom of Castile.
- 1415 - 1499 A period of crusades and discoveries, culminating in the discovery of an ocean-route to India (1497—1499).
- 1499 - 1580 Portugal acquired an empire stretching from Brazil eastward to the Moluccas, reached the zenith of its prosperity and entered upon a period of swift decline.
- 1581 - 1640 Spanish kings ruled over Portugal
- 1640 - 1755 The chief event of these years was the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy.
- 1755 - 1826 The reforms of Pombal and the Peninsular War prepared the country for a change from absolutism to constitutional monarchy.
- 1826 - 1910 Portugal was a constitutional Monarchy.
- 1910 The Republic was established.
- 1926 - 1974 Portugal was under a dictatorial regime.
- 1974 A democratic regime was established.