Portugal officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa), is a country located in Southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. Apart from continental Portugal, the Portuguese Republic holds sovereignty over the Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira, which are autonomous regions of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continually fought over and settled since prehistoric times. After a period of Roman rule followed by Visigothic and Suebian domination, in the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, who were later expelled by the Knights Templar. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from Galicia in 1139.[9] In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of pioneering the Age of Discovery, Portugal expandedwestern influence and established the first global empire,[10] becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers.
The Portuguese Empire was the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost 600 years, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999 and granting of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002. The empire spread throughout a vast number of territories that are now part of 53 different sovereign states. Portugal's international status was greatly reduced during the 19th century, especially following the Independence of Brazil, its largest colony. After the1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, itself being superseded by the "Estado Novo" authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial Warand the Carnation Revolution in 1974