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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República
Portuguesa ; , is a country in southwestern Europe, on the Iberian
Peninsula. Being the westernmost country of mainland Europe, Portugal is
bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the
north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also
part of Portugal.
The land within the borders of today's Portuguese Republic has been
continuously settled since prehistoric times. Some of the earliest
civilizations include Lusitanians and Celtic societies. Incorporation into
the Roman Republic dominions took place in the 2nd century BC. The region
was ruled and colonized by Germanic peoples, such as the Suebi and the
Visigoths, from the 5th to the 8th century. From this era, some vestigies of
the Alans were also found. The Muslim Moors arrived in the early 8th century
and conquered the Christian Germanic kingdoms, eventually occupying most of
the Iberian Peninsula. In the early 1100s, during the Christian Reconquista,
Portugal appeared as a kingdom independent of its neighbour, the Kingdom of
León and Galicia. In a little over a century, in 1249, Portugal would
establish almost its entire modern-day borders by conquering territory from
the Moors.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, with a global empire that included
possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the
world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. In the 17th century,
the Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain ended the sixty
year period of the Iberian Union (1580-1640). In the 19th century, armed
conflict with French and Spanish invading forces and the loss of its largest
territorial possession abroad, Brazil, disrupted political stability and
potential economic growth. After the Portuguese Colonial War and the
Carnation Revolution coup d'état in 1974, the ruling regime was deposed in
Lisbon and the country handed over its last overseas provinces in Africa.
Portugal's last overseas territory, Macau, was handed over to the P. R.
China in 1999.
Portugal is a developed country, and although having one of the lowest
GDP per capita of Western European countries, it has a high Human
Development Index and is among the world's 20 highest rated countries in
terms of quality of life. It is a member of the European Union (since
1986) and the United Nations (since 1955); as well as a founding member of
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa
(Community of Portuguese Language Countries, CPLP), and the European Union's
Eurozone.
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