doubled production at its state-of-the-art plant south of Lisbon. Unemployment has halved since 2015, but many fear the recovery remains fragile given the national debt at over 120% of economic output.
It’s not just big businesses that are investing. Foreign homebuyers are fueling a real-estate boom that has brought urban renewal in downtown Lisbon and Porto, but also pushed out many local residents; vacation rentals now account for over half of housing in some historic neighborhoods.
Portugal looks toward Europe, but retains close economic, political, cultural, and personal ties with its former colonies. Brazilians make up the biggest immigrant community. Angola is a major trade partner. International networking helped Portugal’s push to have former Prime Minister António Guterres appointed secretary general of the United Nations in 2017.
The country is now firmly established as a European democracy unrecognizable from the poor, backward dictatorship of the early 1970s. Back then, under over 4 decades of authoritarian rule instituted by dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, Portuguese women were forbidden to travel without the permission of husbands or fathers, homosexuality was outlawed, and poor children left school illiterate with minimal education.
Today, women make up 35% of lawmakers (compared to 27% in Canada and 20% in the United States). Of the five main political parties, two are led by women. The mainly Roman Catholic nation legalized same-sex marriage in 2010 and gave gay couples equal adoption rights in 2016. Education is free and compulsory until the age of 18, and foreign students are flocking to its increasingly well-reputed universities.
Looking Back: History
Ancient Beginnings Legend has it Lisbon was founded by the Greek hero Ulysses, somewhat off course as he voyaged home from the Trojan War. Whether that’s true or not, what is certain is that man and beasts have lived in Portugal for several millennia. Some of Europe’s most spectacular dinosaur remains were unearthed at Lourinhã up the coast from Lisbon. Rock carvings in the Côa valley are among humanity’s oldest known art. In the Iron Age, Celtic tribes traded with visiting Mediterranean seafarers—Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians.
The Romans began muscling in around 200 b.c. as part of their struggle with Carthage for Mediterranean supremacy. They met tough resistance from the Lusitanians, a Celtic tribe whose leader, Viriato, is Portugal’s oldest national hero. As usual, the Romans won, but they named their new province Lusitania after their defeated foes. For around 600 years, they built roads and cities, kept order, and eventually introduced Christianity.
Invasions from North & South As Roman power waned, the Iberian Peninsula filled with Germanic folk. The Suevi ruled northern Portugal for 150 years. They were ousted in 588 by the Visigoths, who built a Christian kingdom covering Spain and Portugal, and made Braga a major religious center.
In 711, Islamic warriors crossed from North Africa. They took less than a decade to conquer almost the entire peninsula and would remain for more than 8 centuries. At times, Portugal formed part of powerful caliphates based in Cordoba, Seville, or Marrakesh. At others, local emirs ran independent Muslim kingdoms like those in the Algarve, Lisbon, and Mértola. Arabic influences are still felt in Portugal’s culture, cuisine, and language.
Portugal is Born In the early days, resistance to Muslim rule was led by the Kingdom of Asturias in the high mountains of northern Spain. Toward the end of the 9th century, land between the Minho and Douro rivers was reconquered and given the name Portocale after a Roman-era town close to today’s Porto.
Christian knights from across Europe traveled to join the fight. One was Henry of Burgundy, given the title Count of Portugal in 1092 by his father-in-law, one of the kings of León. When Henry died young, his son, Afonso Henriques, took the title, but since the boy was just 3 years old, his mother Teresa got to rule the country.
As he grew, Afonso became unhappy with his mother’s politics and love life, especially her cozy relations with a leading Spanish nobleman. The youngster led a rebellion by Portuguese nobles, defeated Teresa at a battle outside Guimarães, and in 1139 declared himself King Afonso I of Portugal.
Impressed by Afonso’s prowess battling the Muslims and his enthusiastic church construction program, the Pope confirmed Portugal’s status as an independent kingdom in 1179.
The Reconquista With the aid of Northern European crusaders, Afonso expanded his kingdom southward. Lisbon was reconquered after a 4-month siege in 1147. Fighting ebbed and flowed, but Afonso Henriques’ great-grandson, Afonso III, completed the Portuguese reconquista in 1249, driving the Muslims out of their last stronghold in Faro.
The danger now came from the east in the shape of the powerful Spanish kingdom of Castile. In 1385, Spanish king Juan I sent an invasion force of 30,000 to back his claim to the Portuguese throne. They were defeated at the Battle of Aljubarrota by much-outnumbered Portuguese forces in a struggle that preserved Portuguese independence and helped forge a national identity. Legend has it a woman baker joined the fray at a decisive moment, whacking several Castilian knights with heavy wooded bread trays. French cavalry backed the Spanish while English archers joined the defenders under the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1373—the world’s oldest surviving diplomatic alliance. Victorious King João I built the magnificent Gothic monastery at Batalha, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to celebrate his win.
The Age of DisCovery With its frontiers secured, Portugal started looking overseas. In 1415, João I opened the era of maritime expansion when he captured the city of Ceuta on the coast of North Africa. João’s son, Henry, fought at the battle to win Ceuta from the Moroccans. He never voyaged farther, but would change the face of world history and be forever known as Henry the Navigator.
Henry gathered sailors and scholars on the windswept southwestern tip of Europe at Sagres to brainstorm on what may lay beyond. Using new navigational technology and more maneuverable boats, the Portuguese sent out probing voyages that reached Madeira Island off the coast of Africa around 1420 and the mid-Atlantic Azores 8 years later.
A breakthrough came in 1434, when captain Gil Eanes sailed around Cape Bojador, a remote Saharan promontory that had marked the limits of European knowledge of the African coast. Eanes showed the sea beyond was not boiling and monster-filled, as was believed. The way was opened to Africa and beyond.
In the years that followed, Portuguese navigators pushed down the West African coast looking for gold, ivory, spices, and slaves. By 1482, Diogo Cão reached the mouth of the Congo River. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias sailed past Africa’s southern tip: He called it the Cape of Storms, but the name was quickly changed to Cape of Good Hope to encourage further voyages. That worked. Vasco da Gama traded and raided up the coast of east Africa before reaching India in 1498. World trade would never be the same. Over the next 4 decades, Portuguese explorers moved into southeast Asia, up the coast of China, and eventually into Japan. Along the way they set up trading posts and colonies. Portugal grew rich by dominating East-West exchanges and forging the first global empire. But the Portuguese also destroyed cities reluctant to submit to their power and frequently massacred civilians.
There were setbacks. In the 1480s, King João II rejected repeated requests to finance the westward exploration plans of a Genovese seafarer named Christopher Columbus, who eventually claimed the New World for his Spanish sponsors. And King Manuel I took a dislike to veteran Portuguese sea dog Fernão de Magalhães. Piqued, he crossed the border with his plans to reach Asia by sailing west and ended up leading the Spanish fleet that became the first to sail around the world. Later historians called him Ferdinand Magellan.
The Portuguese also moved west. Six years after Spain and Portugal agreed to divide up the world with the 1492 Treaty of Tordesillas, Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil, which conveniently lies on the eastern Portuguese side of the dividing line.
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