has a grim past. It is reputed to be the site of Europe’s oldest African slave market, first used in the early 15th century. Early Portuguese settlers in Brazil began using captured natives as slaves, but as demands of sugar plantations and gold mines grew in the 17th and 18th centuries, more and more slaves were shipped from Africa. Slavery was abolished in Portugal itself in 1761, but it continued in its African colonies until 1869 and in Brazil until 1888, 66 years after the South American country’s independence. Historians estimate Portuguese vessels carried almost 6 million Africans into slavery.
Independence lost & restored In 1578, Portugal overreached. King Sebastião I, an impetuous 24-year-old, invaded Morocco. He was last seen charging into enemy lines at the disastrous Battle of Alcácer Quibir, where a large slice of the Portuguese nobility was wiped out. Sebastião had neglected to father an heir before he set off. An elderly great-uncle briefly took over, but he was a cardinal known as Henry the Chaste, so when he died in 1580, Portugal was left without a monarch. King Philip II of Spain decided he could do the job. His army marched in, crushed local resistance, seized a fortune in Lisbon, and extinguished Portuguese independence for the next 60 years.
The Iberian union made Philip ruler of the greatest empire the world had ever seen, controlling much of the Americas, a network of colonies in Asia and Africa, and European territories that included the Netherlands and half of Italy. Spanish rule strained Portugal’s old alliance with England: The Spanish Armada sailed from Lisbon, and Sir Francis Drake raided the Portuguese coast.
By 1640, the Portuguese had had enough. While Spain was distracted fighting France in the 30 Years War, a group of nobles revolted and declared the Duke of Bragança to be King João IV. It took 28 years, but the Portuguese eventually won the War of Restoration. An obelisk in one of Lisbon’s main plazas commemorates the victory.
Meanwhile a new enemy, the Dutch, had seized some of Portugal’s overseas territories. Malacca and Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka) were lost. Faced with such threats, João IV strengthened Portugal’s British alliance by marrying his daughter Catherine of Bragança to King Charles II. Her dowry included Tangiers and Mumbai. Perhaps more significantly for the British, she introduced them to marmalade and the habit of drinking hot water flavored with a new-fangled Asian herb they called tea. In return, the British named one of their North American settlements in her honor: Queens.
Fortunately for the Portuguese, they managed to hang on to Brazil through these turbulent times. At the end of the 17th century, huge gold deposits were found inland from São Paulo. The gold rush made King João V the richest monarch in Europe. He used it to build the vast palace at Mafra and to line baroque churches up and down the country with glimmering gilt carvings.
Dateline
| 22000–10000 b.c. | Paleolithic people create some of the world’s earliest art with rock carvings of animals in the valley of the Côa River. |
| 210 b.c. | Romans begin takeover of the Iberian Peninsula. |
| 139 b.c. | Local Lusitanian tribes and their leader Viriato defeated by the Romans after 15 years of resistance. |
| 27 b.c. | Emperor Augustus creates the province of Hispania Ulterior Lusitania, comprising much of Portugal and western Spain. |
| a.d. 409 | Germanic tribes begin invasion of Roman Iberia. The Visigoths gain control of Portugal. |
| 711 | Muslim warriors arrive in Iberia, conquering Portugal within 7 years. |
| 868 | County of Portugal created in today’s Minho region by the Spanish kingdom of Asturias on land reconquered from the Muslims. |
| 1018 | Arab rulers in the Algarve declare their emirate independent of the Muslim Caliphate in southern Spain. |
| 1139 | Afonso Henriques is proclaimed the first king of Portugal after leading a rebellion against his mother and her allies in the Spanish kingdom of Leon. |
| 1147 | After a 4-month siege, Afonso I captures Lisbon from the Arabs with the aid of northern European crusaders. |
| 1249 | Afonso III completes the Reconquista, taking the Algarve from the Muslims. |
| 1290 | Portugal’s first university formed in Coimbra. |
| 1373 | Portugal signs treaty with England, forming the world’s oldest surviving diplomatic alliance. |
| 1383 | King João I defeats Castilian invaders at the Battle of Aljubarrota, securing Portugal’s independence. |
| 1415 | Henry the Navigator sets up a navigation school in Sagres. Portugal conquers Ceuta in North Africa, triggers era of overseas expansion. Madeira is discovered in 1419; the Azores in 1427. |
| 1434 | Sea captain Gil Eanes rounds Cape Bojador, opening up the coast of West Africa. |
| 1444 | Portugal initiates Atlantic slave trade when 235 African captives are landed in the Algarve. |
| 1484 | Diogo Cão explores the Congo River. |
| 1488 | Bartolomeu Dias passes the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean. |
| 1494 | Portugal and Spain divide up the New World with the Treaty of Tordesillas. |
| 1497 | Manuel I orders Portuguese Jews to convert to Catholicism or leave. |
| 1497–98 | Vasco da Gama’s first voyage to India, opening up East-West trade. |
| 1500 | Pedro Álvares Cabral is the first European to reach Brazil; Corte-Real brothers sail to Newfoundland. |
| 1506 | Lisbon Massacre: hundreds murdered in anti-Jewish pogrom. |
| 1510 | Afonso de Albuquerque conquers Goa, starting Portuguese colonization in India. |
| 1542 | Inquisition installed in Portugal, resulting in the execution of hundreds accused of practicing Judaism. |
| 1542 | Portuguese seafarers reach Japan. |
| 1578 | King Sebastião I killed in disastrous invasion of Morocco, leaving Portugal without an heir. |
| 1581 | Philip II of Spain proclaimed king of Portugal, ushering in 6 decades of Spanish rule. |
| 1640 | Portuguese nobles rebel, proclaim the Duke of Bragança as João IV; a 28-year war will restore independence. |
| 1661 | Princess Catarina de Bragança marries Charles II of England, gives him Mumbai and Tangiers as wedding presents, introduces the British to tea. |
| 1697 | The discovery of gold in southern Brazil makes João V Europe’s richest monarch; he builds gilded palaces, churches. |
| 1755 | Earthquake destroys Lisbon, killing up to 50,000. Prime Minister Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal, leads reconstruction efforts. |
| 1807 | Napoleon invades; British troops under Duke of Wellington will finally send him back to France in 1814. |
| 1822 | Brazil declares independence. |
| 1828–34 | War of the Two Brothers between liberal Pedro IV and conservative Miguel I leaves Portugal further weakened. |
| 1856 | First railroad opens in Portugal, but the 19th century sees economic decline and political instability. |
| 1908 | Carlos I and his son Crown Prince Luís Filipe are assassinated in Lisbon. |
| 1910 | Republican revolution overturns the monarchy. |
| 1916 | Portugal enters World War I on the Allied side. |
| 1926 | After years of political chaos, a military coup topples the Republic. |
| 1932 | António de Oliveira Salazar appointed prime minister, establishing a conservative dictatorship that will last over 4 decades. |
| 1939–45 | Portugal stays out of World War II. In France, diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes defies orders, saving thousands of Jews by issuing visas to neutral Portugal. |
| 1961 | Insurgent attacks in Angola start 14 years of colonial war in Portugal’s African empire; Indian army drives Portugal out of Goa. |
| 1974 | Almost bloodless revolution led by junior army officers topples the dictatorship. |
| 1975 | Portugal grants independence to five African colonies; brings home up to a million refugees; Indonesia invades the newly independent territory of East Timor. |
| 1976 | After a power struggle with leftist radicals, General António Ramalho Eanes is elected president, steers Portugal toward pro-Western path. |
| 1980 | Center-right Prime Minister Francisco de Sá Carneiro is killed in mysterious air crash. |
| 1986 | Portugal joins the European Union. |
| 1987 | Center-right Social Democratic Party under Prime Minister Aníbal Cavaco Silva wins electoral landslide. |
| 1998 | Millions flock to Lisbon for the EXPO ’98 World’s Fair; economic growth peaks at over 7%. |
| 1999 | Portugal becomes founder member of euro currency bloc; Portugal’s last overseas territory,
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