Languages: Portuguese (official), Mirandese (official,
but locally used)
Ethnicity/race: homogeneous Mediterranean stock; less than
100,000 citizens of black African descent who immigrated to mainland
during decolonization; East Europeans have entered since 1990
Religions:Religion Roman Catholic 84.5%, other Christian
2.2%, other 0.3%, unknown 9%, none 3.9% (2001 census)
Literacy rate: 93% (2003 est.).
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $232 billion; per capita $21,800. Real growth rate:
1.7%. Inflation: 2.4%. Unemployment: 8%. Arable
land: 17%. Agriculture: grain, potatoes, tomatoes,
olives, grapes; sheep, cattle, goats, swine, poultry, dairy
products; fish. Labor force: 5.62 million (2007 est.);
services 60%, industry 30%, agriculture 10% (2001 est.).
Industries: textiles and footwear; wood pulp, paper, and
cork; metals and metalworking; oil refining; chemicals; fish
canning; rubber and plastic products; ceramics; electronics and
communications equipment; rail transportation equipment; aerospace
equipment; ship construction and refurbishment; wine; tourism.
Natural resources: fish, forests (cork), tungsten, iron ore,
uranium ore, marble, arable land, hydropower. Exports: $50.72
billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): clothing and footwear, machinery,
chemicals, cork and paper products, hides. Imports: $72.19
billion f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and transport equipment,
chemicals, petroleum, textiles, agricultural products. Major
trading partners: Spain, France, Germany, UK, U.S., Italy,
Netherlands (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 4.231 million (2006); mobile cellular: 12.226 million
(2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 47, FM 172 (many are
repeaters), shortwave 2 (1998). Radios: 3.02 million (1997).
Television broadcast stations: 62 (plus 166 repeaters).
Televisions: 3.31 million (1997). Internet Service
Providers (ISPs): 836,616 (2007). Internet users: 3.213
(2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 2,786
km (2006). Highways: total: 78,470 km; paved: 67,484 km
(including 2,002 km of expressways); unpaved: 10,986 km (2004).
Waterways: 210 km (on Douro River from Porto) (2006).
Ports and harbors: Aveiro, Funchal (Madeira Islands), Horta
(Azores), Leixoes, Lisbon, Porto, Ponta Delgada (Azores), Praia da
Vitoria (Azores), Setubal, Viana do Castelo. Airports: 66
(2007).
International disputes: Portugal has
periodically reasserted claims to territories around the town of
Olivenza, Spain.
Portugal occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula and is
slightly smaller than Indiana. The country is crossed by three large
rivers that rise in Spain, flow into the Atlantic, and divide the country
into three geographic areas. The Minho River, part of the northern
boundary, cuts through a mountainous area that extends south to the
vicinity of the Douro River. South of the Douro, the mountains slope to
the plains around the Tejo River. The remaining division is the southern
one of Alentejo. The Azores stretch over 340 mi (547 km) in the Atlantic
and consist of nine islands with a total area of 902 sq mi (2,335 sq km).
Madeira, consisting of two inhabited islands, Madeira and Porto Santo, and
two groups of uninhabited islands, lie in the Atlantic about 535 mi (861
km) southwest of Lisbon.
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
History
An early Celtic tribe, the Lusitanians, are believed to have been the
first inhabitants of Portugal. The Roman Empire conquered the region in
about 140 B.C. Toward the end of the Roman
Empire, the Visigoths had invaded the entire Iberian Peninsula.
Portugal won its independence from Moorish Spain in 1143. King John I
(1385–1433) unified his country at the expense of the Castilians and the
Moors of Morocco. The expansion of Portugal was brilliantly coordinated by
John's son, Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias reached
the Cape of Good Hope, proving that Asia was accessible by sea. In 1498,
Vasco da Gama reached the west coast of India. By the middle of the 16th
century, the Portuguese empire extended to West and East Africa, Brazil,
Persia, Indochina, and the Malayan peninsula.
In 1581, Philip II of Spain invaded Portugal and held it for 60 years,
precipitating a catastrophic decline in Portuguese commerce. Courageous
and shrewd explorers, the Portuguese proved to be inefficient and corrupt
colonizers. By the time the Portuguese monarchy was restored in 1640,
Dutch, English, and French competitors had begun to seize the lion's share
of the world's colonies and commerce. Portugal retained Angola and
Mozambique in Africa, and Brazil (until 1822).
The corrupt King Carlos, who ascended the throne in 1889, made João
Franco the prime minister with dictatorial power in 1906. In 1908, Carlos
and his heir were shot dead on the streets of Lisbon. The new king, Manoel
II, was driven from the throne in the revolution of 1910, and Portugal
became a French-style republic. Traditionally friendly to Britain,
Portugal fought in World War I on the Allied side in Africa as well as on
the Western Front. Weak postwar governments and a revolution in 1926
brought Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to power. As minister of finance
(1928–1940) and prime minister (1932–1968), Salazar ruled Portugal as a
virtual dictator. He kept Portugal neutral in World War II but gave the
Allies naval and air bases after 1943. Portugal joined NATO as a founding
member in 1949 but did not gain admission to the United Nations until
1955.
Portugal's foreign and colonial policies met with increasing difficulty
both at home and abroad beginning in the 1950s. In fact, the bloodiest and
most protracted wars against colonialism in Africa were fought against the
Portuguese. Portugal lost the tiny remnants of its Indian empire—Goa,
Daman, and Diu—to Indian military occupation in 1961, the year an
insurrection broke out in Angola. For the next 13 years, Salazar, who died
in 1970, and his successor, Marcello Caetano, fought independence
movements amid growing world criticism. Leftists in the armed forces,
weary of a losing battle, launched a successful revolution on April 25,
1974. After the 1974 revolution, the new military junta gave up its
territories, beginning with Portuguese Guinea in Sept. 1974, which became
the Republic of Guinea-Bissau. The decolonization of the Cape Verde
Islands and Mozambique was effected in July 1975. Angola achieved
independence later that same year, thus ending a colonial involvement on
that continent that had begun in 1415. Full-scale international civil war,
however, followed Portugal's departure from Angola, and Indonesia forcibly
annexed independent East Timor. Also in 1975, the government nationalized
banking, transportation, heavy industries, and the media. Portugal
continued to experience social, economic, and political upheavals for the
next decade.
Portugal was admitted to the European Economic Community (now European
Union) on Jan. 1, 1986, and on Feb. 16, Mario Soares became the country's
first civilian president in 60 years. Aníbal Cavaço Silva, an advocate of
free-market economics and the Social Democratic candidate, had been
elected as prime minister in 1985, signaling a more politically stable
era. General elections in Oct. 1995 went to the Socialist Party, which
fell just short of an absolute majority in the assembly. Lisbon mayor
Jorge Sampaio, a Socialist, won the race for president in Jan. 1996.
Portugal's Socialist government continued to take advantage of rosy
economic conditions in 1997, and in 1999, Portugal became a founding
member of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU).
Portugal gave up its last colony, Macao, on Dec. 20, 1999,
turning the small Asian seaport over to China.
In 2002, center-right Social Democrat leader José Manuel Durão Barroso
became prime minister, after the Socialist Party suffered defeats. In the
summer of 2003, more than a thousand people died during an unprecedented
heat wave that caused fires to ravage Portugal's forests. Prime Minister
Barroso resigned in July 2004 to become president of the European
Commission. Pedro Santana Lopes, the new leader of the Social Democrats,
succeeded him as prime minister. In Feb. 2005 elections, the Socialist
Party won 45% of the vote, and José Sócrates became prime minister.
