Portugal
Well, today I'll write a bit about my country and its people.
Portugal is a small country in the Iberian Peninsula, in Europe. It has about 10 million inhabitants and belongs to the European Union sice 1986.
The climate is temperate, though there's some variation from the North to the South and from the coast to the mountains.
Our History began with a man called Afonso Henriques, who, against his own mother, fought to get the independence of a little county, in the North of today's Portugal. He was our first king and signed a treaty of independence in 1143. The next 4 kings finished what he began, by conquering from North to South lots of lands to the Muslims. By the year of 1249, Portugal was quite similar to what it is now.
Of course the rest of the History is much more than I ever could write here but I must mention also the Discoveries. It was actually Portugal that began the Discoveries period in the XV century. That would lead the Portuguese navigators to a quest that lasted more than a century, in which they found a way to go to India by sea, discovered Brazil, some islands (two groups of them, Madeira and Azores, still belong to Portugal) like Cabo Verde, Sao Tome e Principe, countries like Mozambique and Angola and many more. Also, they made very important contacts around the whole Asia which resulted in the co-domain of India and other lands around it. The Portuguese influence is still very strong in countries like Sri Lanka, Japan and China (which offered the territory of Macau until the end of the year 1999), Timor, and many more.
All this empire brought great richness to Portugal, but it was mostly spent without any care to make it last. So, we ended up losing almost everything to other countries like Spain and England. Still, the Portuguese language is one of the most spoken around the world.
We became a Republic in 1910 and our first president was Manuel de Arriaga. Today, Jorge Sampaio is the president. I hope you liked this extra-short synthesis of our History and Geography! :)
Feel free to comment it!
Portugal is a small country in the Iberian Peninsula, in Europe. It has about 10 million inhabitants and belongs to the European Union sice 1986.
The climate is temperate, though there's some variation from the North to the South and from the coast to the mountains.
Our History began with a man called Afonso Henriques, who, against his own mother, fought to get the independence of a little county, in the North of today's Portugal. He was our first king and signed a treaty of independence in 1143. The next 4 kings finished what he began, by conquering from North to South lots of lands to the Muslims. By the year of 1249, Portugal was quite similar to what it is now.
Of course the rest of the History is much more than I ever could write here but I must mention also the Discoveries. It was actually Portugal that began the Discoveries period in the XV century. That would lead the Portuguese navigators to a quest that lasted more than a century, in which they found a way to go to India by sea, discovered Brazil, some islands (two groups of them, Madeira and Azores, still belong to Portugal) like Cabo Verde, Sao Tome e Principe, countries like Mozambique and Angola and many more. Also, they made very important contacts around the whole Asia which resulted in the co-domain of India and other lands around it. The Portuguese influence is still very strong in countries like Sri Lanka, Japan and China (which offered the territory of Macau until the end of the year 1999), Timor, and many more.
All this empire brought great richness to Portugal, but it was mostly spent without any care to make it last. So, we ended up losing almost everything to other countries like Spain and England. Still, the Portuguese language is one of the most spoken around the world.
We became a Republic in 1910 and our first president was Manuel de Arriaga. Today, Jorge Sampaio is the president. I hope you liked this extra-short synthesis of our History and Geography! :)
Feel free to comment it!
posted by Air Soul at 4:28 PM
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