1.
Kingdom of Portugal
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The Kingdom of Portugal was a monarchy on the Iberian Peninsula and the predecessor of modern Portugal. It was in existence from 1139 until 1910, after 1248, it was also known as the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves and between 1815 and 1822, it was known as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. The name is often applied to the Portuguese Empire, the realms extensive overseas colonies. The nucleus of the Portuguese state was the County of Portugal, established in the 9th century as part of the Reconquista, by Vímara Peres, a vassal of the King of Asturias. The county became part of the Kingdom of León in 1097, the kingdom was ruled by the Alfonsine Dynasty until the 1383–85 Crisis, after which the monarchy passed to the House of Aviz. During the 15th and 16th century, Portuguese exploration established a vast colonial empire, from 1580 to 1640, the kingdom of Portugal was in personal union with Habsburg Spain. After the Portuguese Restoration War of 1640–1668, the passed to the House of Braganza and after to the House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg. From this time, the influence of Portugal declined, but it remained a major due to its most valuable colony. Portugal was an absolute monarchy before 1822. It rotated between absolute and constitutional monarchy from 1822 until 1834, and was a constitutional monarchy after 1834. The Kingdom of Portugal finds its origins in the County of Portugal, the Portuguese County was a semi-autonomous county of the Kingdom of León. Independence from León took place in three stages, The first on 26 July 1139 when Afonso Henriques was acclaimed King of the Portuguese internally, the second was on 5 October 1143, when Alfonso VII of León and Castile recognized Afonso Henriques as king through the Treaty of Zamora. The third, in 1179, was the Papal Bull Manifestis Probatum, once Portugal was independent, D. Afonso Is descendants, members of the Portuguese House of Burgundy, would rule Portugal until 1383. Even after the change in houses, all the monarchs of Portugal were descended from Afonso I, one way or another. With the start of the 20th century, Republicanism grew in numbers and support in Lisbon among progressive politicians, however a minority with regard to the rest of the country, this height of republicanism would benefit politically from the Lisbon Regicide on 1 February 1908. When returning from the Ducal Palace at Vila Viçosa, King Carlos I, with the death of the king and his heir, Carlos Is second son would become king as King Manuel II of Portugal. Manuels reign, however, would be short-lived, ending by force with the 5 October 1910 revolution, sending Manuel into exile in England, on 19 January 1919, the Monarchy of the North was proclaimed in Porto. The monarchy would be deposed a month later and no other monarchist counterrevolution in Portugal has happened since, after centuries of Portuguese dominion in Angola, the Kingdom of Kongo was made a vassal state of the Portuguese kingdom, its king pledging allegiance to the King of Portugal
2.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
3.
Portuguese people
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Portuguese people are an ethnic group indigenous to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and their predominant religion is Christianity, Portuguese people were a key factor to the Age of Exploration, discovering several lands unknown to the Europeans in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania, helping to pave the way for Globalization. There are around 10 million native Portuguese in Portugal, out of a population of 10.34 million. A small minority of about 15,000 speak the Mirandese language, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Vimioso, all of the speakers are bilingual with Portuguese. An even smaller minority of no more than 2,000 people speak Barranquenho, some people from the former colonies have been migrating to Portugal since the 1900s. More recently, a number of Slavs, especially Ukrainians, Moldovans, Romanians and Russians. There is also a Chinese minority, in addition, there is a small minority Gypsies of about 40,000 people, Muslims about 34,000 people and an even smaller minority of Jews of about 5,000 people. Between 1886 and 1966, Portugal lost to more than any West European country except Ireland. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, about 40 million Brazilians have relatively recent Portuguese background, due to massive immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. About 1.2 million Brazilian citizens are native Portuguese, significant verified Portuguese minorities exist in several countries. Portuguese Sephardic Jews are also in Israel, the Netherlands, the United States, France, Venezuela, Brazil, in Brazil many of the colonists were also originally Sephardic Jews, who, converted, were known as New Christians. In the United States, there are Portuguese communities in New Jersey, the New England states, in the Pacific, Hawaii has a sizable Portuguese element that goes back 150 years, Australia and New Zealand also have Portuguese communities. Canada, particularly Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, has developed a significant Portuguese community since 1940, argentina and Uruguay had Portuguese immigration in the early 20th century. So has Chile where an estimated 50,000 descendants live, an estimated 800,000 Portuguese returned to Portugal as the countrys African possessions gained independence in 1975, after the Carnation Revolution, while others moved to Brazil and South Africa. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Equatorial Guinea, in 1989 some 4,000,000 Portuguese were living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Brazil, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, and the United States. Portuguese constitute 13% of the population of Luxembourg, in areas such as Thetford and the crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey, the Portuguese form the largest ethnic minority groups at 30% of the population, 20% and 3% respectively. The British capital London is home to the largest number of Portuguese people in the UK, with the majority being found in the boroughs of Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Westminster. The Portuguese diaspora communities still are very attached to their language, their culture and their national dishes, in colonial times, over 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, and most of them went there during the gold rush of the 18th century
4.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
5.
Alentejo
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Alentejo is a geographical, historical and cultural region of south-central and southern Portugal. Literally, in Portuguese means beyond Tagus river, Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo and Baixo Alentejo. It corresponds to the districts of Beja, Évora, Portalegre, the main cities are, Évora, Beja, Serpa, Estremoz, Elvas and Portalegre. It has borders with Beira Baixa in the North, with Spain (Andalucia and Extremadura in the east, with Algarve in the South and with the Atlantic Ocean, Ribatejo and Estremadura in the West. The Alentejo is a known for its traditional polyphonic singing groups, similar to those found on Tuscany, Corsica. The comarca of the Alentejo became the Alentejo Province, divided into upper and lower designations, the modern region of the Alentejo was expropriated from the medieval provinces and historical territories of Estremadura Province. The term Entre-Tejo-e-Guadiana has become obsolete, it referred to roughly the same area between the Tagus and the Guadiana rivers part of the Kingdom of Portugal. Alentejos area extends to 27,272 square kilometres and has a population of 537,556, excluding Ponte de Sor, its area is 26,432 km2 and its population 520,834. The population density of Alentejo is 19. 1/km², topographically, the countryside varies from the open rolling plains of the south of the Alentejo to the granite hills that border Spain in the north-east. To feed the water needs of this area a number of public dams have been constructed. In the north, traditional economic activity may be more livestock-based as typified by cow, sheep, to the south agriculture may be more predominant. To the east of Portalegre is the Parque Natural da Serra de São Mamede, in the south near Mértola there is another Nature Park Area named Parque Natural do Vale Guadiana. This is more scarcely inhabited than the former, to the west, the coastal strip that runs from the port of Sines down to Cape St. Vincent comprises the Southwest Alentejo and Vicentine Coast Natural Park. In fact, it is the most interesting part of the climate of this region and this much resembles a place like Casablanca in Morocco and the Moroccan interior where the same cold sea gives way to extreme differences from coast to even nearby inland. We can find the warmest place in the lowest parts away from the coast, which usually will be in the Guadiana valley from about Mertola to Juromenha with hotspots near Moura and in the small river valleys north of Serra da Adiça. If the winds are strong enough another deep and very low lying valley, despite the fact that they are relatively close to the coast. The highest temperature recorded in Portugal and in fact Europe was measured on the first of August 2003 in Amareleja. Since the meteorological station is about 100 metres above the valley near Moura it is very likely that about 48.5 °C was reached there
6.
John II of Portugal
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John II, the Perfect Prince, was the king of Portugal and the Algarves in 1477/1481–1495. He is known for re-establishing the power of the Portuguese throne, reinvigorating the Portuguese economy, and renewing his countrys exploration of Africa and the Orient. As a prince, John II accompanied his father in the campaigns in northern Africa and was made a knight after the victory in the Conquest of Arzila in 1471, in 1473, he married Leonor of Viseu, an infanta of Portugal and his first cousin. Even at an age, John was not popular among the peers of the kingdom since he was immune to external influence. The nobles were afraid of his policies as king. After his official accession to the throne in 1481, John II took a series of measures to curtail the power of the Portuguese aristocracy, as one of example of the measure he took, he deprived the nobles of their right to administer justice on their estates. Immediately, the nobles started to conspire, letters of complaint and pleas to intervene were exchanged between the Duke of Braganza and Queen Isabella I of Castile. In 1483, additional correspondence was intercepted by royal spies, the House of Braganza was outlawed, their lands confiscated and the duke executed in Évora. His widow, Isabella of Viseu, Johns cousin and sister-in-law, in the following year, the Duke of Viseu, Johns cousin and brother-in-law, was summoned to the palace and stabbed to death by the king himself for suspicion of a new conspiracy. Many other people were executed, murdered, or exiled to Castile, including the Bishop of Évora, following the crackdown, no one in the country dared to defy the king and John saw no further conspiracies during his reign. A great confiscation of estates followed and enriched the crown, which now became the dominant power of the realm, facing a bankrupt kingdom, John II showed the initiative to solve the situation by creating a regime in which a Council of Scholars took a vital role. The king conducted a search of the population and selected members for the Council on the basis of their abilities, talents, Johns exploration policies also paid great dividends. Such was the coming from John IIs investments in the overseas explorations. The kingdom could finally collect taxes for its own use rather than to pay debts, mainly thanks to its main source at that time. John II famously restored the policies of Atlantic exploration, reviving the work of his great-uncle, the Portuguese explorations were his main priority in government. Portuguese explorers pushed south along the known coast of Africa with the purpose of discovering the maritime route to India,1493 – Start of the settlement of the São Tomé and Príncipe islands by Álvaro Caminha. Funding of land expeditions by Afonso de Paiva and Pêro da Covilhã to India and Ethiopia in search of Prester John land, the true extent of Portuguese explorations has been the subject of academic debate. According to one theory, some navigations were kept secret for fear of competition by neighbouring Castile, when Columbus returned from his first voyage early in 1493, he first stopped in Lisbon to claim his victory in front of King John II
7.
Crown of Castile
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The title of King of Castile remained in use by the Habsburg rulers during the 16th and 17th centuries. Charles I was King of Aragon, Majorca, Valencia, and Sicily, in the early 18th century, Philip of Bourbon won the War of the Spanish Succession and imposed unification policies over the Crown of Aragon, supporters of their enemies. This unified the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile into the kingdom of Spain, even though the Nueva Planta decrees did not formally abolish the Crown of Castile, the country of was called Spain by both contemporaries and historians. King of Castile also remains part of the title of Felipe VI of Spain. The Kingdom of León arose out of the Kingdom of Asturias, the Kingdom of Castile appeared initially as a county of the Kingdom of León. From the second half of the 10th century to the first half of the 11th century it changed hands between León and the Kingdom of Navarre, in the 11th century it became a kingdom in its own right. The two kingdoms had been united twice previously, From 1037 until 1065 under Ferdinand I of León, upon his death his kingdoms passed to his sons, León to Alfonso VI, Castile to Sancho II, and Galicia to García. From 1072 until 1157 under Alfonso VI, Urraca, and Alfonso VII, from 1111 until 1126 Galicia was separate from the union under Alfonso VII. In 1157 the kingdoms were divided between Alfonsos sons, with Ferdinand II receiving León and Sancho III Castile, from then on the two kingdoms were united under the name of the Kingdom of León and Castile, or simply as the Crown of Castile. Ferdinand III later conquered the Guadalquivir Valley, while his son Alfonso X conquered the Kingdom of Murcia from Al-Andalus, the heir to the throne has been titled Prince of Asturias since the 14th century. Almost immediately after the union of the two kingdoms under Ferdinand III, the parliaments of Castile and León were united. It was divided into three estates, which corresponded with the nobility, the church and the cities, and included representation from Castile, León, Galicia, Toledo, Navarre, under Alfonso X, most sessions of the Cortes of both kingdoms were held jointly. The Cortes of 1258 in Valladolid comprised representatives of Castile, Extremadura and León, subsequent Cortes were celebrated separately, for example in 1301 that of Castile in Burgos and that of León in Zamora, but the representatives demanded that the parliaments be reunited from then on. These laws continued to be in force until 1889, when a new Spanish civil code, in the 13th century there were many languages spoken in the Kingdoms of León and Castile among them Castilian, Leonese, Basque and Galician-Portuguese. But, as the century progressed, Castilian gained increasing prominence as the language of culture, henceforth all public documents were written in Castilian, likewise all translations of Arabic legal and government documents were made into Castilian instead of Latin. In 1492, under the Catholic Monarchs, the first edition of the Grammar of the Castilian Language by Antonio de Nebrija was published, Castilian was eventually carried to the Americas in the 16th century by the conquistadors. Because of Castilians importance in the land ruled by the Spanish Crown, on the death of Alfonso XI a dynastic conflict started between his sons, the Infantes Peter and Henry, Count of Trastámara, which became entangled in the Hundred Years War. Alfonso XI had married Maria of Portugal with whom he had his heir, however, the King also had many illegitimate children with Eleanor of Guzman, among them the above-mentioned Henry, who disputed Peters right to the throne once the latter became king
8.
Manuel I of Portugal
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Manuel I, the Fortunate, King of Portugal and the Algarves, was the son of Infante Ferdinand, Duke of Viseu, by his wife, the Infanta Beatrice of Portugal. His name is associated with a period of Portuguese civilization that was distinguished by significant achievements both in political affairs and the arts. Manuels mother was the granddaughter of King John I of Portugal, whereas his father was the surviving son of King Edward of Portugal. In 1495, Manuel succeeded his first cousin, King John II of Portugal, Manuel grew up amidst conspiracies of the Portuguese upper nobility against King John II. He was aware of people being killed and exiled. His older brother Diogo, Duke of Viseu, was stabbed to death in 1484 by the king himself, as a result of this stroke of luck, he was nicknamed the Fortunate. Manuel would prove a worthy successor to his cousin John II for his support of Portuguese exploration of the Atlantic Ocean, during his reign, the following achievements were realized,1498 — The discovery of a maritime route to India by Vasco da Gama. 1500 — The discovery of Brazil by Pedro Álvares Cabral,1505 — The appointment of Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of India. 1503–1515 — The establishment of monopolies on maritime routes to the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf by Afonso de Albuquerque. All these events made Portugal wealthy from trade as it formally established a vast overseas empire. Manuel used the wealth to build a number of royal buildings, commercial treaties and diplomatic alliances were forged with China and the Persian Empire. Pope Leo X received an embassy from Portugal during his reign designed to draw attention to Portugals newly acquired riches to all of Europe. In Manuels reign, royal absolutism was the method of government, the Portuguese Cortes met only three times during his reign, always in Lisbon, the kings seat. He reformed the courts of justice and the municipal charters with the crown, modernizing taxes, during his reign, the laws in force in the kingdom of Portugal were recodified with the publication of the Manueline Ordinations. Manuel also endeavoured to promote another crusade against the Turks and his relationship with the Portuguese Jews started out well. At the outset of his reign, he released all the Jews who had been made captive during the reign of John II, unfortunately for the Jews, he decided that he wanted to marry Infanta Isabella of Aragon, then heiress of the future united crown of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella had expelled the Jews in 1492 and would never marry their daughter to the king of a country that still tolerated their presence, in the marriage contract, Manuel I agreed to persecute the Jews of Portugal. In December 1496, it was decreed that all Jews either convert to Christianity or leave the country without their children, however, those expelled could only leave the country in ships specified by the king
9.
Estremoz
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Estremoz is a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 14,318, in an area of 513.80 km², the city Estremoz itself had a population of 7,682 in 2001. It is located in the Alentejo region, the region around Estremoz has been inhabited since pre-historic times. There are also vestiges of Roman, Visigoth and Muslim occupation, during the Reconquista, Estremoz was captured in the 12th century by the army of knight Geraldo Sem Pavor, who had also conquered neighbouring Évora. However, Estremoz was soon retaken by the Moors and only in the century was it reconquered by the Portuguese King Sancho II. King Dinis rebuilt the castle as a palace, further promoting the area. Her grandson Pedro I of Portugal died in the Franciscan monastery at Estremoz in 1367, during the 1383–1385 Crisis, Nuno Álvares Pereira established his headquarters in Estremoz, then defeated the Castilian forces at the Battle of Atoleiros. During the Portuguese Restoration War, Portuguese forces defeated the Castilians in the nearby and decisive Battles of Ameixial, especially the pink marble is in high demand. This marble has been used since Antiquity as a material for sculpture and architecture, the first exports in Roman times were probably for the construction of the Circus Maximus of Emerita Augusta, in modern day Spain. The Portuguese navigators exported this marble to Africa, India and Brazil, the marble from this region was used in famed locations such as the Monastery of Jerónimos, the Monastery of Batalha, the Monastery of Alcobaça and the Tower of Belém. There is so much marble around Estremoz that it is used everywhere, even the doorsteps, pavements and this marble is even converted into whitewash for painting the houses. Portugal is the second largest exporter of marble in the world, about 85% of this marble is produced around Estremoz. In the quarries marble blocks are cut from the rock with a wire saw. The initial conduit for the wire is made by drilling a horizontal hole, the wire saw may need a day to cut through the marble
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Prestage, Edgar (1911). "Ribeiro, Bernardim". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 284.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
