1.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
2.
Funchal
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Funchal is the largest city, the municipal seat and the capital of Portugals Autonomous Region of Madeira. The city has a population of 111,892, making it the 6th largest city in Portugal, because of its high cultural and historical value, Funchal is one of Portugals main tourist attractions. It is also popular as a destination for New Years Eve, the name is from the Portuguese word funcho and the suffix -al, to denote a plantation of fennel. The name Funchal, was applied by the first settlers landed on its shores due to the abundance of wild fennel where, as tradition goes. Owing to its location, the site became an important maritime port. Its coastal position, the most productive on the island, quickly permitted Funchal to develop a core and surpass the populations of other settlements. In the early 15th century, Álvaro Fernandes was the commander of Funchal, as part of its administrative role, the settlement received its primary lighthouse between 1452 and 1454, when it was elevated to the status of vila and municipal seat. Funchal became an important transfer point for European commercial interests, many sailors, by the end of the century, fronting the Order of Christ, D. In 1508, it was elevated to the status of city by King Manuel I of Portugal, the island, and Funchal specifically, were vulnerable to privateer and pirate attacks. When the news was relayed to the settlements on Madeira and the villas of Machico, in Funchal, the governor, Francisco de Sales Gonçalves Zarco da Câmara, did not take any action that could be construed as hostile. At the bridge the privateers encountered a force from the fort, with a few small-caliber pieces. At the road near Carreira, the attackers were confronted by a group of Franciscan monks. Funchals fortifications were assaulted by land, where its defense was thin. The city suffered a violent sack that lasted fifteen days, after which little remained, the following year, the military architect Mateus Fernandes III was sent to Funchal in order to completely modify the defensive system of the city. Evidence of the produced by this architect was published in the Mapa de Mateus Fernandes. The document identifies the major defenses of the city, which included a fortification in the area around the dyke in Pena. During the 16th century, Funchal was an important stop-over for caravels travelling between the Indies and the New World, the wine culture appeared during early settlement, through the incentives from Henry the Navigator. Later, in Shakespeares Henry IV he has Poins censure Falstaff for having sold his soul to the devil for a cup of Madeira wine, in the 17th century, commercial treaties with England brought increased investments to a business that was still insular
3.
Panama City
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Panama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has an population of 430,299, and its population totals 880,691 when rural areas are included. The city is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, the city is the political and administrative center of the country, as well as a hub for international banking and commerce. It is considered a world city, one of three Central American cities listed in this category. Panamas Tocumen International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Central America, Panama was chosen as the 2003 American Capital of Culture jointly with Curitiba, Brazil. It is among the top five places for retirement in the world, the city of Panama was founded on August 15,1519, by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila. The city was the point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire in Peru. On January 28,1671, the city was destroyed by a fire when privateer Henry Morgan sacked. The city was reestablished two years later on January 21,1673, in a peninsula located 8 km from the original settlement. The site of the devastated city is still in ruins and is now a popular tourist attraction known as Panama Viejo. The city was founded on August 15,1519, by Pedro Arias de Ávila, also known as Pedrarias Dávila. Within a few years of its founding, the city became a point for the exploration and conquest of Peru. In 1671 Henry Morgan with a band of 1400 men attacked and looted the city, the ruins of the old city still remain and are a popular tourist attraction known as Panamá la Vieja. It was rebuilt in 1673 in a new location approximately 5 miles southwest of the original city and this location is now known as the Casco Viejo of the city. One year before the start of the California Gold Rush, the Panama Railroad Company was formed and that traffic greatly increased the prosperity of the city during that period. The construction of the Panama Canal was of benefit to the infrastructure. Of particular note are the improvements in health and sanitation brought about by the American presence in the Canal Zone, dr. William Gorgas, the chief sanitary officer for the canal construction, had a particularly large impact. He hypothesized that diseases were spread by the abundance of native to the area, and ordered the fumigation of homes
4.
Panama
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Panama, officially called the Republic of Panama, is a country usually considered to be entirely in North America or Central America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, the capital and largest city is Panama City, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half of the countrys 4.1 million people. Panama was inhabited by indigenous tribes prior to settlement by the Spanish in the 16th century. Panama broke away from Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, when Gran Colombia dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined, eventually becoming the Republic of Colombia. With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, in 1977 an agreement was signed for the total transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the 20th century, which culminated on 31 December 1999. Revenue from canal tolls continues to represent a significant portion of Panamas GDP, although commerce, banking, in 2015 Panama ranked 60th in the world in terms of the Human Development Index. Since 2010, Panama remains the second most competitive economy in Latin America, covering around 40 percent of its land area, Panamas jungles are home to an abundance of tropical plants and animals – some of them to be found nowhere else on the planet. There are several theories about the origin of the name Panama, some believe that the country was named after a commonly found species of tree. Others believe that the first settlers arrived in Panama in August, when butterflies abound, the best-known version is that a fishing village and its nearby beach bore the name Panamá, which meant an abundance of fish. Captain Antonio Tello de Guzmán, while exploring the Pacific side in 1515, in 1517 Don Gaspar De Espinosa, a Spanish lieutenant, decided to settle a post there. In 1519 Pedrarias Dávila decided to establish the Empires Pacific city in this site, the new settlement replaced Santa María La Antigua del Darién, which had lost its function within the Crowns global plan after the beginning of the Spanish exploitation of the riches in the Pacific. Blending all of the above together, Panamanians believe in general that the word Panama means abundance of fish and this is the official definition given in social studies textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education in Panama. However, others believe the word Panama comes from the Kuna word bannaba which means distant or far away, at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the known inhabitants of Panama included the Cuevas and the Coclé tribes. These people have disappeared, as they had no immunity from European infectious diseases. The earliest discovered artifacts of indigenous peoples in Panama include Paleo-Indian projectile points, later central Panama was home to some of the first pottery-making in the Americas, for example the cultures at Monagrillo, which date back to 2500–1700 BC. These evolved into significant populations best known through their spectacular burials at the Monagrillo archaeological site, the monumental monolithic sculptures at the Barriles site are also important traces of these ancient isthmian cultures. Before Europeans arrived Panama was widely settled by Chibchan, Chocoan, the largest group were the Cueva. The size of the population of the isthmus at the time of European colonization is uncertain
5.
Call sign
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In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitter station. In North America, they are used for all FCC licensed transmitters, a call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a stations identity. The use of signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one line linking all railroad stations. In order to time, two-letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose. This pattern continued in operation, radio companies initially assigned two-letter identifiers to coastal stations and stations aboard ships at sea. These were not globally unique, so a company identifier was later added. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities, in the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters. United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters W or K while US naval ships are assigned callsigns beginning with N, leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships in the US wishing to have a radio licence anyway are under F. C. C, class SA, Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped. Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers. U. S. Coast Guard small boats have a number that is shown on both bows in which the first two digits indicate the length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47 foot motor lifeboats, the call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example, Coast Guard zero two one. Call signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation, in most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircrafts registration number. In this case, the sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization phonetic alphabet. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, for example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa. However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would normally omit saying November, at times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters. This is especially true at uncontrolled fields when reporting traffic pattern positions, for example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa, left base
6.
Cruise ship
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Transportation is not the only purpose of cruising, particularly on cruises that return passengers to their originating port, with the ports of call usually in a specified region of a continent. There are even cruises to nowhere or nowhere voyages where the ship makes 2–3 night round trips without any ports of call, by contrast, dedicated transport oriented ocean liners do line voyages and typically transport passengers from one point to another, rather than on round trips. The gradual evolution of passenger ship design from ocean liners to cruise ships has seen passenger cabins shifted from inside the hull to the superstructure with private verandas, the distinction between ocean liners and cruise ships has blurred, particularly with respect to deployment. Larger cruise ships have also engaged in longer trips such as transoceanic voyages which may not return to the port for months. Some former ocean liners operate as cruise ships, such as Marco Polo, the only dedicated transatlantic ocean liner in operation as a liner of December 2013 is Queen Mary 2 of the Cunard fleet. The industrys rapid growth has seen nine or more newly built ships catering to a North American clientele added every year since 2001, smaller markets, such as the Asia-Pacific region, are generally serviced by older ships. These are displaced by new ships in the growth areas. The worlds largest cruise ship is currently Royal Caribbean Internationals Harmony of the Seas beating her sister ships by about 2.15 meters, the birth of leisure cruising began with the formation of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company in 1822. The company started out as a line with routes between England and the Iberian Peninsula, adopting the name Peninsular Steam Navigation Company. It won its first contract to deliver mail in 1837, in 1840, it began mail delivery to Alexandria, Egypt, via Gibraltar and Malta. The company was incorporated by Royal Charter the same year, becoming the Peninsular, P&O first introduced passenger cruising services in 1844, advertising sea tours to destinations such as Gibraltar, Malta and Athens, sailing from Southampton. The forerunner of modern cruise holidays, these voyages were the first of their kind, the company later introduced round trips to destinations such as Alexandria and Constantinople. It underwent a period of expansion in the latter half of the 19th century, commissioning larger. Some sources mention Francesco I, flying the flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and she was built in 1831 and sailed from Naples in early June 1833, preceded by an advertising campaign. The cruise ship was boarded by nobles, authorities, and royal princes from all over Europe, however, it was restricted to the aristocracy of Europe and was not a commercial endeavour. Christian Wilhelm Allers published an account of it as Backschisch. The first vessel built exclusively for cruising, was Prinzessin Victoria Luise of Germany, designed by Albert Ballin. The ship was completed in 1900, the practice of luxury cruising made steady inroads on the more established market for transatlantic crossings
7.
Ocean liner
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An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes, cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes called liners. The category does not include ferries or other vessels engaged in trading, nor dedicated cruise ships where the voyage itself. Nor does it include tramp steamers, even those equipped to handle limited numbers of passengers, some shipping companies refer to themselves as lines and their container ships, which often operate over set routes according to established schedules, as liners. Ocean liners are usually built with a high freeboard to withstand rough seas. Additionally, they are designed with thicker hull plating than is found on cruise ships. Once the dominant form of travel between continents, ocean liners were rendered obsolete by the emergence of long-distance aircraft after World War II. Advances in automobile and railway also played a role. As of 2015, RMS Queen Mary 2 was the ship still in service as an ocean liner. Ocean liners were the mode of intercontinental travel for over a century. In addition to passengers, liners carried mail and cargo, ships contracted to carry British Royal Mail used the designation RMS. Liners were also the way to move gold and other high-value cargoes. The busiest route for liners was on the North Atlantic with ships travelling between Europe and North America and it was on this route that the fastest, largest and most advanced liners travelled. Shipping lines are companies engaged in shipping passengers and cargo, often on established routes and schedules, regular scheduled voyages on a set route are called line voyages and vessels trading on these routes to a timetable are called liners. The alternative to liner trade is tramping whereby vessels are notified on a basis as to the availability of a cargo to be transported. The term ocean liner has come to be used interchangeably with passenger liner, beginning at the advent of the Jet Age, where transoceanic ship service declined, a gradual transition from passenger ships as mean of transportation to nowadays cruise ships started. In order for ocean liners to remain profitable, cruise lines have modified some of them to operate on routes, such as the Queen Elizabeth 2. The Italian Lines SS Michelangelo and SS Raffaello, the last ocean liners to be primarily for crossing the North Atlantic
8.
Portuscale Cruises
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Portuscale Cruises is a Portuguese shipping company. It is the first Portuguese company specifically dedicated to maritime cruises, as of late 2016 little is known about the future of the company. Both the Funchal and the Porto are currently laid up side by side, the only ship to remain in service is the Azores which is currently under charter to CMV which have renamed her Astoria. From May 2016, until March 2017, the ship is on charter to French tour operator Rivages Du Monde. In June 2016, it was announced that Astoria would be leaving the CMV fleet after her final cruise on 27 April 2017, she will then be chartered again to Rivages Du Monde until December 2017
9.
Azores
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Its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming, livestock, fishing, and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service, the main settlement of the Azores is Ponta Delgada. There are nine major Azorean islands and a cluster, in three main groups. These are Flores and Corvo, to the west, Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, and Faial in the centre, and São Miguel, Santa Maria, and they extend for more than 600 km and lie in a northwest-southeast direction. All the islands have volcanic origins, although some, such as Santa Maria, have had no recorded activity since the islands were settled, mount Pico, on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at 2,351 m. The Azores are actually some of the tallest mountains on the planet, measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, which thrust high above the surface of the Atlantic. The climate of the Azores is very mild for such a location, being influenced by its distance to continents. Due to the influence, temperatures remain mild year-round. Daytime temperatures normally fluctuate between 16 °C and 25 °C depending on season, temperatures above 30 °C or below 3 °C are unknown in the major population centres. It is also generally wet and cloudy, the culture, dialect, cuisine, and traditions of the Azorean islands vary considerably, because these once-uninhabited and remote islands were settled sporadically over a span of two centuries. However, these kinds of structures have always used in the Azores to store cereals. Detailed examination and dating to authenticate the validity of these speculations is lacking and it is unclear whether these structures are natural or man-made and whether they predate the 15th-century Portuguese colonization of the Azores. Solid confirmation of a human presence in the archipelago has not yet been published. The islands were known in the century and parts of them appear in the Atlas Catalan. In 1427, a captain sailing for Henry the Navigator, possibly Gonçalo Velho, rediscovered the Azores, but this is not certain. In Thomas Ashes 1813 work, A History of the Azores, the author identified a Fleming, Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges and he stated that the Portuguese explored the area and claimed it for Portugal. Other stories note the discovery of the first islands by sailors in the service of Henry the Navigator, although there are few documents to support the claims. Although it is said that the archipelago received its name from the goshawk
10.
Classic International Cruises
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Classic International Cruises was a British-Australian owned shipping company operating five luxury cruise ships, most notably their flagship, the rebuilt ocean liner MS Athena. The company only operated cruise ships that are former ocean liners, Classic International Cruises was seemingly founded in 1985, with the purchase of the MV Funchal as the Arcalia Shipping Company Ltd, which eventually became Classic International. They operated the one ship until 1994, when bought the Princess Danae. The Princess Danae entered service with a hull and a sailing ship logo on her funnel. Funchal was given a yellow and blue striped funnel and a white hull, since 2000 they have purchased 3 ships, Arion, Athena and Princess Daphne, the near-identical sister of Princess Danae. With their main headquarters in Neutral Bay, Australia, the company also has several branches based in Paris, France, Piraeus, Greece, Lisbon, Portugal, Stockholm, Sweden, on 20 December 2012, it was resolved to place the company into liquidation
11.
Prime Minister of Portugal
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Prime Minister is the current title of the head of government of Portugal. The Prime Minister can hold the role of head of government with the portfolio of one or more ministries, there is no limit to the number of terms a person can serve as Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President of the Republic following legislative elections, usually, the person named is the leader of the largest party in the previous election. Since the Middle Ages, some officers of the Portuguese Crown gained precedence over the others, over time, the role of principal officer of the Crown fell upon the chanceler-mor, the mordomo-mor and the escrivão da puridade. The first modern prime minister of Portugal was Pedro de Sousa Holstein, Marquess of Palmela, in 1911, the official title of the prime minister became Presidente do Ministério. In 1933, it became again Presidente do Conselho de Ministros, the official residence of the Prime Minister is a mansion next to São Bento Palace, which, in confusion, is also often called São Bento Palace. The mansion, dated from 1877, was built within the garden of the old monastery that held the Portuguese Parliament and it has been the Prime Ministers official residence since 1938, when Salazar moved in. Although it is the residence of the Prime Minister, not all incumbents have lived in the mansion during their term in office. As of April 2017, there are eight living former Prime Ministers of Portugal, living former Prime Ministers The most recent Prime Minister to die was Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares, on 7 January 2017 aged 92. List of Prime Ministers of Portugal List of Prime Ministers of Portugal by time in office Official Website of the Prime Minister of Portugal
12.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
PortugalPortugal
Portugal
