History of Portugal

Vímara Peres
Equestrian statue of Vímara Peres in Porto
First Count of Portucale
Reign	868–873
Successor	Lucídio Vimaranes
Born	820 A Coruña, Kingdom of Galicia
Died	873 Guimarães, County of Portugal

Afonso I
King of Portugal
Reign	26 July 1139 – 6 December 1185
Coronation	26 July 1139
Successor	Sancho I
Count of Portugal
Reign	1112–1139
Predecessor	Henry, Count of Portugal
Born	25 June 1109 Coimbra, Guimarães or Viseu, County of Portugal
Died	6 December 1185 (aged 76) Coimbra, Kingdom of Portugal
Burial	Santa Cruz Monastery, Coimbra, District of Coimbra, Portugal
Consort	Mafalda of Savoy
Issue among others ...	Urraca, Queen of León Sancho I of Portugal Theresa, Countess of Flanders
House	House of Burgundy
Father	Henry, Count of Portugal
Mother	Theresa, Countess of Portugal
Religion	Roman Catholicism

The history of Portugal dates back to the Early Middle Ages. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal ascended to the status of a world power during Europe's "Age of Discovery" as it built up a vast empire, including possessions in South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Over the following two centuries, Portugal kept most of its colonies, but gradually lost much of its wealth and status as the Dutch, English, and French took an increasing share of the spice and slave trades by surrounding or conquering the widely scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories.

Signs of military decline began with two disastrous battles: the Battle of Alcácer Quibir in Morocco in 1578 and Spain's abortive attempt to conquer England in 1588 by means of the Spanish Armada – Portugal was then in a dynastic union with Spain and contributed ships to the Spanish invasion fleet. The country was further weakened by the destruction of much of its capital city in an earthquake in 1755, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars and the loss of its largest colony, Brazil, in 1822. From the middle of the 19th century to the late 1950s, nearly two million Portuguese left Portugal to live in Brazil and the United States.

In 1910, there was a revolution that deposed the monarchy. Amid corruption, repression of the church, and the near bankruptcy of the state, a military coup in 1926 installed a dictatorship that remained until another coup in 1974. The new government instituted sweeping democratic reforms and granted independence to all of Portugal's African colonies in 1975.

Portugal is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). It entered the European Economic Community (now the European Union) in 1986.