Morocco-Portugal relations
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Morocco–Portugal relations cover a period of several centuries to the present. Initial contacts started in the 8th century, when Muslim forces invaded most of the territory of the Iberian peninsula. After the Reconquista, Portugal would then expand into Africa, starting with the territory of Morocco, by occupying cities and establishing fortified outposts along the Moroccan coast.
Following the invasion of southern Iberian Peninsula from the coast of Morocco by the Berber Commander Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711, during the 8th century Arab and Berber armies invaded the rest of Iberia, and even went beyond to Southern France, and as far as Poitiers and the Rhône valley until the turning point of the Battle of Tours in 732. The Rio Douro eventually became the boundary between Christian and Muslim lands. The land between the Douro and Rio Minho was the Christian County of Portucale, which became the Kingdom of Portugal under Afonso Henriques in 1129.
Portugal would again become affected by the expansion of the Moroccan empire under the Almoravid and the Almohad dynasties, between the 11th and the 13th centuries.
The Portuguese managed to recapture Lisbon in the 1147 Siege of Lisbon.
Portugal started to occupy parts of coastal Morocco from 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta, which was besieged unsuccessfully three years later by the Moroccans. Then under Afonso V of Portugal, Portugal conquered Alcácer Ceguer (1458), Tangiers (won and lost several times between 1460 and 1464) and Arzila (1471). This achievements granted the king the nickname of the African.
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