Portugal is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal. The land within the borders of today’s Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times. In 29 B.C. the territory occupied by peoples like the Gallaeci and Lusitanians was integrated in the Roman Empire as the province of Lusitania and Roman settlers strongly influenced Portuguese culture, particularly the Portuguese language, mostly derived from Latin (DMOZ). In the 5th century, after the fall of the Roman empire, it was occupied by different Germanic peoples such as the Suevi and the Visigoths. In the early 8th century the Muslim Moors conquered those Christian kingdoms, occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Christian Reconquista (Reconquering), the County of Portugal was settled, as part of the Kingdom of Galicia. With the establishment of the Kingdom recognized in 1143 and the stabilization of its borders by 1249, Portugal claims to be the oldest European nation-state In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of maritime exploration, Portugal established a global empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, becoming one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. In 1580 it was united with Spain by a period called the Iberian Union; however, in 1640 it went on to re-establish full independence during the Portuguese Restoration War that resulted in the establishment of a new dynasty and a return to the previous separation between the two crowns and empires. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Spanish and French invasions, which preceded the loss of its largest territorial possession abroad, Brazil, resulted in both the disruption of political stability and economic growth as well as the reduction of Portugal’s international status as a global power during the 19th century. After the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910, a democratic but unstable republic was established that was then replaced by the “Estado Novo” dictatorship. After the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the democracy was restored and the country handed over its last overseas provinces (most prominently Angola and Mozambique in Africa); the last overseas territory, Macau, was handed over to China in 1999. Portugal is a developed country and it has the world’s 19th-highest quality-of-life, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit. It is the 14th-most peaceful and the 13th-most globalized country in the world. It is a member of the European Union (joined the then EEC in 1986, leaving the EFTA where it was a founding member in 1960) and the United Nations; as well as a founding member of the Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, OECD, NATO, Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the European Union’s Eurozone, and also a Schengen state. The Roman Temple of Diana, Évora. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The name of Portugal derives from the Roman name Portus Cale. The region was settled by Pre-Celts and Celts, giving origin to peoples like the Gallaeci, Lusitanians, Celtici and Cynetes, visited by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, incorporated in the Roman Republic dominions as Lusitania after 45 BC until 298, settled again by Suevi, Buri, and Visigoths, and conquered by Moors. Other minor influences include some 5th century vestiges of Alan settlement, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra and even Lisbon The Castle of Guimarães, Guimarães – the city is known as the cradle of Portugal. During the Reconquista period, Christians reconquered the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish domination. In 868, the First County of Portugal was formed. A victory over the Muslims at Battle of Ourique in 1139 is traditionally taken as the occasion when the County of Portugal as a fief of the Kingdom of León was transformed into an the independent Kingdom of Portugal. On 24 June 1128, the Battle of São Mamede occurred near Guimarães. Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his mother Countess Teresa and her lover Fernão Peres de Trava, thereby establishing himself as sole leader. Afonso Henriques officially declared Portugal’s independence when he proclaimed himself king of Portugal on 25 July 1139, after the Battle of Ourique. He was recognized as such in 1143 by Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile, and in 1179 by Pope Alexander III. Afonso Henriques and his successors, aided by military monastic orders, pushed southward to drive out the Moors, as the size of Portugal covered about half of its present area. In 1249, this Reconquista ended with the capture of the Algarve on the southern coast, giving Portugal its present-day borders, with minor exceptions. Progress of the Christian Reconquista. In 1348 and 1349, like the rest of Europe, Portugal was devastated by the Black Death. In 1373, Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world. In 1383, the king of Castile, husband of the daughter of the Portuguese king who had died without a male heir, claimed his throne. An ensuing popular revolt led to the 1383-1385 Crisis. A faction of petty noblemen and commoners, led by John of Aviz (later John I), seconded by General Nuno Álvares Pereira defeated the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota. This celebrated battle is still a symbol of glory and the struggle for independence from neighbouring Spain. Main article: History of Portugal (1415–1542) Portuguese explorations: arrival places and dates; main Portuguese trade routes in the Indian Ocean (blue); territories of the Portuguese empire under King John III rule (1521–1557) (green). In the following decades, Portugal spearheaded the exploration of the world and undertook the Age of Discovery. Prince Henry the Navigator, son of King João I, became the main sponsor and patron of this endeavor. In 1415, Portugal conquered the first of its overseas colonies by conquering Ceuta, a prosperous Islamic trade center in North Africa. There followed the first discoveries in the Atlantic: Madeira and the Azores, which led to the first colonization movements. Throughout the 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts for several common types of tradable commodities at the time, ranging from gold to slaves, as they looked for a route to India and its spices, which were coveted in Europe. The Treaty of Tordesillas, intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus, was signed on 7 June 1494, and divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). In 1498, Vasco da Gama finally reached India and brought economic prosperity to Portugal and its population of 1.5 million residents then. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral, en route to India, discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. Ten years later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, in India, Ormuz in the Persian Strait, and Malacca, now a state in Malaysia. Thus, the Portuguese empire held dominion over commerce in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic. The Portuguese sailors set out to reach Eastern Asia by sailing eastward from Europe landing in such places like Taiwan, Japan, the island of Timor, and may have been the first Europeans to discover Australia and even New Zealand. the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 22 April 1529 between Portugal and Spain, specified the antimeridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas.  Portugal’s independence was interrupted between 1580 and 1640. Because the heirless King Sebastian died in the battle of Alcácer Quibir in Morocco, Philip II of Spain claimed his throne and so became Philip I of Portugal. Although Portugal did not lose its formal independence, it was governed by the same monarch who governed Spain, briefly forming a union of kingdoms, as a personal union. An anachronistic map of the Portuguese Empire (1415–1999). Red – actual possessions; Olive trading posts; Blue – main sea explorations, routes and areas of influence. The disputed Portuguese discovery of Australia is not shown. The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and led to the involvement in the Eighty Years War being fought in Europe at the time between Spain and The Netherlands. War led to a deterioration of the relations with Portugal’s oldest ally, England, and the loss of Hormuz. From 1595 to 1663 the Dutch-Portuguese War primarily involved the Dutch companies invading many Portuguese colonies and commercial interests in Brazil, Africa, India and the Far East, resulting in the loss of the Portuguese Indian Sea trade monopoly. In 1640, John IV spearheaded an uprising backed by disgruntled nobles and was proclaimed king. The Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain on the aftermath of the 1640 revolt, ended the sixty-year period of the Iberian Union under the House of Habsburg. This was the beginning of the House of Braganza, which was to reign in Portugal until 1910. On 1 November 1755, Lisbon, the largest city and capital of the Portuguese Empire, was strongly shaken by an earthquake which killed thousands and destroyed a large portion of the city.[11] In 1762 Spain invaded Portuguese territory as part of the Seven Years’ War, however by 1763 the status-quo between Spain and Portugal of before the war had been restored. During the 18th century approximately 400,000 left for Brazil. In the autumn of 1807, Napoleon moved French troops through Spain to invade Portugal. From 1807 to 1811, British-Portuguese forces would successfully fight against the French invasion of Portugal. Brazil just before independence in 1822 – Cisplatina was one of the last additions to the territory of Brazil under Portuguese rule.Portugal began a slow but inexorable decline until the 20th century. This decline was hastened by the independence in 1822 of the country’s largest colonial possession, Brazil. In 1807, as Napoleon Bonaparte’s army closed in on Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon, the Prince Regent João VI of Portugal shipped himself off to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Once there, João VI established Rio de Janeiro as the capital of the Portuguese Empire which was then rebranded in 1815 as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Due to the change in its status and the arrival of the Portuguese royal family, Brazilian administrative, civic, economical, military, educational, and scientific apparatus were expanded and highly modernized. Portuguese and their allied British troops fought against the French Invasion of Portugal and by 1815 things in Europe had cooled down sufficiently that João VI could safely return to Lisbon. However, the King of Portugal remained in Brazil until the Liberal Revolution of 1820, which started in Porto, demanded his return to Lisbon in 1821. Thus he returned to Portugal but left his son Pedro in charge of Brazil. When the king attempted the following year to return the Kingdom of Brazil to subordinate status as a principality, his son Pedro, with the overwhelming support of the Brazilian elites, declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal. Cisplatina (today’s sovereign state of Uruguay), in the south, was one of the last additions to the territory of Brazil under Portuguese rule. The Pink Map – Portugal’s unsuccessful claim of sovereignty over the land between its territories of Angola and Mozambique in the second half of the 19th century. At the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had already lost its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. Luanda, Benguela, Bissau, Lourenço Marques, Porto Amboim and the Island of Mozambique were among the oldest Portuguese-founded port cities in its African territories. During this phase, Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-sized territories to compete with other European powers there. With the Conference of Berlin of 1884, Portuguese Africa territories had their borders formally established on request of Portugal in order to protect the centuries-long Portuguese interests in the continent from rivalries enticed by the Scramble for Africa. Portuguese Africa’s cities and towns like Nova Lisboa, Sá da Bandeira, Silva Porto, Malanje, Tete, Vila Junqueiro, Vila Pery and Vila Cabral were founded or redeveloped inland during this period and beyond. New coastal towns like Beira, Moçâmedes, Lobito, João Belo, Nacala and Porto Amélia, were also founded. Even before the turn of the century, railway tracks as the Benguela railway in Angola, and the Beira railway in Mozambique, started to be built to link coastal areas and selected inland regions. Other episodes of this period of Portuguese presence in Africa, include the 1890 British Ultimatum that forced the retreat of Portuguese military forces in the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia) which had been claimed by Portugal and included in its “Pink Map”, which had clashed with British aspirations to create a Cape to Cairo Railway. The Portuguese territories in Africa were Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique. The tiny fortress of São João Baptista de Ajudá on the coast of Dahomey, was also under Portuguese rule. In addition, the country still ruled the Asian territories of Portuguese India, Portuguese Timor and Macau. In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy and its last King, Manuel II, but chaos continued during the Portuguese First Republic and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in World War I, which led to a military coup d’état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of the right-wing dictatorship of the Estado Novo under António de Oliveira Salazar. Portugal was one of only five European countries to remain neutral in World War II. From the 1940s to the 1960s, Portugal was a founding member of NATO, OECD and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In 1961, São João Baptista de Ajudá’s annexation by Dahomey was the start of a process that led to the final dissolution of the centuries-old Portuguese Empire. According to the census of 1921 São João Baptista de Ajudá had 5 inhabitants and, at the moment of the ultimatum by the Dahomey Government, it had only 2 inhabitants representing Portuguese Sovereignty. Another forcible retreat from overseas territories occurred in December 1961 when the Portuguese army and navy were involved in armed conflict in its colony of Portuguese India against an Indian invasion. The operations resulted in the defeat of the isolated and relatively small Portuguese defensive garrison which was forced to surrender. The outcome was the loss of the Portuguese territories in the Indian subcontinent. Also in the early 1960s, independence movements in the Portuguese overseas provinces of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea in Africa, resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974). Throughout the colonial war period Portugal had to deal with increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions imposed by most of the international community. In April 1974 a bloodless left-wing military coup in Lisbon, known as the Carnation Revolution, led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa, after two years of a transitional period known as PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, or On-Going Revolutionary Process), characterized by social turmoil and power disputes between left- and right-wing political forces. Some factions, including Álvaro Cunhal’s Partido Comunista Português (PCP), unsuccessfully tried to turn the country into a totalitarian communist state. The retreat from the overseas territories and the acceptance of its independence terms by Portuguese head representatives for overseas negotiations, which would create newly-independent communist states in 1975 (most notably the People’s Republic of Angola and the People’s Republic of Mozambique), prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal’s African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique). Over a million destitute Portuguese refugees fled the former Portuguese colonies. Mário Soares and António de Almeida Santos were charged with organising the independence of Portugal’s overseas territories. By 1975, all the Portuguese African territories were independent and Portugal held its first democratic elections in 50 years. However, the country continued to be governed by a military-civilian provisional administration until the Portuguese legislative election of 1976. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by the European Union member states on 13 December 2007 in the Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon. Portugal’s last overseas territory, Macau, was not handed over to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) until 1999, under the 1987 joint declaration that set the terms for Macau’s handover from Portugal to the PRC. In 2002, the independence of East Timor (Asia) was formally recognized by Portugal, after an incomplete decolonization process that was started in 1975 because of the Carnation Revolution. On 26 March 1995, Portugal started to implement Schengen Area rules, eliminating border controls with other Schengen members while simultaneously strengthening border controls with non-member states. In 1996 the country was a co-founder of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) headquartered in Lisbon. The 1998 World Exposition took place in Portugal and in 1999 it was one of the founding countries of the euro and the Eurozone. On 5 July 2004, José Manuel Durão Barroso, then Prime Minister of Portugal, was nominated President of the European Commission, the most powerful office in the European Union. On 1 December 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, after had been signed by the European Union member states on 13 December 2007 in the Jerónimos Monastery, in Lisbon, enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and improving the coherence of its action. The São Bento Palace, house of the Assembly of the Republic, Lisbon. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, current President of Portugal.Portugal is a democratic republic ruled by the Constitution of 1976 with Lisbon, the nation’s largest city, as its capital. The four main governing components are the President of the Republic, the Parliament, known as Assembly of the Republic, the Government, headed by a Prime Minister, and the courts. The constitution grants the division or separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Portugal like most European countries has no state religion, making it a secular state. The president, who is elected to a five-year term, has a supervising non-executive role. The current President is Aníbal Cavaco Silva. The Parliament is a chamber composed of 230 deputies elected in four-year terms. The government is headed by the prime minister (currently José Sócrates) who chooses the Council of Ministers, comprising all the ministers and state secretaries. The national and regional governments (those of Azores and Madeira autonomous regions), and the Portuguese parliament, are dominated by two political parties, the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party. Minority parties Unitarian Democratic Coalition (Portuguese Communist Party plus Ecologist Party “The Greens”), Bloco de Esquerda (The Left Bloc) and CDS-PP (Popular Party) are also represented in the parliament and local governments. The courts are organized in several categories comprising the judicial, administrative, and fiscal branches. The supreme courts are courts of last appeal. A 13-member constitutional court oversees the constitutionality of the laws. José Sócrates, current Prime Minister of Portugal. The President, elected to a 5-year term by direct, universal suffrage, is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Presidential powers include appointing the prime minister and Council of Ministers, in which the president must be guided by the assembly election results; dismissing the prime minister; dissolving the assembly to call early elections; vetoing legislation, which may be overridden by the assembly; and declaring a state of war or siege. The Council of State, a presidential advisory body, is composed of six senior civilian officers, any former presidents elected under the 1976 constitution, five members chosen by the assembly, and five selected by the president. The government is headed by the presidentially appointed prime minister, who names the Council of Ministers. A new government is required to define the broad outline of its policy in a program and present it to the assembly for a mandatory period of debate. Failure of the assembly to reject the program by a majority of deputies confirms the government in office. The four main organs of the national government are the presidency, the prime minister and Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament), and the judiciary. The Assembly of the Republic is a unicameral body composed of up to 230 deputies. Elected by universal suffrage according to a system of proportional representation, deputies serve terms of office of 4 years, unless the president dissolves the assembly and calls for new elections. Location of the disputed territory of Olivença. Location of the Savage Islands, the southernmost region of Portugal. A member state of the United Nations since 1955, Portugal is also a founding member of NATO (1949), OECD (1961) and EFTA (1960); it left the latter in 1986 to join the European Economic Community, that would become the European Union in 1993. In 1996 it co-founded the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which seeks to foster closer economic and cultural ties between the world’s Lusophone nations. In addition, Portugal is a full member of the Latin Union (1983) and the Organization of Ibero-American States (1949). It has a friendship alliance and dual citizenship treaty with its former colony, Brazil. Portugal and England (subsequently, the UK) share the world’s oldest active military accord through their Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which was signed in 1373. The only international disputes concerns the municipality of Olivença. Under Portuguese sovereignty since 1297, the municipality of Olivença was ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Badajoz in 1801, after the War of the Oranges. Portugal claimed it back in 1815 under the Treaty of Vienna. There are also some controversies over the Savage Islands. 1881 – The Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry stated during the meeting that “…it is not clear if the sovereignty of the island belongs to Spain or Portugal”. 1911 – In September the Portuguese government received an official communication from the Spanish government in which it was stated that Spain would build a lighthouse in the islands and had decided to include them in the Canary archipelago. Portuguese administration protested and it was agreed not to take any actions that might endanger a friendly solution to the dispute. The Permanent Commission of International Maritime Law gave sovereignty of the Savage Islands to Portugal on February 15, 1938. Nevertheless, bilateral diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring countries are cordial, as well as within the European Union. A Portuguese Air Force F-16 The armed forces have three branches: Army, Navy, and Air Force. The military of Portugal serves primarily as a self-defense force whose mission is to protect the territorial integrity of the country and providing humanitarian assistance and security at home and abroad. As of 2002, the total armed forces of Portugal numbered 43,600 active personnel including 2,875 women. Reservists numbered 210,930 for all services. The army had 25,400 personnel with equipment including 187 main battle tanks (Wikimedia). The navy of 10,800, including 1,580 marines, had two submarines, six frigates, and 28 patrol and coastal combatants. The air force of 7,400 was equipped with 50 combat aircraft. Paramilitary police and republican guards, the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), number 40,900. GNR is a police force under the authority of the military, its soldiers are subject to military law and organization (Visit). It has provided detachments for participation in international operations in Iraq and East Timor. The United States maintains a military presence with 770 troops in the USA Air Force Base at Terceira Island, in the Azores. Portugal participates in peacekeeping operations in several regions. Defense spending in 1999–00 was $1.3 billion, representing 2.2 percent of GDP. Since the early 2000s compulsory military service is no longer practiced. The changes also turned the forces’ focus towards professional military engagements. The age for voluntary recruitment is set at 18. In the 20th century, Portugal engaged in two major military interventions: the First Great War and the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974). Portugal has participated in peacekeeping missions in East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Nasiriyah) and Lebanon. The Portuguese Military’s Rapid Reaction Brigade, a combined force of the nation’s elite Paratroopers, Special Operations Troops Centre and Commandos, is a special elite fighting force. The Portuguese legal system is part of the civil law legal system, also called the continental family seo company legal system. Until the end of the 19th century, French law was the main influence. Since then the major influence has been German law. The main laws include the Constitution (1976, as amended), the Civil Code (1966, as amended) and the Penal Code (1982, as amended). Other relevant laws are the Commercial Code (1888, as amended) and the Civil Procedure Code (1961, as amended). Portuguese law applied in the former colonies and territories and continues to be the major influence for those countries. Portugal’s main police organizations are the Guarda Nacional Republicana – GNR (National Republican Guard), a gendarmerie; the Polícia de Segurança Pública – PSP (Public Security Police), a civilian police force who work in urban areas; and the Polícia Judiciária – PJ (Judicial Police), a highly specialized criminal investigation police which is overseen by the Public Ministry. Portugal was one of the first countries in the world to abolish the death penalty. Maximum jail sentences are limited to 25 years. Portugal has arguably the most liberal laws concerning possession of illicit drugs in the Western world. In 2001 Portugal decriminalized possession of effectively all bedroom furniture drugs that are still illegal in other developed nations including, but not limited to, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and LSD. While possession is legal, trafficking and possession of table tennis more than “10 days worth of personal use” are still punishable by jail time and fines. Since decriminalization was implemented, Portugal has seen rapid improvement in the CD replication number of deaths from drug overdoses as well as a decline in new HIV infections. On 31 May 2010, Portugal became the sixth country in Europe and the eighth country in Portable Staging the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage on the national level. The law came into force on 5 June 2010. Lagoa das Sete Cidades, located in São Miguel Island, is the nature sounds largest freshwater lake in the Azores. Cork oak on wheat field, a typical image of the Alentejo region. Praia da Marinha, a typical image of the Algarve coast. The highest point in mainland Portugal is in the Serra da Estrela mountain range. Mount Pico, in the island of Pico, Azores, is Portugal’s highest point The typical landscape of the Douro Valley. Cape Roca, Europe’s most western continental point. Mainland Portugal is split by its main river, the Tagus. The northern landscape is mountainous in the interior with plateaus indented by river valleys, whereas the south, that includes the Algarve and the Alentejo, features mostly rolling plains and a climate somewhat warmer and drier than in the north. The Algarve, separated from the Alentejo by mountains, has a climate much like the southern coastal areas of Spain. Portugal’s highest point is Mount Pico on Pico Island in the Azores. This is an ancient volcano measuring 2,350 m (7,710 ft). Mainland Portugal’s highest point is Serra da Estrela, with the summit being 1,993 m (6,539 ft) above sea level. Portugal has a Mediterranean climate, Csa in the south and Csb in the north, according to the Köppen climate classification. Portugal is one of the warmest European countries: the annual average temperature in mainland Portugal varies from 13 °C (55.4 °F) in the mountainous interior north to over 18 °C (64.4 °F) in the south and on the Guadiana basin. In some areas, as in the Tejo and Douro basins, annual average temperatures can be as high as 20 °C (68 °F). Here in the summer temperatures may be over 50 °C (122 °F) as it is documented in a climatology study done recently, for example in the Arqueology Park in Côa, Douro valley.[17] In high mountains, such as Gerês, a maritime temperate climate predominates (Cfb, according to Koppen-Geiger). The record high of 47.4 °C (117.3 °F) was recorded in Amareleja.[18] The country has around 2500 to 3200 hours of sunshine a year, an average of 4–6 h in winter and 10–12 h in the summer, with higher values in the southeast and lower in the northwest. The Madeira and Azores archipelagos have a narrower temperature range with annual average temperatures exceeding 20 °C (68 °F), according to the Portuguese Meteorological Institute, in the south coast of Madeira Island. The annual average rainfall in the mainland varies from a bit more than 3,000 mm (118.1 in) in the mountains in the north to less than 300 mm (11.8 in) in Massueime region, near Côa on the Douro river. In the Pico mountain, in Azores, is the rainiest spot of Portugal, reaching over 6,250 mm (246.1 in) per year, according to IM (Portuguese Meteorological Institute).[19] The islands of the Azores are located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge whilst the Madeira islands were corporate entertainment formed by the activity of an in-plate hotspot, much like the Hawaiian Islands. Some islands have had volcanic activity as recently as 1957. Both the Azores and the 18th birthday ideas Madeira Islands have a subtropical climate, but there are differences between the islands, mainly because of differences in temperature and rainfall. Some outdoor table tennis table islands in Azores do have dry months in the summer therefore a Mediterranean climate according to Koppen-Geiger (both Csa and Csb types) Maritime Temperate (Cfb) in some islands (Flores) and Humid subtropical (Cfa) in the others (Corvo), according to Koppen-Geiger where are no dry months in the summer. The Savage Islands, that belong to the Madeira archipelago, have a Desertic climate (BWh) with an annual average rainfall of just around 150 mm (5.9 in). The sea surface mean temperatures in these archipelagos vary from 16 °C (60.8 °F)-18 °C (64.4 °F) in winter to 23 °C (73.4 °F)-24 °C (75.2 °F) in the summer, occasionally reaching 26 °C (78.8 °F). In South Azores, there´s an oceanic area, inside Portuguese maritime territory which has the unique tropical climate (As type according to Koppen-Geiger)known in Europe, because of Gulf Stream influence on this area. Sea temperatures here are over 20 °C (68 °F) even on the peak of the winter (Source AEMET). Portugal’s Exclusive Economic Zone, a seazone over which the Portuguese have special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, has 1,727,408 km². This is the 3rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of the European Union and the 11th largest in the world. This article needs additional citations for verification Montesinho Natural Park, in northeastern Portugal. Conservation areas of Portugal include one national park (Parque Nacional), 12 natural parks (Parque Natural), 9 natural reserves fish oil (Reserva Natural), 5 natural monuments (Monumento Natural), and 7 protected landscapes (Paisagem Protegida), ranging from the Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês to the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela to the Paul de Arzila. Climate and geographical diversity shaped the Portuguese Flora. As far as Portuguese forests are concerned, because of sell my car economic reasons the pine tree (especially the Pinus pinaster and Pinus pinea species), the chestnut tree (Castanea sativa), the cork oak (Quercus suber), the holm oak (Quercus ilex), the Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea), and the eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) tourbillon watches are very widespread. Portugal is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal. The land within the borders of today’s Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times. In 29 B.C. the territory occupied by peoples like the Gallaeci and Lusitanians was integrated in the Roman Empire as the province of Lusitania and Roman settlers strongly influenced Portuguese culture, particularly the Portuguese language, mostly derived from Latin. In the 5th century, after the fall of the Roman empire, it was occupied by different Germanic peoples such as the Suevi and the Visigoths. In the early 8th century the Muslim Moors conquered those Christian kingdoms, occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula. During the Christian Reconquista (Reconquering), the County of Portugal was settled, as part of the Kingdom of Galicia. With the establishment of the Kingdom recognized in 1143 and the stabilization of its borders by 1249, Portugal claims to be the oldest European nation-state In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of maritime exploration, Portugal established a global empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, becoming one of the world’s major economic, political and military powers. In 1580 it was united with Spain by a period called the Iberian Union; however, in 1640 it went on to re-establish full independence during the Portuguese Restoration War that resulted in the establishment of a new dynasty and a return to the previous separation between the two crowns and empires. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Spanish and French invasions, which preceded the loss of its largest territorial possession abroad, Brazil, resulted in both the disruption of political stability and economic growth as well as the reduction of Portugal’s international status as a global power during the 19th century. After the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910, a democratic but unstable republic was established that was then replaced by the “Estado Novo” dictatorship. After the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974, the democracy was restored and the country handed over its last overseas provinces (most prominently Angola and Mozambique in Africa); the last overseas territory, Macau, was handed over to China in 1999. Portugal is a developed country and it has the world’s 19th-highest quality-of-life, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit. It is the 14th-most peaceful and the 13th-most globalized country in the world. It is a member of the European Union (joined the then EEC in 1986, leaving the EFTA where it was a founding member in 1960) and the United Nations; as well as a founding member of the Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, OECD, NATO, Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the European Union’s Eurozone, and also a Schengen state. The Roman Temple of Diana, Évora. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. The name of Portugal derives from the Roman name Portus Cale. The region was settled by Pre-Celts and Celts, giving origin to peoples like the Gallaeci, Lusitanians, Celtici and Cynetes, visited by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, incorporated in the Roman Republic dominions as Lusitania after 45 BC until 298, settled again by Suevi, Buri, and Visigoths, and conquered by Moors. Other minor influences include some 5th century vestiges of Alan settlement, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra and even Lisbon The Castle of Guimarães, Guimarães – the city is known as the cradle of Portugal. During the Reconquista period, Christians reconquered the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish domination. In 868, the First County of Portugal was formed. A victory over the Muslims at Battle of Ourique in 1139 is traditionally taken as the occasion when the County of Portugal as a fief of the Kingdom of León was transformed into an the independent Kingdom of Portugal. On 24 June 1128, the Battle of São Mamede occurred near Guimarães. Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his mother Countess Teresa and her lover Fernão Peres de Trava, thereby establishing himself as sole leader. Afonso Henriques officially declared Portugal’s independence when he proclaimed himself king of Portugal on 25 July 1139, after the Battle of Ourique. He was recognized cars forum as such in 1143 by Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile, and in 1179 by Pope Alexander III. Afonso Henriques and his successors, aided by military monastic orders, pushed southward to drive out the Moors, as the size of Portugal covered about Group Halloween Costumes half of its present area. In 1249, this Reconquista ended with the capture of the Algarve on the southern coast, giving Portugal its present-day borders, with minor exceptions. Progress of the Christian Reconquista. In 1348 and 1349, like the rest of Europe, Portugal was devastated by the Black Death. In 1373, Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world. In 1383, the king of Castile, husband of the daughter of the Portuguese king who had died without a male heir, claimed his throne. An ensuing popular revolt led to the 1383-1385 Crisis. A faction of petty noblemen and commoners, led by John of Aviz (later John I), seconded by General Nuno Álvares Pereira defeated the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota. This celebrated battle is still a symbol of glory and the struggle for independence from neighbouring Spain. Main article: History of Portugal (1415–1542) Portuguese explorations: arrival places and dates; main Portuguese trade routes in the Indian Ocean (blue); territories of the Portuguese empire under King John III rule (1521–1557) (green). In the following decades, Portugal spearheaded the exploration of the world and undertook the Age of Discovery. Prince Henry the Navigator, son of King João I, became the main sponsor and patron of this endeavor. In 1415, Portugal conquered the first of its overseas colonies by conquering Ceuta, a prosperous Islamic trade center in North Africa. There followed the first discoveries in the Atlantic: Madeira and the Azores, which led to the first colonization movements. Throughout the 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts for several common types of tradable commodities at the time, ranging from gold to slaves, as they looked for a route to India and its spices, which were coveted in Europe. The Treaty of Tordesillas, intended to resolve the dispute that had been created following the return of Christopher Columbus, was signed on 7 June 1494, and divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Portugal and Spain along a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (off the west coast of Africa). In 1498, Vasco da Gama finally reached India and brought economic prosperity to Portugal and its population of 1.5 million residents then. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral, en route to India, discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. Ten years later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, in India, Ormuz in the Persian Strait, and Malacca, now a state in Malaysia. Thus, the Portuguese empire held dominion over commerce in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic. The Portuguese sailors set out to reach Eastern Asia by sailing eastward from Europe landing in such places like Taiwan, Japan, the island of Timor, and may have been the first Europeans to discover Australia and even New Zealand. the Treaty of Zaragoza, signed on 22 April 1529 between Portugal and Spain, specified the antimeridian to the line of demarcation specified in the Treaty of Tordesillas.  Portugal’s independence was interrupted between 1580 and 1640. Because the heirless King Sebastian died in the battle of Alcácer Quibir in Morocco, Philip II of Spain claimed his throne and so became Philip I of Portugal. Although Portugal did not lose its formal independence, it was governed by the same monarch who governed Spain, briefly forming a union of kingdoms, as a personal union. An anachronistic map of the Portuguese Empire (1415–1999). Red – actual possessions; Olive trading posts; Blue – main sea explorations, routes and areas of influence. The disputed Portuguese discovery of Australia is not shown. The joining of the two crowns deprived Portugal of a separate foreign policy, and led to the involvement in the Eighty Years War being fought in Europe at the time between Spain and The Netherlands. War led to a deterioration of the relations with Portugal’s oldest ally, England, and the loss of Hormuz. From 1595 to 1663 the Dutch-Portuguese War primarily involved the Dutch companies invading many Portuguese colonies and commercial interests in Brazil, Africa, India and the Far East, resulting in the loss of the Portuguese Indian Sea trade monopoly. In 1640, John IV spearheaded an uprising backed by disgruntled nobles and was proclaimed king. The Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and tinnitus treatment Spain on the aftermath of the 1640 revolt, ended the sixty-year period of the Iberian Union under the House of Habsburg. This was the beginning of the House of Braganza, which was to reign in Portugal until 1910. On 1 November 1755, Lisbon, the largest city and capital of the Portuguese Empire, was strongly shaken by an earthquake which killed thousands and destroyed a large portion of the city.[11] In 1762 Spain invaded Portuguese territory as part of the Seven Years’ War, however by 1763 the status-quo between Spain and Portugal of before the war had been restored. During the 18th century approximately 400,000 left for Brazil. In the autumn of 1807, Napoleon moved French troops through Spain to invade Portugal. From 1807 to 1811, British-Portuguese forces would successfully fight against the French invasion of Portugal. Brazil just before independence in 1822 – Cisplatina was one of the last additions to the territory of Brazil under Portuguese rule.Portugal began a slow but inexorable decline until the 20th century. This decline was hastened by the independence in 1822 of the country’s largest colonial possession, Brazil. In 1807, as Napoleon Bonaparte’s army closed in on Portugal’s capital city of Lisbon, the Prince Regent João VI of Portugal shipped himself off to the Portuguese colony of Brazil. Once there, João VI established Rio de Janeiro as the capital of the Portuguese Empire which was then rebranded in 1815 as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Due to the change in its status and the arrival of the Portuguese royal family, Brazilian administrative, civic, economical, military, educational, and scientific apparatus were expanded and highly modernized. Portuguese and their allied British troops fought against the French Invasion of Portugal and by 1815 things in Europe had cooled down sufficiently that João VI could safely return to Lisbon. However, the King of Portugal remained in Brazil until the Liberal Revolution of 1820, which started in Porto, demanded his return to Lisbon in 1821. Thus he returned to Portugal but left his son Pedro in charge of Brazil. When the king attempted the following year to return the Kingdom of Brazil to subordinate status as a principality, his son Pedro, with the overwhelming support of the Brazilian elites, declared Brazil’s independence from Portugal. Cisplatina (today’s sovereign state of Uruguay), in the south, was one of the last additions to the territory of Brazil under fat burning furnace review Portuguese rule. The Pink Map – Portugal’s unsuccessful claim of sovereignty over the land between its territories of Angola and Mozambique in the second half of the 19th century. At the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had already lost its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. Luanda, Benguela, Bissau, Lourenço Marques, Porto Amboim and the Island of Mozambique were among the oldest Portuguese-founded port cities in its African territories. During this phase, Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-sized territories to compete with other European powers there. With the Conference of Berlin of 1884, Portuguese Africa territories had their borders formally established on request of Portugal in order to protect the centuries-long Portuguese interests in the continent from rivalries enticed by the Scramble for Africa. Portuguese Africa’s cities and towns like Nova Lisboa, Sá da Bandeira, Silva Porto, Malanje, Tete, Vila Junqueiro, Vila Pery and Vila Cabral were founded or redeveloped inland during this period and beyond. New coastal towns like Beira, Moçâmedes, Lobito, João Belo, Nacala and Porto Amélia, were also founded. Even before the turn of the century, railway tracks as the Benguela railway in Angola, and the Beira railway in Mozambique, started to be built to link coastal areas and selected inland regions. Other episodes of this period of Portuguese presence in Africa, include the 1890 British Ultimatum that forced the retreat of Portuguese military forces in the land between the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola (most of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia) which had been claimed by Portugal and included in its “Pink Map”, which had clashed with British aspirations to create a Cape to Cairo Railway. The Portuguese territories in Africa were Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Portuguese Guinea, Angola, and Mozambique. The tiny fortress of São João Baptista de Ajudá on the coast of Dahomey, was also under Portuguese rule. In addition, the country still ruled the Asian territories of Portuguese India, Portuguese Timor and Macau. In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy and its last King, Manuel II, but chaos continued during the Portuguese First Republic and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in World War I, which led to a military coup d’état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of the right-wing dictatorship of the Estado Novo under António de Oliveira Salazar. Portugal was one of only five European countries to remain neutral in World War II. From the 1940s to the 1960s, Portugal was a founding member of NATO, OECD and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In 1961, São João Baptista de Ajudá’s annexation by Dahomey was the start of a process that led to the final dissolution of the centuries-old Portuguese Empire. According to the census of 1921 São João Baptista de Ajudá had 5 inhabitants and, at the moment of the ultimatum by the Dahomey Government, it had only 2 inhabitants representing Portuguese Sovereignty. Another forcible retreat from overseas territories occurred in December 1961 when the Portuguese army and navy were involved in armed conflict in its colony of Portuguese India against an Indian invasion. The operations resulted in the defeat of the isolated and relatively small Portuguese defensive garrison which was forced to surrender. The outcome was the loss of the Portuguese territories in the Indian subcontinent. Also in the early 1960s, independence movements in the Portuguese overseas provinces of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea in Africa, resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974). Throughout the colonial war period Portugal had to deal with increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions imposed by most of the international community. In April 1974 a bloodless left-wing military coup in Lisbon, known as the Carnation Revolution, led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa, after two years of a transitional period known as PREC (Processo Revolucionário Em Curso, or On-Going Revolutionary Process), characterized by social turmoil and power disputes between left- and right-wing political forces. Some factions, including Álvaro Cunhal’s Partido Comunista Português (PCP), unsuccessfully tried to turn the country into a totalitarian communist state. The retreat from the overseas territories and the acceptance of its independence terms by Portuguese head representatives for overseas negotiations, which would create newly-independent communist states in 1975 (most notably the People’s Republic of Angola and the People’s Republic of Mozambique), prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal’s African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique). Over a million destitute Portuguese refugees fled the former Portuguese colonies. Mário Soares and António de Almeida Santos were charged with organising the independence of Portugal’s overseas territories. By 1975, all the Portuguese African territories were independent and Portugal held its first democratic elections in 50 years. However, the country continued to be governed by a military-civilian provisional administration until the Portuguese legislative election of 1976. The Treaty of Lisbon was signed by the European Union member states on 13 December 2007 in the Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon. Portugal’s last overseas territory, Macau, was not handed over to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) until 1999, under the 1987 joint declaration that set the terms for Macau’s handover from Portugal to the PRC. In 2002, the independence of East Timor (Asia) was formally recognized by Portugal, after an incomplete decolonization process that was started in 1975 because of the Carnation Revolution. On 26 March 1995, Portugal started to implement Schengen Area rules, eliminating border controls with other Schengen members while simultaneously strengthening border controls with non-member states. In 1996 the country was a co-founder of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) headquartered in Lisbon. The 1998 World Exposition took place in Portugal and in 1999 it was one of the founding countries of the euro and the Eurozone. On 5 July 2004, José Manuel Durão Barroso, then Prime Minister of Portugal, was nominated President of the European Commission, the most powerful office in the European Union. On 1 December 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, after had been signed by the European Union member states on 13 December 2007 in the Jerónimos Monastery, in Lisbon, enhancing the efficiency and democratic legitimacy of the Union and improving the coherence of its action. The São Bento Palace, house of the Assembly of the Republic, Lisbon. Aníbal Cavaco Silva, current President of Portugal.Portugal is a democratic republic ruled by the Constitution of 1976 with Lisbon, the nation’s largest city, as its capital. The four main governing components are the President of the Republic, the Parliament, known as Assembly of the Republic, the Government, headed by a Prime Minister, and the courts. The constitution grants the division or separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Portugal like most European countries has no state religion, making it a secular state. The president, who is elected to a five-year term, has a supervising non-executive role. The current President is Aníbal Cavaco Silva. The Parliament is a chamber composed of 230 deputies elected in four-year terms. The government is headed by the prime minister (currently José Sócrates) who chooses the Council of Ministers, comprising all the ministers and state secretaries. The national and regional governments (those of Azores and Madeira autonomous regions), and the Portuguese parliament, are dominated by two political parties, the Socialist Party and the Social Democratic Party. Minority parties Unitarian Democratic Coalition (Portuguese Communist Party plus Ecologist Party “The Greens”), Bloco de Esquerda (The Left Bloc) and CDS-PP (Popular Party) are also represented in the parliament and local governments. The courts are organized in several categories comprising the judicial, administrative, and fiscal branches. The supreme courts are courts of last appeal. A 13-member constitutional court oversees the constitutionality of the laws. José Sócrates, current Prime Minister of Portugal. The President, elected to a 5-year term by direct, universal suffrage, is also commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Presidential powers include appointing the prime minister and Council of Ministers, in which the president must be guided by the assembly election results; dismissing the prime minister; dissolving the assembly to call early elections; vetoing legislation, which may be overridden by the assembly; and declaring a state of war or siege. The Council of State, a presidential advisory body, is composed of six senior civilian officers, any former presidents elected under the 1976 constitution, five members chosen by the assembly, and five selected by the president. The government is headed by the presidentially appointed prime minister, who names the Council of Ministers. A new government is required to define the broad outline of its policy in a program and present it to the assembly for a mandatory period of debate. Failure of the assembly to reject the program by a majority of deputies confirms the government in office. The four main organs of the national government are the presidency, the prime minister and Council of Ministers (the government), the Assembly of the Republic (the parliament), and the judiciary. The Assembly of the Republic is a unicameral body composed of up to 230 deputies. Elected by universal suffrage according to a system of proportional representation, deputies serve terms of office of 4 years, unless the president dissolves the assembly and calls for new elections. Location of the disputed territory of Olivença. Location of the Savage Islands, the southernmost region of Portugal. A member state of the United Nations since 1955, Portugal is also a founding member of NATO (1949), OECD (1961) and EFTA (1960); it left the latter in 1986 to join the European Economic Community, that would become the European Union in 1993. In 1996 it co-founded the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which seeks to foster closer economic and cultural ties between the world’s Lusophone nations. In addition, Portugal is a full member of the Latin Union (1983) and the Organization of Ibero-American States (1949). It has a friendship alliance and dual citizenship treaty with its former colony, Brazil. Portugal and England (subsequently, the UK) share the world’s oldest active military accord through their Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which was signed in 1373. The only international disputes concerns the municipality of Olivença. Under Portuguese sovereignty since 1297, the municipality of Olivença was ceded to Spain under the Treaty of Badajoz in 1801, after the War of the Oranges. Portugal claimed it back in 1815 under the Treaty of Vienna. There are also some controversies over the Savage Islands. 1881 – The Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry stated during the meeting that “…it is not clear if the sovereignty of the island belongs to Spain or Portugal”. 1911 – In September the Portuguese government received an official communication from the Spanish government in which it was stated that Spain would build a lighthouse in the islands and had decided to include them in the Canary archipelago. Portuguese administration protested and it was agreed not to take any actions that might endanger a friendly solution to the dispute. The Permanent Commission of International Maritime Law gave sovereignty of the Savage Islands to Portugal on February 15, 1938. Nevertheless, bilateral diplomatic relations between the two neighbouring countries are cordial, as well as within the European Union. A Portuguese Air Force F-16 The armed forces have three branches: Army, Navy, and Air Force. The military of Portugal serves primarily as a self-defense force whose mission is to protect the territorial integrity of the country and providing humanitarian assistance and security at home and abroad. As of 2002, the total armed forces of Portugal numbered 43,600 active personnel including 2,875 women. Reservists numbered 210,930 for all services. The army had 25,400 personnel with equipment including 187 main battle tanks. The navy of 10,800, including 1,580 marines, had two submarines, six frigates, and 28 patrol and coastal combatants. The air force of 7,400 was equipped with 50 combat aircraft. Paramilitary police and republican guards, the Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR), number 40,900. GNR is a police force under the authority of the military, its soldiers are subject to military law and organization. It has provided detachments for participation in international operations in Iraq and East Timor. The United States maintains a military presence with 770 troops in the USA Air Force Base at Terceira Island, in the Azores. Portugal participates in peacekeeping operations in several regions. Defense spending in 1999–00 was $1.3 billion, representing 2.2 percent of GDP. Since the early 2000s compulsory military service is no longer practiced. The changes also turned the forces’ focus towards professional military engagements. The age for voluntary recruitment is set at 18. In the 20th century, Portugal engaged in two major military interventions: the First Great War and the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974). Portugal has participated in peacekeeping missions in East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq (Nasiriyah) and Lebanon. The Portuguese Military’s Rapid Reaction Brigade, a combined force of the nation’s elite Paratroopers, Special Operations Troops Centre and Commandos, is a special elite fighting force. The Portuguese legal system is part of the civil law legal system, also called the continental family legal system. Until the end of the 19th century, French law was the main influence. Since then the major influence has been German law. The main laws include the Constitution (1976, as amended), the Civil Code (1966, as amended) and the Penal Code (1982, as amended). Other relevant laws are the Commercial Code (1888, as amended) and the Civil Procedure Code (1961, as amended). Portuguese law applied in the former colonies and territories and continues to be the major influence for those countries. Portugal’s main police organizations are the Guarda Nacional Republicana – GNR (National Republican Guard), a gendarmerie; the Polícia de Segurança Pública – PSP (Public Security Police), a civilian police force who work in urban areas; and the Polícia Judiciária – PJ (Judicial Police), a highly specialized criminal investigation police which is overseen by the Public Ministry. Portugal was one of the first countries in the world to abolish the death penalty. Maximum jail sentences are limited to 25 years. Portugal has arguably the most liberal laws concerning possession of illicit drugs in the Western world. In 2001 Portugal decriminalized possession of effectively all drugs that are still illegal in other developed nations including, but not limited to, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and LSD. While possession is legal, trafficking and possession of more than “10 days worth of personal use” are still punishable by jail time and fines. Since decriminalization was implemented, Portugal has seen rapid improvement in the number of deaths from drug overdoses as well as a decline in new HIV infections. On 31 May 2010, Portugal became the sixth country in Europe and the eighth country in the world to legally recognize same-sex marriage on the national level. The law came into force on 5 June 2010. Lagoa das Sete Cidades, located in São Miguel Island, is the largest freshwater lake in the Azores. Cork oak on wheat field, a typical image of the Alentejo region. Praia da Marinha, a typical image of the Algarve coast. The highest point in mainland Portugal is in the Serra da Estrela mountain range. Mount Pico, in the island of Pico, Azores, is Portugal’s highest point The typical landscape of the Douro Valley. Cape Roca, Europe’s most western continental point. Mainland Portugal is split by its main river, the Tagus. The northern landscape is mountainous in the interior with plateaus indented by river valleys, whereas the south, that includes the Algarve and the Alentejo, features mostly rolling plains and a climate somewhat warmer and drier than in the north. The Algarve, separated from the Alentejo by mountains, has a climate much like the southern coastal areas of Spain. Portugal’s highest point is Mount Pico on Pico Island in the Azores. This is an ancient volcano measuring 2,350 m (7,710 ft). Mainland Portugal’s highest point is Serra da Estrela, with the summit being 1,993 m (6,539 ft) above sea level. Portugal has a Mediterranean climate, Csa in the south and Csb in the north, according to the Köppen climate classification. Portugal is one of the warmest European countries: the annual average temperature in mainland Portugal varies from 13 °C (55.4 °F) in the mountainous interior north to over 18 °C (64.4 °F) in the south and on the Guadiana basin. In some areas, as in the Tejo and Douro basins, annual average temperatures can be as high as 20 °C (68 °F). Here in the summer temperatures may be over 50 °C (122 °F) as it is documented in a climatology study done recently, for example in the Arqueology Park in Côa, Douro valley.[17] In high mountains, such as Gerês, a maritime temperate climate predominates (Cfb, according to Koppen-Geiger). The record high of 47.4 °C (117.3 °F) was recorded in Amareleja.[18] The country has around 2500 to 3200 hours of sunshine a year, an average of 4–6 h in winter and 10–12 h in the summer, with higher values in the southeast and lower in the northwest. The Madeira and Azores archipelagos have a narrower temperature range with annual average temperatures exceeding 20 °C (68 °F), according to the Portuguese Meteorological Institute, in the south coast of Madeira Island. The annual average rainfall in the mainland varies from a bit more than 3,000 mm (118.1 in) in the mountains in the north to less than 300 mm (11.8 in) in Massueime region, near Côa on the Douro river. In the Pico mountain, in Azores, is the rainiest spot of Portugal, reaching over 6,250 mm (246.1 in) per year, according to IM (Portuguese Meteorological Institute).[19] The islands of the Azores are located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge whilst the Madeira islands were formed by the activity of an in-plate hotspot, much like the Hawaiian Islands. Some islands have had volcanic activity as recently as 1957. Both the Azores and the Madeira Islands have a subtropical climate, but there are differences between the islands, mainly because of differences in temperature and rainfall. Some islands in Azores do have dry months in the summer therefore a Mediterranean climate according to Koppen-Geiger (both Csa and Csb types) Maritime Temperate (Cfb) in some islands (Flores) and Humid subtropical (Cfa) in the others (Corvo), according to Koppen-Geiger where are no dry months in the summer. The Savage Islands, that belong to the Madeira archipelago, have a Desertic climate (BWh) with an annual average rainfall of just around 150 mm (5.9 in). The sea surface mean temperatures in these archipelagos vary from 16 °C (60.8 °F)-18 °C (64.4 °F) in winter to 23 °C (73.4 °F)-24 °C (75.2 °F) in the summer, occasionally reaching 26 °C (78.8 °F). In South Azores, there´s an oceanic area, inside Portuguese maritime territory which has the unique tropical climate (As type according to Koppen-Geiger)known in Europe, because of Gulf Stream influence on this area. Sea temperatures here are over 20 °C (68 °F) even on the peak of the winter (Source AEMET). Portugal’s Exclusive Economic Zone, a seazone over which the Portuguese have special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, has 1,727,408 km². This is the 3rd largest Exclusive Economic Zone of the European Union and the 11th largest in the world. This article needs additional citations for verification Montesinho Natural Park, in northeastern Portugal. Conservation areas of Portugal include one national park (Parque Nacional), 12 natural parks (Parque Natural), 9 natural reserves (Reserva Natural), 5 natural monuments (Monumento Natural), and 7 protected landscapes (Paisagem Protegida), ranging from the Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês to the Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela to the Paul de Arzila. Climate and geographical diversity shaped the Portuguese Flora. As far as Portuguese forests are concerned, because of economic reasons the pine tree (especially the Pinus pinaster and Pinus pinea species), the chestnut tree (Castanea sativa), the cork oak (Quercus suber), the holm oak (Quercus ilex), the Portuguese oak (Quercus faginea), and the eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) are very widespread (PT).