Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, is the westernmost country of mainland Europe. Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.
Portugal has witnessed a constant flow of civilizations during the past 3,100 years, including Greek, Roman, Germanic, Moorish and others, who made an imprint on the country's culture, history, language, and ethnic composition. During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its vast transcontinental empire, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. Now, Portugal is a developed country, a member of the European Union since 1986, and a founding member of Eurozone, which launched the single currency in 1999.
In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy, but chaos continued and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in the First World War, which led to a military coup d'état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of a right-wing dictatorship by António de Oliveira Salazar. In the early 1960s, independence movements in the colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War. In 1974, a bloodless left-wing military coup known as the Carnation Revolution led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa shortly after. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986, and ever since it has engaged in a process of convergence with its EU counterparts.
Unlike its eastern neighbor Spain, which is a constitutional monarchy; 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 assembly of the republic, the government, and the courts. The constitution grants the complete separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
Portugal has been a member of NATO since 1949, the European Union since 1986, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries since 1996. It has a friendship alliance and dual citizenship treaty with Brazil. It has good relations with the United States, the United Kingdom, and China (due to Macau), as well as the other European Union countries.
Portugal has an administrative structure of 308 municipalities (Portuguese singular/plural: concelho/concelhos), which are subdivided into more than 4,000 parishes (freguesia/freguesias). Municipalities are grouped for administrative purposes into superior units. For continental Portugal the municipalities are gathered in 18 Districts, while the Islands have a Regional Government directly above them. Thus, the largest unit of classification are the ones established since 1976 into either mainland Portugal (Portugal Continental) or the autonomous regions of Portugal (Azores and Madeira).
climate can be classified as Oceanic in the north and Mediterranean in the south. One of the warmest European countries, yearly temperature averages in mainland Portugal are 13°C (55°F) in the north and 18°C (64°F) in the south. The Madeira and Azores Atlantic archipelagos have a narrower temperature range. Spring and summer are sunny, whereas autumn and winter are rainy and windy. Mainland Portugal is split by its main river, the Tagus. The northern landscape is mountainous in interior areas, with plateaus indented by river valleys. The south, between the Tagus and the Algarve (the Alentejo), features mostly rolling plains and a climate somewhat warmer and drier than in the cooler and rainier north. The Algarve, separated from the Alentejo by mountains, enjoys a Mediterranean climate like southern Spain. Snow is usual in the northern half of the country, around the 40 N parallel. It is a rare event in the south, but it does happen. The islands of the Azores and Madeira are located in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Some islands have had volcanic activity as recently as 1957. Portugal's highest point is Mount Pico on Pico Island. It is an ancient volcano measuring 2,351 m (7,713 ft).
Portugal, long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the former Indian and African colonies. Today, many Eastern Europeans (especially Ukrainians, Moldavians, Romanians and Russians), as well as Brazilians, are making Portugal their home. There is a rapidly growing community of Chinese and a notable number of Macanese, who are descendants of Chinese and Portuguese settlers, with some Malays and Indians.
