Portal:Portugal/Intro

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa in Portuguese), is located in the west and southwest parts of the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe, and is the westernmost country in continental Europe. Continental Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. In addition, Portugal includes two archipelagos in the Atlantic, the Azores (Açores) and Madeira Islands, as well as an extensive exclusive maritime economic zone.

Portugal has witnessed a constant flow of different civilizations during the past millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations (such as the Lusitanians, the Gallaeci, the Celtici, and the Cynetes, amongst others), passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period (see Hispania, Lusitania and Gallaecia), the Germanic invasions and consequent settlement of the Suevi and Buri (see Suebic Kingdom of Galicia) and the Visigoth (see Visigothic Kingdom), and, finally, the Moorish Umayyad invasion of Hispania and the subsequent Reconquista, all have made an imprint on the country's culture, history and people's ancestry.

The name of Portugal itself reveals much of the country's early history, stemming from the Roman name Portus Cale, a Latin name meaning "Port of Cale", latter transformed into Portucale, and finally into Portugal, who emerged as a county of the Kingdom of León (see First County of Portugal and Second County of Portugal) and became an independent kingdom in 1139. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal was a major economic, political, and cultural power, its global empire stretching from Brazil to the Indies.