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Portugal /ˈpɔrtʃəɡəl/ officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa), is a country on the Iberian Peninsula, member of the European Union and one of the founding members of NATO. Located in southwestern Europe, 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. 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 that began in the 2nd century BC (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), from the 5th to the 8th century, the passage of the Vandals and Alans; the Muslim Moorish Umayyad invasion of Hispania in the early 8th century that conquered the Christian Germanic kingdoms, eventually occupying most of the Iberian Peninsula. In the early 1100s, during the Christian Reconquista, Portugal appeared as a kingdom independent of its neighbour, the Kingdom of León and Galicia. In a little over a century, in 1249, Portugal would establish almost its entire modern-day borders by reconquering territory from the Moors.

Portugal was one of several Christian kingdoms created in the Iberian Peninsula as the Moors were pushed further south and gradually gave up the territories they had conquered in the early 8th century. During the 15th and 16th centuries, with a global empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia, and South America, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. The other Iberian kingdoms (Leon, Navarre, Aragon, Castile)eventually consolidated with the dynastic union between Isabel I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon into Spain. Portugal itself was united with Spain during a period retrospectively called the Iberian Union; however, it went onto re-establish total sovereignty and 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, French and Spanish invasions, and the loss of its largest territorial possession abroad, Brazil, resulted in both the disruption of political stability and potential 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 republic was established that was then followed by a dictatorship. With the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution coup d'état in 1974, the ruling dictatorship was deposed in Lisbon and the country handed over its last overseas provinces in Africa; the last overseas territory, Macau, was handed over to China in 1999. After overthrow of the regime, a democratic one was ushered in that integrated Portugal into the rest of Europe.

Portugal is a developed country, and has a high Human Development Index. It is the 14th most peaceful and the 13th most globalized country in the world, and has the world's 19th highest quality of life, despite having the lowest GDP per capita of Western European countries. 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 (since 1955); as well as a founding member of the Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (Community of Portuguese Language Countries, CPLP), and the European Union's Eurozone. Portugal is the most successful country in the history of the Global Management Challenge, winning the International Final on a record eight occasions. Portugal is also a Schengen state.

Article Source: http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal