Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country in Southwestern Europe. It is a unitary republic comprising mainland Portugal, located on the southwestern of the Iberian Peninsula and bordered by Spain to the north and east, and the archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. The country has a population of over 10.7 million, and Lisbon, its capital, is the largest city. Portugal's internal waters and territorial sea together account for two-fifths of its territory, and its exclusive economic zone is Europe's largest, while its terrain contains a diverse range of landscapes and regional climates. The western Iberian Peninsula has been inhabited since prehistory, with the earliest signs of settlement dating to between 5500 BC and 5300 BC. Portugal was established as a county of the Kingdom of León in 868, and formally as a kingdom in 1179 as a result of the Reconquista against the Muslims, who had occupied the Iberian Peninsula since 711. A participant in the Age of Discovery, the kingdom made several advancements in nautical science and maritime exploration to discover new territories and sea routes, which led to the establishment of the Portuguese Empire. The kingdom became a republic in 1910 and was a dictatorship from 1926 until the dictatorship's overthrow in 1974 enabled the full establishment of democracy in 1976. Portugal is a semi-presidential constitutional unitary republic and multi-party representative democracy with four separate sovereignty bodies: president, government, parliament, and judiciary. It has a unicameral national legislature known as the Assembly of the Republic. Portugal is divided into two autonomous regions and seven intermunicipal communities while it remains highly centralised. A developed country, Portugal has an advanced economy that chiefly relies upon services, industry, and tourism. Shaped by the various civilisations that have inhabited its territory, Portugal developed a culture with a worldwide influence that allowed Portuguese to become the world's fifth-most spoken native language with more than 250 million native speakers. With a stable foreign policy shaped by its colonial and diplomatic history and location, Portugal is part of multiple international organisations and forums.

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