The Birth of Portugal

Portugal is the oldest State in Europe. Its history goes back to the 12th Century, when D. Afonso Henriques declared the independence of his Portucalense territory and installed himself as King of Portugal.

This political break with the powerful kingdoms of León and Castile, to which D. Henrique, father of D. Afonso Henriques, had sworn allegiance, was the first step towards extending the borders of a small country which at the time of its birth was located between the Minho and Mondego rivers. Its important cities consisted of Braga - the oldest capital of the Post-Roman kingdoms which had disputed the Christian primateship of the Spains, along with Santiago de Compostela - Porto and Coimbra.

The first decision of the young King D. Afonso Henriques was where he would extend his kingdom: to the North, where Galicia was situated, a sister land with the same culture and religion, or to the South, a land at the time occupied by the Moors. The choice, determined by the force of the Kingdom of León, which would not allow itself to lose Galicia, ended up being to the South, and the first King of Portugal conquered almost the whole of the Alentejo. In this adventure D. Afonso Henriques had the help of the kings from the Crusades, Christian knights from all over Europe who, with their force of arms, helped to conquer lands from the Moors and spread the Catholic religion.

Until the middle of the 13th century the kingdom of Portugal was subject to geographical advances and retreats, alliances and wars with the Moorish states of the Alentejo and the Algarve. In 1253, D. Afonso III finally managed to achieve the dream of his great-great-grandfather and conquer Silves, the last city in the south of the country occupied by the Moors, and thus establish the present day borders of continental Portugal, considered as being the oldest in Europe.

Throughout the whole Middle Ages, Portugal and the Kingdoms of Castile and León lived in a state of permanent war, interspersed with short periods of peace. International alliances were extremely important at that time and made through royal weddings with other peninsular states and with kingdoms from Northern Europe, thus reinforcing the power of the monarchy through an alliance with the burghers of the areas, in order to avoid the feudalisation of the Country. The King started to govern through the courts, which contained representatives of the three estates: Clergy, Nobility and the People.

The conquest of the territories of the South was achieved through the integration of Muslims and Jews, as well as the Christian populations which had been held under Moorish control. At the same time, Portugal developed economically, by establishing commercial relations and exporting Mediterranean and maritime products with Northern Europe and the Maghreb.

In the 14th century the lights of the Golden Age of Portugal began to shine.  Its language separated from Galego-Portuguese, its court gained an intellectual brilliance to put it on a European scale and in Coimbra it founded one of the first and most prestigious Universities in Europe. Portugal continued to interfere militarily and politically in the affairs of the Iberian Peninsula, engaging in wars with its Castilian neighbour, but also fighting, in certain cases, on its side against the common religious enemy,  the Caliphate of Cordoba and, later on, the Kingdom of Granada.

The maritime presence of Portugal, which had already possessed a maritime tradition prior to the founding of the State, due to the passage through the territory of people as different as the Greeks, Phoenicians, Romans and a countless number of peoples from the North of Europe, started with the first maritime voyages to the Canary Islands. It is at this time that the commercial rivalry between Lisbon and Seville started. The romantic and tragic episode of Inês de Castro, which would be sung and cried over throughout Europe during the following century, occurred in the middle of the 14th Century.

At the end of the century Portugal was affected by the social crisis running throughout Europe, caused by several bad agricultural years, hunger and illnesses, amongst which the Black Plague was the deadliest, and a political crisis let loose by a dynastic conflict and by the danger of the loss of independence.

After a war with Castile lasting almost two years, the crisis ended with the Portuguese victory at the Battle of Ajubarrota and the acclamation of a new King. D. João I managed to reinforce the powers of the regions and establish an alliance between Portugal and England - the oldest stable alliance in Europe - through which both countries reinforced their commercial and political ties and mutually offered each other military support.

Portugal Past

The Discoveries