Later, Portugal relinquished control over East Timor in 1975, at which time Indonesia promptly invaded and annexed it.

Portugal was a strong advocate of independence for East Timor, which was occupied annexed by neighboring Indonesia between 1975 and 1999, and has committed troops and money to East Timor, in close cooperation with the United Nations, East Timor's Asian neighbors.

* Portuguese India an overseas province between 1946 and 1962, it was annexed by India in 1962 ( and later recognised by Portugal in 1974 );

From this period on the King began self-styling himself as the " King of Portugal and the Algarve ", stressing the fact that the Algarve ( which had for so long been ruled by the Moors as a foreign country ) had been annexed into the dominion of the Portuguese.

The Salazar regime in Portugal refused to recognize Indian sovereignty over the annexed territories, which continued to be represented in Portugal's National Assembly until 1974.

In 1860, the British proclaimed the island annexed to Sierra Leone, but in 1870 a commission chaired by Ulysses S. Grant awarded Bolama to Portugal.

After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal would reestablish its authority over the lost territories of the Portuguese Empire.

As with the other Portuguese territories in mainland Africa ( Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Mozambique ), Portugal exercised control over the coastal areas of Portuguese Guinea when first laying claim to the whole region as a colony.

Following the coup d ' état in Portugal in 1974, the new left-wing revolutionary government of Portugal began to negotiate with the PAIGC and decided to offer independence to all the overseas territories.

This ensured for the first time that all the realms of the Iberian peninsula ( save for Portugal ) would be united by one monarch under one nascent Spanish crown, with the founding territories retaining their separate governance codes and laws.

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau ( 1807 ), a Franco-Spanish alliance against Portugal was sealed as Spain eyed Portuguese territories.

Portuguese discoveries | Portuguese expeditions 1415 – 1542: arrival places and dates ; Portuguese spice trade routes in the Indian Ocean ( blue ); territories of the Portuguese empire under King John III of Portugal | King John III rule ( green )

The big territories awarded to military orders and nobles were the origin of the latifundia in today's Andalusia and Extremadura, in Spain, and Alentejo, in Portugal.

He reorganized his territories into the major duchies ( Galicia and Portugal ) and major counties ( Saldaña and Castile ), and fortified the borders with many castles.

By 1913, the British occupied Burma, Malaya and the northern Borneo territories, the French controlled Indochina, the Dutch ruled the Netherlands East Indies while Portugal managed to hold on to Portuguese Timor.

The Berlin Conference compelled Portugal to move towards the immediate occupation of all the territories it laid claimed to but had been unable to effectively conquer.

In the next two centuries, Portugal gradually lost much of its wealth and status as the Dutch, English and French took an increasing share of the spice and slave trades ( the economic basis of its empire ), by surrounding or conquering the widely-scattered Portuguese trading posts and territories, leaving it with ever fewer resources to defend its overseas interests.

Portuguese discoveries and explorations: first arrival places and dates ; main Portuguese spice trade routes in the Indian Ocean ( blue ); territories of the Portuguese empire under King John III of Portugal | King John III rule ( 1521-1557 ) ( green ).

After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal would reestablish its authority over some lost territories of the Portuguese Empire.

The massive exodus of the Portuguese military and citizens from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique, would prompt an era of chaos and severe destruction in those territories after independence from Portugal in 1975.

Finding, as he said, that the liberality of former kings had left the Crown " no estates except the high roads of Portugal ," he determined to crush the feudal nobility and seize its territories.

Portuguese discoveries and explorations: first arrival places and dates ; main Portuguese spice trade routes in the Indian Ocean ( blue ); territories of the Portuguese empire under King John III of Portugal | King John III rule ( 1521-1557 ) ( green )

After World War II, Portugal was intent to hold on to its former colonies, since 1951 called overseas territories.

When Portugal recognized the independence of Guinea-Bissau and pulled out in 1974 due to the military coup of April 25 in Lisbon, the two territories merged and Bissau became the capital of the new independent state.

In 1975, after the leftist military coup of 24th April 1974 in Portugal that overthrew the Estado Novo regime which had governed the nation and its overseas territories, the colonial wars that raged in the various Portuguese African territories since the early 1960s ended.

The new government of Portugal granted independence to all Portuguese overseas territories.

The First Treaty of San Ildefonso settled the problem, with Spain acquiring territories east of the Uruguay river and Portugal acquiring territories in the Amazon basin.

Unfortunately, he never came back to Portugal ; he died in the region and is credited for bringing to Lisbon the first pepper that ever came out of those parts.

* Confederation of the Equator ( 1824 ): Was a short-lived rebellion that occurred in the northeastern region of Brazil during that nation's struggle for independence from Portugal.

Since the Treaty of Tordesillas the shipping and trade in the Atlantic region was divided between the two Catholic countries, Spain and Portugal.

Portuguese were one of the earlier groups to move to Gibraltar, especially from the Algarve region in the south of Portugal.

Portugal lost part of Guinea to French West Africa, including the center of earlier Portuguese commercial interest, the Casamance River region.

It was therefore natural for Portugal to lay claim to this region, soon to be known as Portuguese Guinea, when the European scramble for Africa began in the 1880s.

Each country with a major Templar presence ( France, England, Aragon, Portugal, Poitou, Apulia, Jerusalem, Tripoli, Antioch, Anjou, Hungary, and Croatia ) had a Master of the Order for the Templars in that region.

The first area colonized by the Lusitani was probably the Douro valley and the region of Beira Alta ( present day Portugal ); in Beira, they stayed until they defeated the Celtici and other tribes, then they expanded to cover a territory that reached Estremadura before the arrival of the Romans.

* The First County of Portugal is established by Vímara Peres, after the reconquest from the Moors of the region north of the Douro River.

* Creation of the first fair in Portugal in Ponte de Lima, it is an early sign of the commercialization and economic development of a still backwardish and self-contained region.

The Netherlands and Spain followed and soon superseded Portugal as the main European powers in the region.

Carnival is celebrated throughout Portugal, but each region puts its own unique take on the festival.

In Estarreja in the Central region of Portugal, the town's first references to Carnival are noted in the 14th century, with " Flower Battles ", or richly decorated floats which paraded through Estarreja's streets.

And in the Central Portugal towns of Nelas and Canas de Senhorim, Carnival is one of the most important tourist events in the region, attracting thousands of visitors yearly.

In the Algarve region along the southern coast of Portugal, several of the posh resorts towns offer their own traditional takes on the Carnival parades.

This species grows in the Mediterranean Sea region, with Portugal, Spain, Algeria and Morocco producing most of the world's supply.

From 1249 to 1250 the Algarve, the southernmost region, was finally re-conquered by Portugal from the Moors.

To combat these threats, Madeira vineyards are often planted low trellises, known as latada, that raise the canopy of the vine off the ground similar to a style used in the Vinho Verde region of Portugal.

" " eaceful trade became the rule all along the African coast ", although there were some rare exceptions when acts of aggression led to violence ; for instance Portuguese traders attempted to conquer the Bissagos Islands in 1535, which was followed in 1571 when Portugal, supported by the Kingdom of Kongo, was able to capture the south-western region of Angola in order to secure its threatened economic interest in the area.

A collection of satellite images of Portugal and the surrounding region.

The Common Fig ( F. carica ) is a temperate species native to southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region ( from Afghanistan to Portugal ), which has been widely cultivated from ancient times for its fruit, also referred to as figs.

The following year he invaded Portugal, capturing the region of the Algarve.