* 1975 – East Timor: Governor Mário Lemos Pires of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital Dili, following a coup by the Timorese Democratic Union ( UDT ) and the outbreak of civil war between UDT and Fretilin.

* 1541 – Francis Xavier leaves Lisbon on a mission to the Portuguese East Indies.

Apart from a visit by the French Parmentier brothers in 1529, for much of the 16th century the only Europeans to visit the islands were Portuguese ; British and Dutch ships began arriving at the turn of the century and the island of Ndzwani became a major supply point on the route to the East.

Acting under a charter sanctioned by the Dutch government, the Dutch East India Company ( VOC ) defeated Portuguese forces and established itself in the Moluccan Islands in order to profit from the European demand for spices.

Then, due to displeasure at what he considered un-Christian life and manners on the part of the Portuguese which impeded missionary work, he travelled from the South into East Asia.

The European powers had control of other parts of Asia by the 1900s, such as British India, French Indochina, Spanish East Indies, and Portuguese Macau and Goa.

In 1497, Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope and became the first European to sail to India and later the Far East.

In 1975, the Carnation Revolution in Portugal caused authorities there to announce plans for decolonisation of Portuguese Timor, the eastern half of the island of Timor whose western half was a part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara.

However, with the rise of the rival Dutch East India Company, Portuguese influence in Asia was gradually eclipsed.

Dutch forces first established independent bases in the East ( most significantly Batavia, the heavily fortified headquarters of the Dutch East India Company ) and then between 1640 and 1660 wrestled Malacca, Ceylon, some southern Indian ports, and the lucrative Japan trade from the Portuguese.

The Portuguese spearheaded the drive to find oceanic routes that would provide cheaper and easier access to South and East Asian goods.

This chartering of oceanic routes between East and West began with the unprecedented voyages of Portuguese and Spanish sea captains.

Portuguese viceroy Afonso de Albuquerque ( 1509 – 1515 ) resolved to consolidate Portuguese holdings in Africa and Asia, and secure control of trade with the East Indies and China.

The Netherlands revolt against Spanish rule facilitated Dutch encroachment of the Portuguese monopoly over South and East Asian trade.

Gama's voyage was successful in reaching India and this permitted the Portuguese to trade with the Far East directly by sea, thus challenging older trading networks of mixed land and sea routes, such as the Spice trade routes that utilized the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and caravans to reach the eastern Mediterranean.

Portuguese rule in East Africa focused mainly on a coastal strip centred in Mombasa.

The Portuguese presence in East Africa officially began after 1505, when flagships under the command of Dom Francisco de Almeida conquered Kilwa, an island located in what is now southern Tanzania.

The Portuguese presence in East Africa served the purpose of controlling trade within the Indian Ocean and securing the sea routes linking Europe to Asia.

The Omani Arabs posed the most direct challenge to Portuguese influence in East Africa and besieged Portuguese fortresses, openly attacked naval vessels and expelled the remaining Portuguese from the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts by 1730.

After the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602, the Dutch unsuccessfully attacked Macau several times, culminating in a full scale invasion attempt in 1622, when 800 attackers were successfully repelled by 150 Macanese and Portuguese defenders.

From the beginning of the 17th century the Dutch cannibalized the Portuguese Empire in the East and, with the immense wealth gained, challenged Spanish hegemony at sea.

John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, conquered the Portuguese possessions of Saint George del Mina, Saint Thomas, and Luanda, Angola, on the west coast of Africa.

Examples occurred in Afghanistan, Portuguese Africa and Rhodesia.

* Portuguese Africa

Diogo Cão (; in old Portuguese: Cam ) was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa to Namibia in the 1480s.

Cão then coasted down along the present Angola ( Portuguese West Africa ), and erected a second pillar, probably marking the termination of this voyage, at Cape Santa Maria ( the Monte Negro of these first visitors ).

A Groot Desseyn (" grand design ") was devised to seize the Portuguese colonies in Africa and the Americas, so as to dominate the sugar and slave trade.

* Dutch Portuguese Colonial History Dutch Portuguese Colonial History: history of the Portuguese and the Dutch in Ceylon, India, Malacca, Bengal, Formosa, Africa, Brazil.

The 1960s brought about innovative thought to the French cuisine, especially because of the contribution of Portuguese immigrants that had come to the country fleeing the forced drafting to the Colonial Wars Portugal was fighting in Africa.

He soon added a sixth ship, Mary ( formerly Santa Maria ), a Portuguese merchant ship that had been captured off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands.

The rivers of Guinea and the islands of Cape Verde were among the first areas in Africa explored by the Portuguese, notably Nuno Tristão, in the 15th century.

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

When the Portuguese first sailed down the Atlantic coast of Africa in the 1430s, they were interested in gold.

However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another, along the Atlantic coast of Africa.

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.

However, by 1915 this process was complete, enabling Portuguese colonial rule to progress in a relatively unruffled state-until the emergence of nationalist movements all over Africa in the 1950s.

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.

He learnt of the opportunities from the Saharan trade routes that terminated there, and became fascinated with Africa in general ; he was most intrigued by the Christian legend of Prester John and the expansion of Portuguese trade.

From his Vila do Infante in 15th Century Portuguese, Estate or Town of the Prince on the Sagres peninsula located at the south-westernmost point of Iberia and with sea access to both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Henry sponsored voyages down the coast of Africa, sailing as far as Guinea, that were primarily exploration expeditions, later on bringing back to the nearby town of Lagos, from whence they set out, numerous African slaves and goods.

By 1462, the Portuguese had explored the coast of Africa as far as the present-day nation Sierra Leone.

The legal system was based on Portuguese and customary law but was weak and fragmented.

Trade was mostly with the Portuguese colony of Brazil ; Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the ports of Luanda and Benguela.

By this time, Angola, a Portuguese colony, was in fact like a colony of Brazil, paradoxically another Portuguese colony.

By 1850, Luanda was one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside Mainland Portugal, full of trading companies, exporting ( together with Benguela ) palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products.

Amalaric ( Gothic: Amalareiks ), or in Spanish and Portuguese, Amalarico, ( 502 – 531 ) was king of the Visigoths from 526 until his assassination in 531.

Afonso de Albuquerque ( or archaically spelt as Aphonso d ' Albuquerque and also spelt as Alfonso, and Alphonso ; ; 1453December 16, 1515 ), 1st Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean.

Lisbon was recovered by the Portuguese in 1147.

Afonso I ( 25 June 1109, Guimarães or Viseu – 6 December 1185, Coimbra ), more commonly known as Afonso Henriques (), nicknamed " the Conqueror " (), " the Founder " () or " the Great " () by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali (" the Portuguese ") and Ibn-Arrik (" son of Henry ", " Henriques ") by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal.

His campaigns were successful and, on 25 July 1139, he obtained an overwhelming victory in the Battle of Ourique, and straight after was unanimously proclaimed King of the Portuguese by his soldiers, establishing his equality in rank to the other realms of the Peninsula.

Afonso II (; English Alphonzo ), or Affonso ( Archaic Portuguese ), Alfonso or Alphonso ( Portuguese-Galician ) or Alphonsus ( Latin version ), nicknamed " the Fat " ( Portuguese o Gordo ), King of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on 23 April 1185 and died on 25 March 1223 in the same city.

Afonso, born in Lisbon, was the rightful heir to the Portuguese throne.

A peace treaty was signed in Seville in 1339 and, in the next year, Portuguese troops played an important role in the victory of the Battle of Rio Salado over the Marinid Moors in October 1340.

But perhaps his most important contribution was the importance he gave to the Portuguese navy.

Opposition rose and without any important ally among the Portuguese aristocracy other than Afonso, Count of Barcelos, the illegitimate half brother of King Edward and count of Barcelos, the queen's position was untenable.

The San Agustin was commissioned into the Portuguese Navy as the Santo Agostinho, and command of her was given to Phillip.

The construction of the Abbey at Batalha commenced in 1388 and was added to by various Portuguese Kings over these next two centuries.

A very successful Portuguese feature film was made in the early 20th century that dramatically captured the primitive and dangerous life of these fishermen.