MOMENTS IN HISTORY
1.138 BC: Roman Occupation
Despite reaching the Iberian Penisula in the second century BC it took the Romans almost a century to conquer its westernmost parts. The trading post of Olisipo (Lisbon’s Greek name), was occupied in 138 BC.
2.714: Moorish Occupation
Roman Lisbon was invaded by Alan tribes from the north, about whom little is known, and then by the Visigoths, who ruled from Toledo. The Visigoths were swept from power by Moorish armies crossing into Iberia at the Straits of Gibraltar. Lisbon fell to the Moors in 714.
3.1147: Reconquest
The Christian reconquest began in the north, where Afonso Henriques founded the Portuguese kingdom – as distinct from the future Spanish kingdom of León – in 1140. His armies took Lisbon following a three-month siege in 1147.
Afonso Henriques captures Lisbon
4.1497: Vasco da Gama Sails from Belém
The high point of Portugal’s era of discovery was Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, he proved Columbus wrong and gave the Portuguese the competitive edge in the spice trade.
5.1640: Independence from Spain
Spain had usurped the Portuguese throne in 1581, after the death of Dom Sebastião and many of the Portuguese nobility in a north African military adventure. The 1640 coup at Lisbon’s royal palace reinstated self-rule and proclaimed the Duke of Bragança king of Portugal.
6.1755: The Great Earthquake
On 1 November 1755, a massive earthquake struck southern Portugal and laid waste to central Lisbon. Three shocks were followed by devastating fires and tidal waves.
An earthquake wrecks Lisbon, 1755
7.1910: Portugal Becomes a Republic
In 1908, Dom Carlos and his heir were assassinated by republican activists in Terreiro do Paço. The king’s surviving son became Dom Manuel II, but abdicated in October 1910 in the face of a republican revolution. The Republic was formalized on 5 October.
8.1933: The New State
António de Oliveira Salazar, who had been appointed finance minister in the hope that he could solve the country’s financial crisis, was asked to form a government in 1932. The following year his new constitution was passed by parliament, in effect making him an authoritarian dictator.
9.1974: The Carnation Revolution
Salazar’s successor Marcelo Caetano and his government were overthrown by a group of army captains on 25 April. Three men were killed by shots from the headquarters of the PIDE, the political police, as crowds cheered the end of its reign of fear.
The Carnation Revolution
10.1986: European Union Membership
After a few tumultuous years following the 1974 revolution, a stable democracy was established in Portugal. EU membership brought a boost to the economy through both subsidies and foreign investment. In 2007, the Lisbon Treaty was signed in Belém. Portugal was badly hit by the global economic crisis, however, and austerity continues to this day.
TOP 10 HISTORICAL FIGURES
1.Viriato
Legendary leader of the Lusitanians, a Celtic-Iberian tribe that resisted Roman occupation for two decades.
2.Tariq
As Berber leader of the Moorish force, Tariq conquered most of the Iberian peninsula in 711–16.
3.Afonso Henriques
Having taken control of the countship of Portucale, Afonso was calling himself “Portucalense king” by 1140.
4.Henry the Navigator
Son of Dom João, Prince Henry was the architect of Portugal’s early overseas expansion in the 15th century.
5.Duke of Bragança
Although hesitant at first, the duke agreed to be king, becoming Dom João IV after the 1640 coup.
6.Marquis of Pombal
Chief minister under Dom José I, Pombal reconstructed the city after the earthquake of 1755, but was later reviled as a despot by Dona Maria I.
7.Eça de Queiroz
The 19th-century chronicler of Lisbon was a member of the Cenáculo, a group of writers who were opposed to the monarchy.
8.António de Oliveira Salazar
Portugal’s deceptively low-key dictator was formerly a professor of economics.
António de Oliveira Salazar
9.Mário Soares
The first democratically elected post-revolution prime minister won a second term and, in 1986, became president of Portugal.
10.Aníbal Cavaco Silva
Leader of the Social Democrats and prime minister from 1985 to 1995, he was elected president in 2006 and again in 2011.
