Portuguese

The Portuguese are the Romance nation of the Atlantic face of Iberia, settled between the Minho and the Algarve. Their land emerged from the Reconquista as the County of Portugal, first chartered in 868; Afonso Henriques proclaimed himself king in 1139, the Algarve was taken from the Moors in 1249, and Lisbon became the capital in 1255.

Victory over Castile in 1385 brought the Aviz dynasty to power, and the Treaty of Windsor of 1386 tied Portugal to England. Their Galician-Portuguese tongue became the vehicle of the Age of Discovery: Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498 and Cabral claimed Brazil in 1500, linking Lisbon to Nagasaki through fortified posts.

The disaster of Alcácer Quibir in 1578 cleared the way for the Spanish Iberian Union of 1580, until the restoration of 1640. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 destroyed much of the capital, French invasion followed in the Napoleonic Wars, and the loss of Brazil in 1822 ended the first era of the empire.