Portugal

Fact Sheet :

- Area : 92,391 sq km

- Population : 10,642,836 (July 2007 est.)

- Capital : Lisbon

- Language : Portuguese

- Currency : euro (EUR)

- Government type : parliamentary democracy

- Elements of History :

Following its heyday as a world power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence in 1822 of Brazil as a colony. A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms.

The following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC (now the EU) in 1986.

- Climate :

maritime temperate; cool and rainy in north, warmer and drier in south