by those of three powers-Great Britain, France and Germany.
Their total area was about 803,000 sq. m., of which 794,000 sq. m.
are in Africa. They comprised, in Africa, the Cape Verde
Islands, St Thomas and Prince’s Islands, Portuguese Guinea,
Angola and Portuguese East Africa, or Mozambique; in India,
Goa, Damaun and Diu; in China, Macao; and in the Malay
Archipelago part of Timor. All these are described in separate
articles. In all the white population is in a minority; in most
the climate is unsuitable for European colonization, nor is the
commercial value of the colonies commensurate with their
extent. Viewed as a whole, Portuguese administration has been
carried on under difficulties which have rendered it costly and
inefficient, the home government being compelled to contribute
a large annual subsidy towards its maintenance. The amount
paid in subsidies from 1870 to 1900 was about £15,000,000.
Religion.—Roman Catholicism was the state religion until 1910, but other creeds were tolerated, and the Church lost its temporal authority in 1834, when the monasteries were suppressed and their property confiscated for the first time. There are three ecclesiastical provinces-Braga, Lisbon and Evora, each under an archbishop. The archbishop of Braga, whose see is the most ancient, has the title of Primate; the archbishop of Lisbon has the honorary title of Patriarch, and is usually elected a cardinal. His province includes Madeira, the Azores and the West African colonies. There are fourteen dioceses, of which Oporto is the most important. T he annual revenues of the upper hierarchy of the Church amounted, up to 1910, to about £65,000 In some of the larger towns the foreign residents have their own places of worship. (See further under History.)
Education.—Primary education is regulated by a law of 1844, under which children between the ages of 7 and 15 are bound to attend a school, should there be one within a mile, under penalty to the parents of a fine and deprivation of civil rights. This law has not been strictly enforced; primary education was never properly organized; and, according to census returns, the proportion of the population (including children) unable to read was 82·4% in 1878, 79·2 in 1890 and 78·6 in 1900. There were in 1910 5250 public and 1750 private primary schools. In the chief towns there are training schools for teachers. The system of secondary education was reorganized in 1894. In 1905 there were state lyceums in each district capital and in Guimaraes, Lamego and Amarante; 5 municipal lyceums, at Celorico de Basto, Chaves, Ponte de Lima, Povoa de Varzim and Setubal; military and naval colleges; a secondary school for girls in Lisbon; numerous private secondary schools and ecclesiastical seminaries; industrial, commercial and technical schools; and pilot schools at Lisbon, Oporto, Faro and Ponta Delgada (Azores). Other important educational institutions are described under Lisbon and Oporto. The national university is at Coimbra (q.v.).
Defence.—Under the monarchy, the army was maintained at its normal strength partly by voluntary enlistment and conscription, the chief law regulating it being that of 1887, as variously modified in subsequent years. The cortes fixed the number of conscripts to be enrolled in each year: in 1905, 15,000 men for the army, 1000 for the navy, 500 for the municipal guards and 400 for the fiscal guards. The organization of the army was based on the acts of the 7th of September 1899 and the 24th of December 1901. With certain exceptions all men over 21 years of age were liable for service—3 years in the regular army, 5 years in the first reserve and 7 years in the second reserve; but exemption could always be purchased. In time of war, the municipal guards, numbering about 2200, and the fiscal guards, numbering about 5200, might be incorporated in the army. The total effective force of the active army on a peace footing was 1787 officers, 31,281 men, 6479 horses and mules and 100 guns. The total effective force on a war footing, inclusive of reservists, municipal guards and fiscal guards, was 4221 officers, 178,603 men, 19,600 horses and mules and 336 guns. Lisbon, Elvas and Angra in the Azores, were considered first-class fortresses, but only Lisbon had modern defences. The Portuguese navy in 1910 consisted of 1 armoured vessel, 5 protected cruisers, 2 third-class cruisers, 19 gunboats, 1 torpedo gunboat, 4 torpedo boats, 16 river gunboats, 4 transports and 3 training ships. Twelve other vessels, including 2 submarines, were under construction. The whole fleet was manned by about 5000 men.
Bibliography.—Numerous official reports, chiefly statistical, are published periodically in Lisbon; a few are written in French, the majority in Portuguese. Read in conjunction with the British consular and diplomatic reports, they afford 2. comprehensive survey of the movement of population, the progress of trade, &c. The following state papers deserve special notice: Caminhos de ferro (1877, &c.), Commercio e navigação (annual, issued by the Ministry of Marine), Le Portugal vinicole (1900), Le Portugal . . . . agricole (1900), Notas sobre Portugal (2 vols., 1908). For geology, see the section of Le Portugal . . . . agricola written by P. Cholfat and entitled “Aperçu de la geologie de Portugal,” also “The Work of the Portuguese Geological Survey,” by Philip Lake, in Science Progress (1896) v. 439–453; both these summaries refer to the most important original papers. Two illustrated volumes by Oswald Crawford, Portugal Old and New (London, 1880) and Round the Calendar in Portugal (London, 1890) contain much valuable information on agriculture, viticulture and peasant life in the northern provinces. Through Portugal, by Major Martin Hume (London, 1907) and Lisbon and Cintra, by A. A. Inchbold (London, 1908), describe the towns, &c., most frequently visited by tourists, and are illustrated in colours. Le Portugal (Paris, 1899), by 18 writers, is a brief but encyclopaedic description of continental Portugal. See also Portugal: its Land and People, by W. H. Koebel (London, 1909), and Portuguese Architecture, by W. C. Watson (London, 1908). The following books deal comprehensively with the Portuguese colonies; As Colonias portuguezas, by E. J. de Vasconcellos (2nd ed., Lisbon, 1903), Les Colonies portugaises, by A. de Almada Negreiros (Paris, 1908). (K. G. J.)
History
Throughout the centuries which witnessed the destruction of Carthaginian power by Rome, the establishment and decline of Latin civilization, the invasion by Alani, Suevi and other barbarian races, the resettlement under Visigothic rule and the overthrow of the Visigoths by Arab and Berber tribes from Africa, Portugal remained an undifferentiated part of Hispania, without sign of national consciousness. The Iberian Peninsula was one: and its common history is related under Spain. It is true that some Portuguese writers have sought to identify their race with the ancient Lusitani, and have claimed for it a separate and continuous existence dating from the 2nd century B.C. The revolt of Lusitania against the Romans has been regarded as an early manifestation of Portuguese love of liberty, Viriathus as a national hero. But this theory, which originated in the 15th century and was perpetuated in the title of The Lusiads, has no historical foundation. In 1095 Portugal was an obscure border fief of the kingdom of Leon. Its territories, far from the centres of European civilization and consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest, were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego. Its name (Portucolia, Terra portucalensis) was derived from the little seaport of Portus Cale or Villa Nova de Gaia, now a suburb of Oporto, at the mouth of the Douro. Its inhabitants, surrounded by Moorish or Spanish enemies and distracted by civil war, derived such rudiments of civilization as they possessed from Arabic or Leonese sources. But from these obscure beginnings Portugal rose in four centuries to be the greatest maritime, commercial and colonial power in Europe.
The history of the nation comprises eight periods. (1) Between 1095 and 1279 a Portuguese kingdom was established and extended until it reached its present continental limits. (2) Between 1279 and 1415 the monarchy was gradually consolidated in spite of resistance from the Church, the nobles and the rival kingdom of Castile. (3) In 1415 began a period of crusades and discoveries, culminating in the discovery of an ocean-route to India (1497–1499). (4) From 1499 to 1580 Portugal acquired an empire stretching from Brazil eastward to the Moluccas, reached the zenith of its prosperity and entered upon a period of swift decline. (5) Spanish kings ruled over Portugal from 1581 to 1640. (6) The chief event of the years 1640 to 1755 was the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy. (7) Between 1755 and 1826 the reforms of Pombal and the Peninsular War prepared the country for a change from absolutism to constitutional monarchy. (8) In 1826 the era of constitutional government began.
1. The Establishment of the Monarchy.—The origin of Portugal, as a separate state, was an incident in the Christian reconquest of Spain. Towards the close of the 11th century crusading knights came from every part of Europe to aid the kings of northern and central Spain in Count Henry. driving out the Moors. Among these adventurers was Count Henry of Burgundy, an ambitious warrior who, in 1095, married Theresa, natural daughter of Alphonso VI., king of Leon. The county of Portugal, which had already been won back from the Moors (1055–1064), was included in Theresa’s dowry. Count Henry ruled as a vassal of Alphonso VI., whose Galician marches were thus secured against any sudden Moorish raid. But in
