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The Portuguese Empire [a] was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa and various islands in Asia and Oceania.
Portuguese presence in Africa started in 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta and is generally viewed as ending in 1975, with the independence of its later colonies, although the present autonomous region of Madeira is located in the African Plate, some 650 km (360 mi) off the North African coast, Madeira belongs and has always belonged ethnically, culturally, economically and politically to Europe ...
Portugal's long shoreline, with its many harbours and rivers flowing westward to the Atlantic Ocean was the ideal environment to raise generations of adventurous seamen. As a seafaring people in the south-westernmost region of Europe, the Portuguese became natural leaders of exploration during the Middle Ages.
The Treaty of Tordesillas, [a] signed in Tordesillas, Spain, on 7 June 1494, and ratified in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Crown of Castile, along a meridian 370 miles west of the Cape Verde islands, off the west coast of Africa.
World map at the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon, with early Portuguese exploration and imperial projects. 1402 Castillian invasion of Canary Islands. 1415 Portuguese conquest of Ceuta. 1420-1425 Portuguese settlement of Madeira. 1433-1436 Portuguese settlement of Azores. 1445 Portuguese construction of trading post on Arguin Island.
Portugal, [e] officially the Portuguese Republic, [f] is a country in the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe.Featuring the westernmost point in continental Europe, to its north and east is Spain, with which it shares the longest uninterrupted border in the European Union; to the south and the west is the North Atlantic Ocean; and to the west and southwest lie the Macaronesian ...
The Cantino planisphere or Cantino world map is a manuscript Portuguese world map preserved at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, Italy. It is named after Alberto Cantino, an agent for the Duke of Ferrara, who successfully smuggled it from Portugal to Italy in 1502. It measures 220 x 105 cm. [1]
During the 15th and 16th centuries, with a global empire that included possessions in Africa, Asia and South America, Portugal was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. In the 17th century, the Portuguese Restoration War between Portugal and Spain ended the sixty-year period of the Iberian Union (1580–1640).