A Piece of Portugal in Alaska (Totally Tubular L2) Traditional Cache

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula, and is the westernmost country of mainland Europe.

Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal.

The territory which forms the modern Portuguese Republic witnessed a constant flow of civilizations during the past 3100 years. Early influences range from the Celtic inhabitants to the Roman and Germanic peoples who made an imprint on the country's culture, history, language and ethnic composition, as well as the Moorish who occupied different parts of current Portuguese territory from the 8th to the 13th century.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, with its global empire, it was one of the world's major economic, political, and cultural powers. Portugal is a developed country, member of the European Union (since 1986) and the United Nations (since 1955); as well as a founding member of the Eurozone, OECD, NATO, and CPLP (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa — Community of Portuguese Language Countries).

The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian peninsula. The region was settled by Pre-Celts and Celts, giving origin to peoples like the Lusitanians, visited by Phoenicians and Carthaginians, incorporated in the Roman empire (as Lusitania in 138 BC), settled again by Suevi, Buri, and Visigoths, and conquered by Moors. In 868, during the Reconquista (by which Christians reconquered the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish domination), the First County of Portugal was formed. A victory over the Muslims at Ourique in 1139 is traditionally taken as the occasion when Portugal is transformed from a county into an independent kingdom.

Portugal traces its national origin to June 24, 1128 with the Battle of São Mamede. At this battle , Afonso Henriques, Count of Portugal, defeated his mother, Countess Teresa, and her lover, Fernão Peres de Trava, in battle - thereby establishing himself as sole leader. Afonso Henriques proclaimed himself king of Portugal on July 25, 1139, after the Battle of Ourique and was recognized as such in 1143 by Alfonso VII, king of León and Castile, and in 1179 by Pope Alexander III.

Afonso Henriques and his successors, aided by military monastic orders, pushed southward to drive out the Moors, as the size of Portugal covered about half of its present area. In 1249, this Reconquista ended with the capture of the Algarve on the southern coast, giving Portugal its present day borders, with minor exceptions.

In 1373, Portugal made an alliance with England, which is the longest-standing alliance in the world.

In 1383, the king of Castile, husband of the daughter of the Portuguese king who had died without a male heir, claimed his throne. An ensuing popular revolt led to the 1383-1385 Crisis. A faction of petty noblemen and commoners, led by John of Aviz (later John I), seconded by General Nuno Álvares Pereira defeated the Castilians in the Battle of Aljubarrota. This celebrated battle is still a symbol of glory and the struggle for independence from neighboring Spain.

In the following decades, Portugal spearheaded the exploration of the world and undertook the Age of Discovery. Prince Henry the Navigator, son of King João I, became the main sponsor and patron of this endeavor.

In 1415, Portugal gained the first of its overseas colonies when a fleet conquered Ceuta, a prosperous Islamic trade center in North Africa. There followed the first discoveries in the Atlantic: Madeira and the Azores, which led to the first colonization movements.

Throughout the 15th century, Portuguese explorers sailed the coast of Africa, establishing trading posts as they looked for a route to India and its spices, which were coveted in Europe. In 1498, Vasco da Gama finally reached India and brought economic prosperity to Portugal and its then population of one million residents.

In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral, en route to India, discovered Brazil and claimed it for Portugal. Ten years later, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa, in India, Ormuz in the Persian Strait, and Malacca in what is now a state in Malaysia. Thus, the Portuguese empire held dominion over commerce in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic. It may also have been Portuguese sailors that were the first Europeans to discover Australia.

Portugal's independence was interrupted between 1580 and 1640. Because the heirless King Sebastian died in battle in Morocco, Philip II of Spain claimed his throne and so became Philip I of Portugal. Although Portugal did not lose its formal independence, it was governed by the same monarch who governed Spain, briefly forming a union of kingdoms; in 1640, John IV spearheaded an uprising backed by disgruntled nobles and was proclaimed king. This was the beginning of the House of Braganza, which was to reign until 1910.

By this time, however, the Portuguese empire was already under attack from other countries, specifically Britain and the Netherlands.Portugal began a slow but inexorable decline until the 20th century. This decline was hastened by the independence in 1822 of the country's largest colonial possession, Brazil.

At the height of European colonialism in the 19th century, Portugal had lost its territory in South America and all but a few bases in Asia. During this phase, Portuguese colonialism focused on expanding its outposts in Africa into nation-sized territories to compete with other European powers there. Portuguese territories eventually included the modern nations of Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique.

An anachronous map of the Portuguese Empire (1415-1999).
Red - true possessions; Pink - explorations, areas of influence and trade and claims of sovereignty;
Blue - main sea explorations, routes and areas of influence. The disputed discovery of Australia is not shown

In 1910, a revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy, but chaos continued and considerable economic problems were aggravated by the military intervention in the First World War, which led to a military coup d'état in 1926. This in turn led to the establishment of a right-wing dictatorship by António de Oliveira Salazar.

In the early 1960s, independence movements in the colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War. In 1974, a bloodless left-wing military coup known as the Carnation Revolution led the way for a modern democracy as well as the independence of the last colonies in Africa shortly after. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986, and ever since it has engaged in a process of convergence with its EU counterparts.

National anthem and flag

A Portuguesa is the national anthem of Portugal. It was written by Henrique Lopes de Mendonça (lyrics) and Alfredo Keil (music) after the nationalist resurgence provoked by the British Ultimatum (for Portuguese troops to vacate the territory between Angola and Mozambique), was adopted as a Republican anthem and, finally, by the new Portuguese Republic in 1910 as the national anthem, replacing "O Hymno da Carta", the last anthem of the Constitutional Monarchy in Portugal.

The title A Portuguesa means "the Portuguese (song)" — the Portuguese word for "song", canção, being feminine.

National anthem in MP3 (1.18Mb )

References: Wikipedia

Geocaching in Portugal

Geocaching was born in Portugal in February 2, 2001. It started with the creation of the unlucky “AlfaRomeu Abandonado!” (GC1DA). The oldest cache still active was created a little later in May 15, 2001, (Translant Chess Cache), in Terceira, an island within the Azores archipelago.
As of September 2007, there are over 1400 active caches (with more than 1600 caches ever created) spread all over the country, from the sunny beaches of Algarve, through the highest top of the Estrela Mountain Range to the northern corner of Portugal, from the major cities to the Gerês National Park or even in the Azores and Madeira archipelagos. The latest trends in September show a growth of over 100 new caches per month, all of interest, with only a few archived.
The Portuguese geocaching community is also growing fast, with its numbers doubling each year, since 2001. The game has seen coverage from several portuguese news media, mostly related to new games or tech subjects.

Would you like to know more about Geocaching in Portugal?
Visit the site Geocaching@PT, GeoPorStats and the maps with the location of the portuguese caches

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Anchorage, Alaska	Lisbon, Portugal