PORTUGAL, FLAG OF

vertically divided green-red national flag with a coat of arms centred on the line between the two colours. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is 2 to 3. According to legend, in 1139 Count Afonso Henriques won a decisive victory against Moorish forces at Ourique. The five shields he supposedly struck from the hands of five Moorish kings were later reflected in the five blue shields on his white banner. Each shield bore five white disks for the five wounds of Christ, who, according to tradition, appeared before the battle and guaranteed the count's success. In the 13th century King Afonso III added a red border with gold castles to the shield as a symbol of the neighbouring kingdom of Castile; this may have occurred in 1254, when he married Beatriz of Castile (the illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X) and arranged for the territory known as the Algarve to be transferred to Portugal. Surmounted by a crown, those arms appeared on many Portuguese flags over the centuries-for example, after 1640, when Portugal regained its independence from Spain, its flags were white with the royal arms. In 1816 a symbol for Brazil, the armillary sphere, was added behind the shield. The armillary sphere was used as a navigational instrument by previous Portuguese kings who had sponsored worldwide voyages of exploration and settlement in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although that symbol was abandoned in the 1820s, when Brazil became independent, it was revived on June 30, 1911, following the October 1910 revolution that overthrew the monarchy and made Portugal a republic. At the same time green and red replaced the blue and white background stripes of the flag, in use since 1830. Red was the colour of the revolutionary flag, and green was added so that the new national flag would not be confused with the old royal standard, which had a plain red background. Green and red also had been featured in many early Portuguese flags, such as those of the Order of Christ and those showing the crosses of Avis. Whitney Smith Government and social conditions Government Portugal has been a republic since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1910. Its status as a democratic state began with the so-called Revolution of the Carnations on April 25, 1974, which brought down the authoritarian, corporative republic established by Antnio de Oliveira Salazar in 1932. According to the postrevolutionary constitution of 1976, Portugal's chief of state is the president of the republic, who is directly elected by universal suffrage for a five-year term. The president represents the nation; serves as chief commander of the armed forces; appoints the prime minister, with due consideration to the results of parliamentary elections; appoints and dismisses other members of the government at the proposal of the prime minister; sends messages to parliament and convenes or dissolves it as necessary; and sets dates of elections after consultation with the Council of State. The constitution designates the Council of Ministers (Conselho de Ministros), or the Cabinet, as Portugal's chief policy-making body. The Cabinet consists of the prime minister, who presides over its meetings; the ministers of government departments; and some secretaries of state (ministers without portfolios). The prime minister is simultaneously responsible to the president (regarding the overall functioning of governmental institutions) and to parliament (regarding the content of public policy). The prime minister directs, coordinates, and implements government policy. By tradition, the prime minister is the head of the civil service. The parliament is the unicameral Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da Repblica). It has 250 deputies, elected for four-year terms under a system of proportional representation. Among its duties are discussing and voting upon legislation, authorizing the government to raise revenues, and approving the laws passed by the legislatures of the autonomous regions. The role of the military as the watchdog of the 1974 revolution and the subsequent transition to democracy was enshrined by the 1976 constitution in the Council of the Revolution (Conselho da Revoluo). A constitutional committee operated in conjunction with the Council of the Revolution, which pronounced on the constitutionality of laws submitted to it. Revisions made to the constitution in 1982 abolished the Council of the Revolution and the constitutional committee and replaced them with a Council of State (Conselho de Estado) and a Constitutional Tribunal (Tribunal Constitucional). Members of the Council of State are the president of the republic, who presides; the president of the parliament; the prime minister; the president of the Constitutional Tribunal; the attorney general; the presidents of the governments of the autonomous regions; certain former presidents of the republic; five persons appointed by the president; and five persons selected by the parliament. The Constitutional Tribunal has 13 justices appointed by parliament. Portugal has three tiers of government below the national level. The lowest tier comprises the parishes (freguesias), of which there are about 4,000. Each has a directly elected parish assembly (assembleia de freguesia), which appoints its own executive body, the parish board (junta de freguesia). The second tier consists of the municipalities (concelhos), which number 305. Municipalities include rural and urban areas within their territorial limits. Each municipality has a municipal assembly (assembleia municipal), made up of the presidents of the boards of the constituent parishes and an equal number plus one of directly elected members; a municipal chamber (cmara municipal), which is the executive of the municipality; and a municipal council (conselho municipal), a consultative organ through which the views of social, cultural, professional, and economic organizations within the municipality are transmitted to the municipal chamber. The tier above the municipalities-that of the administrative regions-had not yet been fully established by the early 1990s but was to have regional assemblies and executives and was intended to decentralize the national government. The archipelagoes of Madeira and the Azores have been granted the special status of autonomous regions in recognition of their geographic, economic, social, and cultural uniqueness, as well as their historical aspirations for greater independence. Each autonomous region has its own government (cabinet and president), legislature (regional assembly), and administration. The Portuguese police are divided into three categories. Under the control of the Ministry of Internal Administration are the Public Security Police (Polcia de Segurana Pblica, or PSP) and the Republican National Guard (Guarda Nacional Repblicana, or GNR). The GNR includes the road police and has jurisdiction over rural areas. The PSP patrols urban areas and directs city traffic. Under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance is the Fiscal Guard (Guarda Fiscal), which is stationed at frontier crossings and points of entry and is responsible for collecting import duties and investigating smuggling and other violations of border regulations. Education Private schools supplement the state schools that provide free education for the majority of people. There are five long-established universities: the University of Coimbra (founded under another name in Lisbon in 1290, relocated to Coimbra and renamed in 1537), the University of Lisbon and the Technical University of Lisbon, the University of Porto, and the Portuguese Catholic University (founded in 1968 in Lisbon). History Portugal became an independent monarchy in 1139. Its name derives from Portus Cale, a pre-Roman or Roman settlement near the mouth of the Douro River. The southern part of the Roman province of Gallaecia (now Galicia) was occupied by the Germanic Suebi in AD 411, and Portucale (Porto) was held by them. They were subdued by the Visigoths, whose state was overthrown by Muslim invasions in the 8th century. A Christian territory of Portugal was constituted in 868; it later became a county and was extended to Coimbra. Afonso Henriques assumed the title of king (1139) and annexed Lisbon. His successors took Alentejo and Algarve from the Muslims (by 1252). Portugal now includes the Madeira Islands and the Azores, first settled in the 15th century. Pre-Roman, Roman, Germanic, and Muslim periods The earliest human remains found in Portugal are Neanderthal-type bones from Furninhas. A distinct culture first emerges in the Mesolithic middens of the lower Tagus valley, dated about 5500 BC. Neolithic cultures entered from Andalusia. There are varied types of beehive huts and passage graves: agriculture, pottery, and the working of soft metals followed by the same route. In the 1st millennium BC, Celtic peoples entered the peninsula by the Pyrenees, and many groups were projected westward by natural pressure. Phoenician and later Carthaginian influence reached southern Portugal in the same period. By 500 BC, Iron Age cultures predominated in the north. Celtic hilltop settlements (castros) retained their vitality after the Roman conquest. After the Second Punic War (218-201 BC), Rome dominated the eastern and southern seaboards of the peninsula, and Celtic peoples who had partially absorbed the indigenous population occupied the west. A Celtic federation, the Lusitani, resisted Roman penetration under the brilliant leadership of Viriathus; but after his assassination (c. 140 BC) Decius Junius Brutus was able to march northward through central Portugal, cross the Douro River, and subdue the Gallaeci. Julius Caesar governed the territory for a time. In 25 BC Augustus founded Augusta Emerita (Mrida) as the capital of Lusitania, which incorporated the present central Portugal. Gallaecia, to the north of the Douro, became a separate province under the Antonines. In Roman times the region of Beja and vora was a wheat belt. The valley of the Tagus was famous for its horses and farms, and there were important mines in Alentejo. Notable Roman remains include the Temple of Diana at vora and the site of Conimbriga (Condeixa). Christianity reached Lusitania in the 3rd century and Galicia in the 4th. After AD 406, barbarian peoples forced their way into Gaul and crossed the Pyrenees. A Germanic tribe, the Suebi, was settled in southern Galicia, their rulers residing at or near Bracara Augusta (Braga) and Portucale. They annexed Lusitania and for a time overran the rest of the peninsula, but the Visigoths were sent to subdue them and extinguished their monarchy (AD 469). Records are silent until about 550, when the Suebic monarchy had been restored and was reconverted to Catholicism by St. Martin of Braga. With the Muslim invasion of 711, the only serious Gothic resistance was made at Mrida; on its fall the northwest submitted. Berber troops were placed in central Portugal and Galicia. When 'Abd ar-Rahman I set up the Umayyad monarchy at Crdoba (756), there was some resistance in the west. Lisbon was independent for a few years (c. 805). The restoration of the Christian sees of Galicia, the discovery of the supposed tomb of St. James, and the erection of his shrine at Santiago de Compostela were followed by the organization of the frontier territory of Portucale (868) by Vimara Peres; Coimbra was annexed by the Christians but later lost again. The economy At the height of its colonial endeavours in Asia, Africa, and South America, Portugal was the richest nation in the world. Because this wealth was not used to develop domestic industrial infrastructure, however, the country gradually became, over the 19th and 20th centuries, one of the poorest in western Europe. After the 1974 revolution, the Portuguese economy was disconnected from Portugal's remaining overseas possessions in Africa and reoriented toward Europe. Portugal joined the European Community (EC) on Jan. 1, 1986, since which time the economy has grown steadily. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing Crop yields and animal productivity are well below the EC average because of low agricultural investment, minimal mechanization, little use of fertilizers, and the fragmented land-tenure system. The main crops grown in Portugal are cereals (wheat, barley, corn , and rice), potatoes, grapes (for wine), olives, and tomatoes. Portugal is the world's largest exporter of tomato paste and a leading exporter of wines. These exports help offset the cost of imported wheat and meat. Small farms predominate, particularly in the north, where they are too small and made up of too many dispersed holdings to allow integrated farming and rational crop rotation. In the south (except Algarve) the system of latifndios, or large estates, before 1975 prevented intensive cultivation because the latifndios were owned by absentee landlords who had no interest in making capital investment in machinery, fertilizers, and other items that would increase productivity. After the revolution (from March 1975) an agrarian reform got under way south of the Tagus, where about 3.2 million acres (1.3 million hectares) of land in large holdings was expropriated (with compensation) and nationalized. The policy adopted was aimed at, among other things, destroying the latifndio system, changing the tenancy system, handing uncultivated land back to the people, abolishing quitrent, increasing the irrigated area, introducing new crops, intensifying the output of fodder and cereals, and developing livestock. A large part of the nationalized land was turned over to collective and cooperative production units. The hasty transition, however, precipitated political tension and a decline in the agricultural output of the Alentejo. The land redistribution policy was reversed after 1976, as the succeeding socialist governments sought to encourage modernization and higher productivity by a return to private ownership. One-third of Portugal is wooded. Most of the mountainous areas are well suited to forestry, and forest products (cork, resins, and pine and eucalyptus timber), the market value of which has increased, find a growing demand in industry. For this reason, considerable reforestation has been undertaken since the last quarter of the 19th century in areas where crop yields are low and where erosion tends to be severe. Portugal's long coastline and the abundance of fish in the surrounding waters have favoured the development of the fishing industry. Sardines, anchovies, and tuna caught near the coasts, together with other species such as codfish from the North Atlantic, make a large contribution to food supplies. The fishing industry has prospered, and its products are exported all over the world. Matosinhos in the north, Setbal, and Portimo and Olho and other ports in the Algarve are among the main fishery centres. However, even the fishing industry is not able to feed the population; a quarter of the fish consumed in Portugal must be imported, mainly from Iceland (stockfish), Norway (dried cod), and Russia (sardines). The land Portugal occupies one-sixth of the Iberian Peninsula along its western (Atlantic) side. Thus, even more than Spain, which accounts for the rest, Portugal lies much farther to the west of Europe than is usually remembered. With Spanish Galicia, northern Portugal comprises the mountainous border of the Meseta (the block of ancient rock that forms the core of the Iberian Peninsula), while southern Portugal also contains extensive areas of limestone and other sedimentary strata, mostly plateaus or plains. Other physical features link Portugal with Spain: the major rivers (Douro, Tagus, Guadiana) rise in the central Meseta before draining west (or, in the case of the Guadiana, south) to the Atlantic, while the proximity of the Meseta gives a continental nuance to the climate of the northern Portuguese interior and to that region's vegetation. Southern Portugal, however, is predominantly Mediterranean both in vegetation and climate. Despite Portugal's remarkable scenic diversity, the essence of its relief and underlying geology can be described under three headings: the north, the northern interior, and the south. The coastal provinces of Beira Litoral and Estremadura are transitional in cultural landscape, vegetation, and climate but southern in relief and geology. Relief Only 11.6 percent of Portugal rises above 2,300 feet. Most of the mountains are north of the Tagus River (Rio Tejo), which, flowing northeast to southwest, divides the country. North of the Tagus, more than 90 percent of the land rises above 1,300 feet; in the south, only one range is higher than 3,200 feet. The people Although western Iberia has been occupied for a long time, relatively few human remains of the Paleolithic Period have been found. Neolithic and Bronze Age discoveries are more common, among them many dolmens. Some of the earliest permanent settlements were the northern castros, hill villages first built by Neolithic farmers who began clearing the forests. Incoming peoples-Phoenicians, Greeks, and Celts-intermingled with the settled inhabitants, and Celticized natives occupied the fortified castros. For 200 years these were centres of resistance to the Roman legions. Subsequently the Romans, Suebi, Visigoths, Moors, and Jews exerted influence on the territory. Portugal's situation at the western extremity of Europe made it a gathering place for invaders by land, and its long coastline invited settlement by seafarers. Although formed of such different elements, the population of Portugal is one of the most homogeneous in Europe, having physical characteristics common to circum-Mediterranean peoples. For example, the Portuguese in general have brown eyes, dark wavy hair, and pallid or brunet skin. The vast majority of Portuguese (some 95 percent) are Roman Catholic. Regular attendance at mass, however, has declined in the cities and larger towns, particularly those in the south. Less than 1 percent of the population is Protestant, with Anglicans, Methodists, Brethren, and Congregationalists comprising the oldest and largest denominations. Fundamentalist and Evangelical churches have grown in recent years. The Jewish population of Portugal has remained small since the late 15th-century Inquisition, which forced Jews to convert or emigrate. Population distributions within Portugal reveal striking contrasts between the more densely populated north and the more sparsely populated south. A number of rural areas have suffered considerable population losses, resulting in economic and social depression, particularly in parts of the north, the central east, and the southern coastal areas. The coastal zones between Braga and Setbal, with their low-lying plains and urban development, have attracted a large proportion of the population. Only the industrial areas of Lisbon and Porto are able to absorb their own working populations. Areas such as Minho, the central plains, and the coastal areas of the Algarve are seriously overpopulated. In the main, rural settlement is dispersed, the inhabitants living in small villages under a system of open-field farming. The Beira Litoral and Estremadura have settlements varying between dispersed and clustered farmsteads. In the region of Aveiro, clusters of farmsteads and other dwellings are strung along roads in strips, often of considerable length and density. Fishing, one of the earliest enterprises of the Portuguese, still plays an important role in coastal settlements. Owing in part to the rigours and hazards of this and certain other traditionally male occupations, as well as emigration, women have substantially outnumbered men in the Portuguese population since the first census, in 1864. The decolonization process that took place after the revolution of April 25, 1974, inevitably had demographic repercussions on metropolitan Portugal because of the large number of people (mostly Portuguese) who left the former overseas provinces. According to official figures, incoming refugees totaled about one million, most of whom came from Angola because of the civil war between the liberation movements. The majority of the repatriates crowded into Portuguese cities and towns, the effect of which was a high unemployment rate that continued into the late 1980s. Portugal has one of the highest rates of emigration in Europe. Before 1960 most of its migrs went to Brazil and a few other Latin-American countries. The population underwent its only decline in the modern period during the 1960s, when two external developments coincided: severe labour shortages in industrialized western Europe induced an outflow of Portuguese workers, and Portugal's efforts to put down the liberation movements in its African colonies prompted thousands of young men to emigrate illegally in order to avoid conscription.