Portugal
Portugal is located at the southwestern tip of Europe, bordering Spain in the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean in the west and south. It has a land area of 91,640 square kilometers (35,400 square miles), including the Atlantic archipelagos of Azores and Madeira, and a population of 10.3 million inhabitants, with 10 million of them, according to 2001 census data, of Portuguese nationality. The climate is maritime temperate, cooler and rainier in the more mountainous north and warmer and drier in the southern plains. The capital is Lisbon, located by the estuary of the Tagus River, with a population of 564,000 inhabitants, although close to 1.8 million live in the greater metropolitan area. Portuguese—a Romance, Italic, Indo-European language—is spoken by all nationals; other languages are spoken by very small minorities of the population. According to the 2002 European Social Survey, close to 90 percent of the population belonged to a religious denomination and, of those, 97 percent were Catholic, although actual religious practice varies widely.
Portugal came into existence as an independent kingdom during the twelfth century, under King Afonso Henriques (1109?–1185). He engaged in warfare with both Alfonso VII (1126–1157) of Castille and León—who finally recognized him as King of Portugal in 1143—and the Muslim emirates that had controlled most of the Iberian Peninsula since the eighth century.
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