Page 43 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Portugal

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Birth of a Nation 1 Historical map
Infighting between the Visigoths paved the way for the country’s showing the regions
next invaders: North African Muslims, known as the Moors. of Portugal in 1762.
After being asked to help a Visigoth faction in AD 711, they 2 Stone Age megaliths
quickly occupied huge swathes of Portugal’s southern coast. found near Évora in
In 756, Adb al-Rahman established the independent kingdom the Alentejo.
of Al-Andalus, stretching from the south of the Iberian penin- 3 The Death of Viriatus,
sular as far north as modern-day Coimbra. The Moors called Chief of the Lusitanians
the southwest part of this region Al-Gharb (Algarve), which by José de Madrazo (1807).
means “the west” in Arabic. 4 An 18th-century
While there was peace in the south, small, agitating Christian engraving showing
kingdoms were gaining in strength in the north and, in the 11th Afonso Henriques’
century, they began the Reconquista (reconquest). Following a victory at Ourique.
series of successful skirmishes against the Moors, “Portucale” –
a small area around the Douro, which was part of the kingdom
of Léon – began to grow in stature. In 1139, their ruler Afonso
Henriques was victorious at Ourique and declared himself Dom –
king of Portugal. The Algarve remained under Moorish rule until
1249, when Faro was finally taken by Afonso III. Portugal’s
borders have remained largely unchanged ever since.

585 1139 1249
Visigoths take Afonso Henriques Afonso III
over the northern declares himself conquers
Suevian kingdom king of Portugal the Algarve
711
A large Muslim army
415 of Berbers and Arabs
conquers the Iberian
Visigoths invade and Peninsular follow-
drive out the Vandals ing disputes over
and the Alani Visigothic succession
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