Portugal


Portugal

Portugal i/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/; Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ], officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa, is a country located in Southwestern Europe, on the Iberian Peninsula. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are Portuguese territory as well. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.[1]

The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times. After a period of Roman rule followed by Visigothic and Suebian domination, in the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, who were later expelled by the Knights Templar. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation-state.[2] In the 15th and 16th centuries, as the result of pioneering the Age of Discovery, Portugal expanded western influence and established the first global empire,[3] becoming one of the world's major economic, political and military powers. In addition, the Portuguese Empire was the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost 600 years, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999 and granting of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002. The empire spread throughout a vast number of territories that are now part of 53 different sovereign states. However, the country's international status was greatly reduced during the 19th century, especially following the Independence of Brazil, its largest colony. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, itself being superseded by the "Estado Novo" authoritarian regime. Democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974.

As of 2011, the population of Portugal was 10,562,178, of which 547,733 live in Lisbon, the country's capital and largest city, located in the South, and 237,591 in Porto, also known as Oporto, the second-largest city, located in the North. The country is a democratic republic with a president (currently Aníbal Cavaco Silva) and prime minister (currently Pedro Passos Coelho). Since the 1990s, Portugal's economic development model has been slowly changing from one based on public consumption to one focused on exports, private investment, and development of the high-tech sector. The Portuguese currency is the euro (€) and the country's economy is in the eurozone.

Portugal is a developed country with a very high Human Development Index, the world's 19th-highest quality-of-life as of 2005, and a strong healthcare system. It is one of the world's most globalized and peaceful nations:[4] a member of the European Union and the United Nations, and a founding member of the Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, OECD, NATO, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the eurozone and the Schengen Agreement.


Portuguese Proverb

Love

¶ An old man in love is like a flower in winter.


Notes

[1]^ "Leite de Vasconcelos, José. Cale e Portucale. Opúsculos Vol. V – Etnologia (Parte I) Lisboa, Imprensa Nacional, 1938" (in Portuguese).
[2]^ Brian Jenkins, Spyros A. Sofos, "Nation and identity in contemporary Europe", p. 145, Routledge, 1996, ISBN 0-415-12313-5
[3]^ Melvin Eugene Page, Penny M. Sonnenburg, p. 481
[4]^ Global Peace Index. Institute for Economics and Peace. visionofhumanity.org (June 2012)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Portugal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal

Poland and Polish


Poland and Polish

Poland

Poland Listeni/ˈpoʊlənd/ (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the sixth most populous member of the European Union, and the most populous post-communist member of the European Union. Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland


Polish Proverbs

Appearance

¶ A hippo does not have a sting in its tail, but a wise man would still rather be sat on by a bee.

Language

¶ Words must be weighed, not counted.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland