My Science School

               Portugal is a sovereign state in the Western Europe. It comprises of the continental part of Portugal on the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, and the small archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean.

               Once continental Europe’s greatest power, Portugal shares geographic and cultural commonalities with the countries of both Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. The country has a population of 10.3 million people. Its capital and largest city is Lisbon. The official language is Portuguese.

               During the Age of Discovery, Portugal was at the forefront of European exploration in the 15th and 16th centuries: Ferdinand Magellan was the first person to circumnavigate the globe; Vasco de Gama discovered the sea route to India; Bartholomew Diaz was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa, which he called the Cape of Good Hope; and Alvares Cabral and others discovered new lands, including Brazil, parts of Africa and the Far East — and claimed them for Portugal. Portugal monopolized the spice trade during this time.