Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic . IPA, located in south western Europe on the Iberian Peninsula , is the westernmost country of mainland Europe . The country is fairly homogeneous linguistically and religiously. Native Portuguese are ethnically a combination of pre-Roman Iberians and Celts with some Roman, Germanic, and Moorish influences, among other minor contributions. The biggest metropolitan areas are Lisbon , Porto , Braga , Coimbra , Setúbal and Aveiro.
Portugal is bordered by Spain to the north and east and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are also part of Portugal . Portugal is a democratic republic ruled by the constitution of 1976 with Lisbon , the nation's largest city, as its capital.
The four main governing components are the president of the republic, the assembly of the republic , the government , and the courts. The constitution grants the complete separation of powers among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The president, who is elected to a five-year term, has a supervising, nonexclusive role. The Assembly of the Republic is a unicameral parliament composed of 230 deputies elected for four-year terms.
Portugal has been a member of NATO since 1949, the European Union since 1986, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries since 1996. It has a friendship alliance and dual citizenship treaty with Brazil . It has good relations with the United States , the United Kingdom and China (due to Macau ), as well as the other European Union countries. The major industries include oil refineries, automotive, cement production, pulp and paper industry, textile, footwear, furniture, and cork (the world's leading producer). Agriculture no longer represents the bulk of the economy, but Portuguese wines, namely Port Wine (named after the country's second largest city, Porto ) and Madeira Wine (named after Madeira Island ), are exported worldwide. Tourism is also important, especially in the Algarve and Madeira Islands .
Portugal , long a country of emigration, has now become a country of net immigration, and not just from the former Indian and African colonies. Today, many Eastern Europeans (especially Ukrainians, Moldavians, Romanians and Russians), as well as Brazilians, are making Portugal their home. There is a rapidly growing community of Chinese and a notable number of Macanese, who are descendants of Chinese and Portuguese settlers, with some Malays and Indians.
Countries
| PORTUGAL
