Part I:
Few nations have been involved in international activities for as long and with as many countries as has Portugal. Its long coast-line and connection to the sea has been enticing adventurers for centuries. Its mainland occupies the western part of the Iberian Peninsula. It is mountainous in the northern section of the country, contains fertile plains in the central part, and is of mixed terrain in the southern regions. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the West, Spain to the North and East, and the Mediterranean Sea to the South. In addition, the country consists of the Madeira Islands located 535 miles from Lisbon, and the Açores located 900 miles from the mainland. The two archipelagos are mountainous with fertile soil known for their dense forests (The New York Times Almanac 2001, 642).

By the 16th century, Portugal’s explorers had already sailed west to South America, and east to all countries along the coast of Africa, India, Indonesia, and Japan. As a result, it was the first European power to evolve into an imperial power with worldwide interests and colonies in distant regions.

Portugal’s imperial status was retained until the early part of the 19th century. Then the impacts of dynastic civil wars, foreign invasions of its own mainland, and liberation movements in the colonies, weakened Portugal’s central government. Eventually these events led to the toppling of the monarchy (1910) and the institution of a fascist military dictatorship. Subsequently, it fell to a Marxist regime, the policies of which were anti-monarchy.

By 1976, Portugal had lost all of its overseas colonies except Macau, and moreover was strained by the restrictions of a command economy and the influx of about a million ethnic Portuguese refugees from the country’s former colonies. These developments served to further weaken Portugal’s ties with the outside world, and dilute it into an ordinary state with limited international influence (Vasconcelos 1999, 19-20).

Then in 1987, Portugal saw the end of its Marxist regime and the start of a new era led by the Social Democrats who were committed to a free enterprise economy, including the privatization of state-owned firms and the dissolution of collective agricultural farms. Since then, Portugal has made a concerted effort to recapture its lost status in global politics and markets.

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