On the wars:
In the middle ages, there were the wars of the so called Reconquista, which included also wars between the christian kingdoms. Contrarily to modern popular beliefs, it was not that unusual to see a muslim and christian kings allied against another christian king. In the portuguese case an example was the imprisionment of king Afonso Henriques in Badajoz in 1169, in which the king of Leon was allied with the muslims. This would end the expansion to the east, in the modern day spanish provinces of Estremadura and Andalucia.
This period in 1249 with the conquest of the last muslim cities of Algarve.
But in 1250 there was already a war against Castille for the possession of Algarve, which ends in 1253. Castille abandons the intentions over Algarve in a treaty of 1267.
In this era there were also several internal struggles between the crown and nobles or between different pretenders to the throne.
There were also some invasions of portuguese armies of spanish cties and vice-versa. Portugal also aided Castille in some campaigns against the muslim lords (eg, the mudéjar rebelions).
Of course, this medieval "wars" are more due to rivalries between the lords than national wars. When Afonso Henriques invades a leonese city he does it to defend his rights in the heritage and sucession in the neighbour kingdom. The same pinciple is pesent in the civil war of 1319-1324 between the king Dinis and his son, the future Afonso IV, who demands more rights to himself and more participation in the "government affairs".
In the XIV century there were wars with Castille in 1336-1339, 1369-1371, 1372-1373 and 1381-1382. The last three were caused by king Fernando and brought them impopularity of the highest order. He dies in 1383, which brought a great instability, as the main pretender to the throne was the castilian king. In 1383 a bastard son of Afonso IV, João de Avis, murders the hated count Andeiro, lover of the regent and is acclaimed by the people as Defende of the Kingdom. Castile invades. The revolution and war of 1383-1385 is the most important event in the creation of the national identity. The people supports the party of João de Avis against the high nobility that supports Castille. The portuguese army defeats the castillians in every battle, the most notorious of which the battle of Aljubarrota, the most celebated battle in our history. The portuguese army is lead by the young Condestable Nuno Álvares Pereira, who is also the most celebrated soldier in the portuguese history.
In 1385 the Cortes (a sort of predecessor of the parliament) elect João de Avis as king, João I. the consequences of this war or crisis are huge. The elites were replaced by new men, men of action, as the new king himself. In a way, european modern age is born here, as this is the generation that will start the Discoveries or the portuguese overseas expansion.
Continuing with the subject of the wars, definitive peace with Castille was only signed in 1411. In 1515 there was the conquest of Ceuta, the beggining of the portuguese expansion. Many military campaigns in Morocco happened in the XIV century, most notably the ones of Afonso V,
the African, who conquered several cities in the north of Africa.
Then with the expansion to Africa, Brazil and the Indian Ocean there wee ofcourse many wars against the natives and the Turks in the Indian Ocean.The most notorious are the conquests of Afonso de Albuquerque in India, Persia, several islands in the Indian Ocean and Malaysia, etc. Some of these cities would be portuguese for 450 years. There were also confrontations with the chinese to force the opening of their ports.
In the 1550s France occupied territories in Brazil and they wee expelled in 1558.
In 1578 the king Sebastião, puting his wild dreams into action, suffered a defeat in Morocco and died. The portuguese army was completely anihilated and 2 years later Felipe II of Spain became king of Portugal. After this, Portugal took place in every Habsburg war until the restoration of 1640. Furthermoe, even if in theory, Portugal was still an independent kingdom, the dutch, french and english didn't think that way and attacked portuguese territories and colonies as if they were spanish.
The restoration of the independence happened in 1640 and there was of course a war with Spain because of that. In the following years, there were also wars with the dutch in Africa, Brazil and the east. The dutch were beaten in Brazil and Angola. Peace was signed in 1661 and with Spain in 1668.
Portugal took place in the War of Sucession of Spain since 1703 on the same side as England, Holland and the Empire, supporting the Habsburg candidate against France. AIn this war a portuguese army occupied Madid and acclaimed the Habsburg candidate there. France sacked Brazil. Peace was signed in 1713 with France and 1715 with Spain.
There was a declaration of war against Spain in 1735, but nothing happened until peace was signed in 1737.
Of couse, wars against the natives continued to happen in the colonies.
In 1761, Portugal refuses to sign a pact with France and Spain (the "Family Pact" or whateve it is called and Spain invades Portugal, but nothing really happens.
In 1777 there was a war in Brazil wuth Spain. Uruguay was lost and in 1801, Spain conquers Olivença in the War of the Oranges
. In 1807 napoleonic troops invade Portugal and again in 1809 and 1810. Wellington arrives in Portugal with an english army in 1808. The royal family escapes to Brazil and Portugal becomnes the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, ie, Brazil is no longe a colony but a kingdom associated to Portugal, and in fact even after Napoleon's defeat, the king prefers to live there. The napoleonic wars also had a huge role in the shaping of modern Portugal. Liberal ideas were spread and the royal family had no sympathies for their escape. There was a messy period that ended after the civil war of 1828-1834 between absolutists and liberals with the victory of the latter. In the meanwhile Bazil became independent. Exiled absolutists still tried one or another coup without success, but there was a brief civil war in 1846 after several popular and absolutist revolts that ended with the intervention of France, England and Spain.
Throughout the XIX century and early XX century, like any other colonist power, there was a movement of effective ocupation of the african territories which caused several other wars with natives, especially in Angola and Mozambique.
In 1910 the Republic was proclaimed and in the following years there would be a couple of monarchic atempts, but without success. In 1916 Portugal entered WWI and fought in Africa and the westen Front.
In 1926 there was a coup d'état that installed a military regime, and there were brief fightings between the dictatorship government and the oposition. In 1961 India annexed the portuguese possessions in the subcontinent and the colonial war against the self-determination movements of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau begun. It lasted until 1974 and the democratic revolution of 25th April. This war was a very important event in modern Portugal and eventually the oposition of the public opinion to such war was the direct cause of the coup d'état of 1974. To Portugal it is the same thing as the Vietname war for the USA. It marked an entire generation and the future vision of war to the portuguese people.
Finally, Portugal took part in the recent NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia.
And I think that covers it.
@yaroslav: Well, I couldn't care less about Olivença, and neither does anyone here, not even the government. And if they don't say so openly is only because of political correctness
. Basically all bakeries here are owned by the portugas.
