This beautiful profile we later came to know and love as Portugal has been at the sight of great civilizations (and vice-versa, I suspect) since the beginnings of time as we know it. With its bold nose sticking out in the most adorable Cleopatra-like of ways (a good omen), this piece of land has clearly never went by unnoticed. It is said that Ulysses himself inaugurated its tip, but we can never be too sure. What we know for a fact is that the Phoenicians set foot and businesses on the same spot where now stands Lisbon exactly 3200 years ago, which makes the Portuguese capital one of the most ancient cities in Europe – yes, we’re talking about Rome’s big sister here, and the romans themselves eventually came. After getting bored with “their sea”, they thought it would be nice to get a taste of the wide Atlantic, but instead met the resistance of the indigenous people we are proud to call our ancestors: the fierce, brave and rough Lusitanian, from whom we inherited our epithet. But the Romans eventually stuck, around II AC, and with them Romanization.

 

Then the empire fell, and in came the Visigoths and other northern invaders, and later, in 711, the Moors. And here comes a juicy part of History. Why do you think the two countries in the Iberian Peninsula were able, centuries later, to rule the seas and the unknown world? We’ll get there - but first know that the Arabs were at the peak of their civilization, and along with their luggage they brought mind-blowing scientific, mathematical and even philosophical knowledge that helped shape the dawn of a new era.

 

Meanwhile, in the North of the peninsula where the old Catholic and Visigoth nobility had fled to, an old thirst for land power reappeared. By then the peninsula was divided by moors and little catholic kingdoms. A small county around the city of Porto was given to an Iberian king’s daughter and her new crusader husband. And the seed for Portugal was planted. Their son, D. Afonso Henriques, fought for the county’s independence, thus becoming the first king of Portugal, in 1143. The following early Portuguese kings fought their way down the Peninsula, completely expelling the Moors one hundred years later (but 200 years before the Spanish, by the way). This feat was what made Portugal the oldest state-nation in Europe, with unchanged borders for almost 800 years.

 

Well, for a country that had been born fighting for its survival, the only logical thing to do when the Portuguese hit the shores of the algarve on the Xiii century was to continue their way down, fighting whoever came across their path: Spanish on the east (battles between Portugal and Spain were recurrent until the XVII century – and we won!) and the Moors south. In the early XV century we were setting foot in Africa, conquering Ceuta, the first breakthrough of the Portuguese global empire. From there on we mastered the seas that offered us the African coast, Vasco da Gama unlocked the ocean’s way to India in 1498 and Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the shores of Brazil two years later.

 

In Asia, the Portuguese established themselves in Malacca and Ormuz, were the first Europeans to ever enter Japan, and in the XVI century a Portuguese adventurer became king of Myanmar. These were just small landmarks on a wide, fascinating picture. This was the time when the World multiplied into mysterious and disconcerting parallel realities. This was the time when the secret vastness of the world was cracked open and poured down on anyone eager to learn. This was the time when distant peoples l ooked each other’s eyes, when new foods were tasted, new languages heard. This was one of the most exciting times to ever live – brought to you by Portugal (and Spain). And, as I suspect poetry is never wrong, this is why I believe we were gifted the face of Europe, with its bold protruding nose and eyes set on the big, wide ocean.