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Portugal's name derives from the Roman name Portus Cale, a mixed Greek and Roman name meaning "Beautiful Port".

In the early first millennium BCE, several waves of Celts invaded Portugal from central Europe and intermarried with the local Iberian people, forming the Celt-Iberian ethnic group. Two of the new tribes formed by the intermarrying were the Lusitanians, who lived between the Douro and Tagus rivers, and the Calaicians, who lived north of the Douro river with several other tribes. A Phoenician colony was established in southern Portugal, the Conii. The Celtics, a later wave of Celts, settled in Alentejo. In 238 BCE, the Carthaginians occupied the Iberian coasts.

Dancing - Portugal has the traditional folklore (Ranchos Folclóricos), with many varieties from each region. Portugal with Angola has a shared rhythm known as "Kuduro" (popular in both countries), a sort of 'hard samba' with fast movements and extreme sensuality and strong African rhythm, performed mainly by Angolans or Angolan descents. This mixture of Portuguese and Angolan influence has also created the Brazilian Samba and the Angolan Kizomba, which have softer movements.

Football is the most known, loved and practiced sport in Portugal. Luís Figo is one of the world's top players, but the legendary Eusébio, Rui Costa and Cristiano Ronaldo are also noteworthy. Between several other great names in the European scene, we can find Futre, Vitor Baia, and Paulo Sousa.

The Socialist Party, under the leadership of António Guterres, came to power following the October 1995 parliamentary elections. The Socialists later won a new mandate by winning exactly half the parliamentary seats in the October 1999 election, and constituing then the XIV Constitutional Government.

In the 5th century, Germanic tribes, known as the barbarians, invaded the peninsula. One of these, the Suevi, stopped fighting and founded a kingdom whose domains were, approximately, in today's Portugal. They fixed their capital in Bracara. Later, the Visigoths conquered this kingdom, unifying the Peninsula.

In the elections of February 20, the Socialist Party obtained its largest victory ever; for the first time in the democratic history of the country a Socialist government would be formed with an absolute majority in the Assembly of the Republic.

In 1095 Portugal seperated almost definitly from the Kingdom of Galicia, Both under the rule of the kingdom of Leon, just like Castille (Burgos). Its territories consisting largely of mountain, moorland and forest, were bounded on the north by the Minho, on the south by the Mondego.

In 1975, Portugal granted independence to its Overseas Provinces (Províncias Ultramarinas in Portuguese) in Africa (Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe). In that same year, Indonesia invaded and annexed the Portuguese province of Portuguese Timor (East Timor) in Asia before independence could be granted. The Asian dependency of Macau, after an agreement in 1986, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. Portugal applied international pressure to secure East Timor's independence from Indonesia, as East Timor was still legally a Portuguese dependency, and recognized as such by the United Nations. After a referendum in 1999, East Timor voted for independence and Portugal recognized its independence in 2002.

Portugal was a strong advocate of independence for East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, and has committed troops and money to East Timor, in close cooperation with the United States, Asian allies, and the United Nations.

Early Greek explorers named the region "Ophiussa" (Greek for "land of serpents") because the natives worshipped serpents.

In a survey on nationalism and European issues made by a newspaper in Portugal in 1994, revealed that only 9% of the Portuguese people would consider themselves as very little or not at all nationalist, while 43% consider themselves as a lot or extremely nationalist. But when the question is federalism in Europe, Portuguese people do not see a contradiction between a European identity and nationalism, 51% of the interviewed would even agree with Portugal's integration in a supposed United States of Europe, while 27% would be against (22% do not have an opinion). Portuguese public opinion and media tend to be Europhile, in the EuroBarometer's 2004 Spring survey, 60% of the Portuguese trusted the EU.

The Portuguese monarchy was deposed by the revolution of 1910, starting the First Republic. It was marked by chaos and Portuguese participation in the World War I; it came to an end in 1926 when a nationalist military coup d'etat gave birth to the Second Republic, a period of almost fifty years of repressive rule.

In 1807 Portugal refused Napoleon's demand to accede to the Continental System of embargo against Great Britain; a French invasion under Marshal Junot followed, and Lisbon was captured on 1 December 1807. British intervention in the Peninsular War restored Portuguese independence, the last French troops being expelled in 1812. The war cost Portugal the province of Olivença, now governed by Spain.