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The Military history of Portugal is as long as the history of the country, either before the emergence of the socio-political reality of an independent Portuguese state, either after that.
Before Portugal
Before the emergence of Portugal, between the 9th and the 12th centuries, its territory was part of important military conflicts - these were mainly the result of three processes.
Roman Expansion
Roman conquest of Hispania (218 BC to 17 BC)
- The Roman conquest of Hispania, a long process from 218 BC (in the context of the Second Punic War) to 17 BC (already during Emperor Augustus), that had three major confrontations regarding modern Portuguese territory:
- The Roman republican civil wars that took place, wholly or partially, in Hispania, even if in interaction and connection to the process of conquest, namely:
Germanic Expansion
The invasions during the Migration Period and the Decline of the Roman Empire, in the beginning of the 5th century, and the subsequent conflicts between conquerors (until the 8th century), namely:
- Invasion of Roman Gallaecia by the Germanic Suevi (Quadi and Marcomanni) under king Hermerico, accompanied by the Buri in 409.
- Invasion of Hispania by the Germanic Vandals (Silingi - established in Baetica, and Hasdingi - established in interior Gallaecia, near the Suevi) and the Sarmatian Alans (established in Roman Lusitania), in 409.
- Invasion of Hispania by the Germanic Visigoths lead by King Theodorid, expanding from Aquitaine and under request by the Romans, in 410, establishing the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania.
- The war between The Suevi and the Hasdingi Vandals, were the first resisted with Roman aid, in 419.
- The war between the Alans and the Suevi and Romans, were the last two are defeated at the Battle of Mérida, in 428.
- The war between the Visigoths and the Vandal-Alanic alliance, that ended in 429, with most of the Vandals and Alans moving to North Africa.
- The on and off continuous dynastical disputes between the Suevi.
- The on and off continuous war between the Suevi and the Visigoths, that ended when the Visigothic king, Liuvigild, conquered the Suevic kingdom in 585.
- The war between the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania and the Byzantine Empire in its southern Iberian province of Spania, from 552 until 624.
- The dynastic and civil war in the Visigothic Kingdom between the supporters of Achila II (controlling most of eastern Hispania) and Roderic (controlling most of western Iberia).
Islamic Expansion
- The Moorish Umayyad conquest of Hispania, from 711 to 718, taking advantage of the civil war, and that established the Islamic Al Andalus.
- The Reconquista , from 722, initially lead by Pelagius of Asturias, until 1249 (in Portugal only), the Christian reaction to the Muslim invasion in which several Christian kingdoms slowly expanded themselves over Iberia at the expense of the Moorish states of Al-Andalus, and in the context of which Portugal emerges as an autonomous entity as the First County of Portugal, in 868, when Count Vímara Peres conquers the area from the Minho River to the Douro River, including the city of Portus Cale, from were the name and political entity of Portugal issued.
Portuguese Reconquista (868-1249)
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The Reconquista, 790-1300
First County of Portugal and County of Coimbra
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Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal
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Second County of Portugal
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Kingdom of Portugal
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After the Reconquista - conflicts with Castile
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1383–1385 Crisis
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Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
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Imperial expansion
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An anachronous map of the Portuguese Empire (1415-1999). Red - actual possessions; Pink - explorations, areas of influence and trade and claims of sovereignty; Blue - main sea explorations, routes and areas of influence. The disputed discovery of Australia is not shown.
Conflicts with Spain
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Other European conflicts
The Napoleonic Wars
War of the Oranges (1801)
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Instabililty prior to the French invasions
Riots of Campo de Ourique (1802-1803)
Conspiracy of the Marquis of Alorna (1802)
Conspiracy of Mafra (1805)
Riots of Saint Torcato (1805)
Peninsular War (1807-1814)
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Main article: Peninsular War
First invasion
During the Napoleonic Wars, Portugal was, for a time, Britain's only ally on the continent. Throughout the war, Portugal maintained a military of about 200-250 thousand troops worldwide. In 1807, after the Portuguese government's refusal to participate in the Continental System, French troops under General Junot invaded Portugal, taking Lisbon. However, a popular revolt against Junot's government broke out in the summer of 1808 and Portuguese irregulars took up arms against the French. This enabled a British army under Arthur Wellesley to be landed in Portugal where, aided by Portuguese troops, he defeated Junot at the Battle of Vimeiro; this first French invasion was ended by the Convention of Sintra negotiated by his superiors, which shamefully allowed Junot's men to withdraw unmolested with their plunder. Meanwhile the general revolt against the French in Spain led to the landing of Sir John Moore in the north of that country, forcing Napoleon himself to lead an army into the Peninsula. Though Moore was killed the British managed to extricate themselves from the Peninsula in the Battle of La Coruña. Portugal itself, however, remained independent of the French, and Napoleon left things in the Iberian Peninsula in the hands of Marshal Soult.
The Second and Third invasions
Soult proceeded to invade Portugal in the north. However, the Portuguese held on, giving the British the impetus to send Wellesley back with additional regiments of troops to help recover the Iberian peninsula. Wellesley, aided by the remaining Portuguese regiments hastily scraped together and by Spanish guerrillas, liberated Portugal. A third invasion took place, led by Marshal Andre Masséna. The Anglo-Portuguese forces managed to halt the French advance at the fortifications of Torres Vedras and successfully defeat Masséna's troops, and slowly recovered the Iberian peninsula. Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington in recognition of his services. The Portuguese army was put under the command of Marshal Beresford and was most heavily engaged under his leadership in the bloody Battle of Albuera. Portuguese forces also formed part of Wellington's advance into southern France, 1813-14.
Persecutions of the Setembrizada (1809-1810)
British de facto occupation
Conspiracy of Gomes Freire (1817)
Civil Wars (1820-1851)
Liberal Revolution (1820)
Martinhada (1820)
Riots of 1821
Conspiracy of Major Pimenta (1821)
Conspiracy of Formosa street (1822)
Riots of the 24th and 10th Infantry Regiments (1822)
Riots in Castelo Branco and S. Miguel d'Acha (1822)
Saldanha's coup d'état (1822)
Rebellion of the Count of Amarante (1823)
The Vilafrancada (1823)
Conspiracy of Elvas (1823)
The Abrilada (1823)
Disturbances of 1826-1827
- Riots of Trás-os-Montes
- Sublevation of the Royal Police Guard
- Rebellion of Algarve and Alentejo
- Archotada
- Miguelite riots in Coimbra
The Liberal Wars (1828-1834)
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Main article: Liberal Wars
After the Napoleonic War, the British ruled Portugal in the name of the absent king in Brazil, with Beresford as de facto Regent, until the revolution of 1820 when they were driven out and the king returned as a constitutional monarch. Over the next 25 years the fledgling Portuguese democracy experienced several military upheavals, especially the Liberal Wars fought between the brothers Dom Pedro, ex-Emperor of Brazil and the absolutist usurper Dom Miguel. To assert the cause of the rightful Queen, his daughter Maria da Gloria, Pedro sailed from Terceira in the Azores with an expeditionary force consisting of 60 vessels, 7500 men including the Count of Vila Flor, Alexandre Herculano, Almeida Garrett, Joaquim António de Aguiar, José Travassos Valdez and a volunteer British contingent under the command of Colonels George Lloyd Hodges and Charles Shaw and effected a landing at Mindelo on the shores north of Oporto. On 9 July Oporto was taken by the liberal forces, who despite winning the Battle of Ponte Ferreira on 22-23 July were besieged in the city by the Miguelites for nearly a year until, in July 1833 the Duke of Terceira (as Vila Flor had now been created) was able to land in the Algarve and defeat Miguel's forces at the battle of Almada. Meanwhile Miguel's fleet was comprehensively defeated by Pedro's much smaller squadron, commanded by Charles Napier, in the fourth Battle of Cape St. Vincent. The Miguelites were driven out of Lisbon but returned and attacked the city in force, unsuccessfully. Miguel was finally defeated at the Battle of Asseiceira, 16 May 1834, and capitulated a few days later at Évora. He was exiled, though his supporters continued to plot for his return and cause trouble up to the 1850s.
- Liberal revolt in Porto (1828)
- Belfastada (1828)
- Revolt of the Royal Navy Brigade (1829)
- Revolt of Lisbon (1831)
- Revolt of the 2nd Infantry Regiment (1831)
- Siege of Porto and civil war (1832-1833)
Coup attempt of 1835
Guerrilla of the Remexido (1835-1838)
Other Guerrillas
- Guerrilla of Jorge Boto
- Guerrilla of Dom Manuel Martinini
- Guerrilla of Galamba
- Guerrilla of Father Góis
- Guerrilla of Milhundos
- Guerrilla of the Marçais
- Guerrilla of the Garranos
- Guerrilla of the Brandões
- Miguelite Guerrillas
September Revolution (1836)
Belenzada (1836)
Conspiracy of the Marnotas (1837)
Revolt of the Marshals (1837)
Massacre of Rossio and Riots of the Arsenal (1838)
Riots of Lisbon (1840)
Military Revolt of Castelo Branco (1840)
Coup of 1842
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