Tell about Portuguese ?

The Portuguese language is the 6th most spoken language in the world with 220 to 240 million native speakers around the world. It’s the official language of 9 countries, and is spoken in the 5 continents!

The Portuguese Empire would rule, among others, over Brazil, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Goa, Daman, Diu, Kochi, Malacca, and Macau. The African colonies were granted independence only in 1975 after the collapse of the dictatorship. Macau, the last Portuguese colony, was handed over to China in 1999.

The Roman conquest of what is now part of Portugal took almost two hundred years and took many lives of young soldiers and the lives of those who were sentenced to a certain death in the slave mines when not sold as slaves to other parts of the empire.

Portugal played a leading role in the infamous Triangular Atlantic Slave Trade, which involved the mass trade and transportation of slaves from Africa and other parts of the world to the American continent. Also, Lagos’ slave market, built-in 1444, was Europe’s first slave market!

Portugal was the first colonial power to abolish slavery, all the way back in 1761 – that’s half a century before Britain, France, Spain, or the United States.

It suffered a severe setback in 155 BC, when a rebellion began in the north. The Lusitanians and other native tribes, under the leadership of Viriathus, wrested control of all of western Iberia.

In 1846 Portugal started the process of abolishing the Death Penalty and the formal abolishment of capital punishment for civil crimes occurred in 1867. Furthermore, Portugal and Spain are the only countries in EU to have abandoned life imprisonment.

Established in 1732, Bertrand bookshop, located in Lisbon, Portugal, is the oldest operating bookshop. Although it was destroyed in the great Lisbon earthquake of 1755, it was moved to the very location it still occupies in 1773.

Portugal produces 70% of the world's cork exports. Main importers of Portuguese cork are: Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. The country also has the largest cork forest.