1. And here Portugal was born… Guimarães Castle

2.  It all started in the XI century, when a Crusade, a noble French knight, D. Henrique of Borgonha, came to help the king of Lion and Castela, D. Afonso VI, to defend the christianianism and fight against the Arabians. D. Henrique of Borgonha, came to help the king of Lion and Castela, D. Afonso VI, to defend the christianianism and fight against the Arabians.

3.   In 1096, the king of Lion and Castela, wanted to reward D.Henrique for his performance defending the kingdom, so he granted him the Portucalense County and offered another him his daughter’s hand, Teresa.   D. Henrique wished to broaden his territorial powers.

4.   After the death of D. Henrique, his son, D. Afonso Henriques, fighted against his mother and assumed the throne of the County. D. Afonso Henriques wanted to make Portugal independent. However, he continued to conquer lands while fighting against the arabians, going to the south. After having defeated his cousin, Afonso VII, king of Lion and Castela, he negotiated the agreement of peace and the independence of the kingdom definitively, in 1143, in the Treat of Zamora.

5.   After some time he finally got the recognition of the kingdom of the Church of Rome, the main religious and political authority of the time. In 1179 The Pope Alexander III, recognized the royalty of D. Afonso Henriques and the independence of Portugal, through the papal brief “Manifestis Probatum”.

6.  In  In 1249, about a century after the independence of the kingdom, D. Afonso III concluded the conquest of the Portuguese territory. But only in 1297 D. Dinis and D. Fernando of Castela, signed the Treat of Alcanises, which definitely fixed the borders of Portugal.

7.  THE  THE END  Escola  Escola Básica 2,3 da Lousã Portugal  António  António Neves nr 4, José Serra nr 11,  Daniel  Daniel Ramos nr 15, Rui Duarte nr 19  Class  Class 9 A   “Welcome to Europe”   November 2007