Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0296/02967.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 37KB | 592 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02967}
$Pretitle{381}
$Title{Portugal
Chapter 3A.   Physical Environment}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{William J. Simon}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{miles
portugal
rio
region
area
alentejo
minho
north
tejo
algarve}
$Date{1976}
$Log{Figure 8.*0296701.scf
Figure 9.*0296702.scf
Figure 10.*0296703.scf
}
Country:     Portugal
Book:        Portugal, A Country Study
Author:      William J. Simon
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1976

Chapter 3A.   Physical Environment

     Portugal is one of the smaller countries of Europe, its continental
portion occupying 34,312 square miles, or about one-sixth of the Iberian
Peninsula. Historically Iberia has been considered a remote compartment of
Europe, culturally separated, even isolated, from the rest of the continent
by the Pyrenees between France and Spain. For Portugal, on the far western
edge of the peninsula with the vastness of Spain between it and the continent,
the isolation was even more pronounced and gave the country an Atlantic
orientation from the earliest days. A reminder of this geographical and
historical orientation is the fact that two Atlantic Ocean archipelagoes-the
Azores, about 800 miles due west of Lisbon, and the Madeira Islands, about
600 miles to the southwest-are part of metropolitan Portugal. Including the
Azores (nine major islands and several islets covering about 890 square miles)
and Madeira (two major and several minor islands covering about 308 square
miles), metropolitan Portugal has a total land area of about 35,510 square
miles. Portugal also exercises jurisdiction over the Selvagens, a group of
small uninhabited islands about 145 miles southeast of Madeira.

     Portugal has several distinct geographical regions where the culture
of the people has been markedly influenced by the physical environment in
which they live and work. Northern Portugal is a mountainous, rainy region,
characterized by vineyards and small farms; in the central coastal region,
largely consisting of dunes and pine forests, farmers often supplement
their incomes and diets by becoming part-time fishermen; the greater Lisbon
area is a mixture of small farms and intensive industrialization; the interior
agricultural areas with small to medium-sized farms and some mining and light
industry form a transitional zone into the Alentejo, the region south of the
Rio Tejo, where large-scale agriculture and grazing are predominant; finally
in the extreme south the Algarve is a dry region of small holdings where
animal grazing and fishing are the chief occupations of the inhabitants. The
outstanding influence in Portugal's geography is not a land feature or any
combination of features; rather it is the Atlantic Ocean, and many Portuguese
have traditionally turned to the sea for their livelihoods.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUBDIVISIONS AND BOUNDARIES

Regional and Administrative Subdivisions

     For administrative purposes metropolitan Portugal is divided into
districts (distritos). For several hundred years after becoming an independent
state the country was divided into six provinces for administration (see
fig. 8). In 1833 the provinces were abolished as such, and the country was
divided into districts patterned after the French departmental system. The
new districts were named after their capital cities, but the old province
names-Minho, Tras-os-Montes, Beira, Estremadura, Alentejo, and
Algarve-remained in common use as regional designations. One hundred years
later the 1933 Constitution reintroduced the province as an administrative
subdivision, superimposing eleven provinces over the existing eighteen
districts (see fig. 9). There was almost immediate dissatisfaction with the
new administrative breakdown but, because the system had been incorporated
into the constitution, it remained in force for several years. Meanwhile the
district continued as the major administrative subdivision, and in 1959
the province classification was again abolished. In early 1976 there were
twenty-two administrative districts-eighteen in the Iberian homeland, three
in the Azores, and one consisting of the Madeira archipelago (see fig. 1).
Province names, usually of the six old provinces but often of the eleven
later provinces, continue in use as regional designations.

     Portugal's twenty-two districts are divided into municipalities
(concelhos-see Glossary), which in turn are subdivided into parishes
(freguesias-see Glossary). In Lisbon and Porto there is an intermediate level,
known as the ward (bairro), between the municipality and the parish. In
mainland Portugal there are more than 300 municipalities and almost 4,000
parishes. The three districts of the Azores are divided into nineteen
municipalities and 189 parishes; Funchal District (Madeira) is divided into
eleven municipalities and fifty-three parishes.

Boundaries

     Portugal's boundaries are the Atlantic Ocean, along which it has a
coastline of 523 miles, and Spain, with which it shares a northern frontier
of about 210 miles and an eastern frontier of about 540 miles. The
Spanish-Portuguese frontier is easily traversed overland, and rivers form the
boundary in many places. The boundaries of modern Portugal were fixed by
treaties in 1864 and 1906, and in early 1976 there were no disputes, nor were
there serious Portuguese claims to Olivenca and Juromenha, two Alentejo towns
seized by Spain in 1801 and not returned despite an agreement in 1815.

[See Figure 8.: Portugal, the Old Provinces]

[See Figure 9.: Portugal, 1933 Provinces]

     In the north the border follows the Rio Minho from its mouth on the
Atlantic coast for forty-six miles to the point where the Minho divides
Portugal from Spain. The deep valley formed by the river creates a natural
frontier between the Spanish region of Galicia and the Minho region of
Portugal. From the Rio Minho the border traverses a series of rugged mountain
ranges, crossing several tributaries of the Rio Douro before reaching the
point where that river enters Portugal.

     The eastern boundary with Spain runs in a generally north-south
direction, occasionally changing to an east-west direction for relatively
short distances before ending at the mouth of the Rio Guadiana on the Gulf
of Cadiz. For seventy-four miles the boundary follows the Rio Douro which,
like the Rio Minho, forms a deep gorge, making it another natural dividing
line. At Barca d'Alva, the upper navigation limit for small craft on the
Douro, the river turns west, but the border continues southward through the
thinly populated Serra das Mesas. Continuing in a southwestern direction, the
boundary reaches the Rio Tejo valley and follows the Tejo for thirty miles
west before turning sharply to the southeast. In this region there is more
population than along the northern frontier. The boundary follows small rivers
until it reaches the Rio Guadiana, whose course it follows through the
Elvas-Badajoz area, a rolling countryside that has no natural obstacles and
through which Portugal was often invaded in earlier eras.

     The boundary leaves the Guadiana and juts eastward for about seventy
miles to the Rio Chanca, which it follows westward through a sparsely
populated area before returning to the Guadiana. The boundary is formed by the
Guadiana until it reaches the ocean at Vila Real de Santo Antonio. As there
are no bridges across the river, the only connection with Spain on the lower
Guadiana is by ferry.

NATURAL FEATURES

Topography

     Portugal, a small country, has a wide variety of landforms, climatic
conditions, and soils. The topography changes from area to area, but the
most notable differences are those between the north and the south; the Rio
Tejo forms a convenient dividing line between the hilly to mountainous regions
of the north and the great rolling plains of the south (see fig. 10). Within
these two major geographic regions there are subdivisions that further reflect
the vast differences in the country. The names of the six provinces that
existed fro