Lisbon is one of the oldest European cities. Founded by the Phoenicians, Lisbon was also home to the Romans, the Alans, and the Moors before the Christian armies of the Reconquista reclaimed the city in 1147.
This was the center of the Portuguese Maritime Expansion, the first city in Portugal to adopt anti-seismic building techniques, and the heart of the Carnation Revolution. In Lisbon, you can unravel an impressive past that defined Portugal’s history and that of the wider world.
Lisbon’s Ancient History
It may surprise you, but the Neandertals were the first to arrive in Lisbon. After that, throughout the Neolithic to the Iron Age, Lisbon was home to the Oesteminis, the first protohistoric Iberian people, followed by the Phoenicians.
In 1200 BCE, the Phoenicians founded Lisbon and named it Alis Ubbo (safe harbor). Due to the land’s geography, the Tagus River mouth was the perfect natural harbor where merchants and sailors could safely dock their ships. Over the centuries, Alis Ubbo was an important trading for the Phoenicians and Carthaginians.
Around 200 BCE Alis Ubbo fell at the hands of the Romans and became Olisipo. With the “Pax Romana,” the Roman Empire absorbed the city and its citizens received Roman citizenship, a privilege rarely granted to non-Italian people at that time.
Julius Caesar declared Olisipo a municipality, and the city became known as Felicitas Julia Olisipo. Due to the city’s harbor, growing population, and economic activities, Felicitas Julia Olisipo quickly became one of the most important Lusitanian cities.
In the 5th century CE, the Roman overexpansion, government corruption, and political instability weakened the empire and left Roman provinces vulnerable. At the same time, barbarian tribes took advantage of the frail legions and invaded several provinces at once. One of them was Lusitania. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Vandals took over Olissipo, followed by the Alans. During this period, the city was sacked and burned down.
In 469, the Suevi Kingdom conquered Olisipo and became known as Olisipona. The Visigoths battled the Suevi over the city, which was sacked several times. One century later, in 585, Visigothic King Leovigildo conquered the Suevi Kingdom and unified the Iberian territories under one ruler.
Nevertheless, during these troubled times, Lisbon kept its commercial relationships with Eastern merchants, as Greeks, Syrians, and Jews formed communities to trade local products in India, Asia, and the Byzantine Empire.
The Opulent Al-Ushbuna in the Middle Ages
After three centuries of constant war and pillaging, Olisipona lost its commercial relevance. Merchants preferred safer harbors to do business, transforming the city into a small village. In the 8th century, the Visigoths faced internal battles, where nobles and commoners had to choose between one of two kings claiming the throne.
In 711, the Moorish general Tariq ibn Ziyad and his army entered the Iberian Peninsula through Gibraltar, reached Olisipona in 712, and named it Al-Ushbuna. Under Moorish rule, Al-Ushbuna regained its reputation as an important commercial trading post. By the 10th century, historians estimate the city had over 100,000 inhabitants, making it one of the largest cities in Europe.
With Al-Ushbuna growing in popularity, the Moors rebuilt the city. They built a new mosque, a castle (where Castelo de São Jorge stands today), and a governor’s palace, also known as alcáçova. In the Almedina, or city center, the present-day Alfama neighborhood appeared.
These peaceful times ended when the first Christian armies reached the city. In 796, the armies of King Afonso II from Asturias repeatedly raided the opulent Moorish Al-Ushbuna. Later, in 844, Viking hordes mounted a siege and conquered the city, but only for a few days, and the Vikings were expelled.
As the Moors developed Al-Ushbuna into one of the largest and most famous cities in Iberia, they also made it a desirable target. For the Christian Kingdoms, conquering Al-Ushbuna was a strategic goal due to its economic and political importance.
King Afonso Henriques, Portugal’s first king, tried to conquer the city several times. However, he only succeeded in 1147. He did so with the help of English Crusaders. The attack led to one of the bloodiest battles in the city’s history.
On November 1, 1147, King Afonso Henriques proclaimed Lisbon as a new city in Portugal’s Kingdom. To celebrate, he ordered the old mosque to be converted into present-day Lisbon’s cathedral.
Lisbon kept the old Moorish commercial relationships and established new ones with Northern Europe. This strategy worked so well that Lisbon had to build new shipyards. Builders used Viking and Moorish techniques and developed the first Caravela in the 13th century. A prosperous and peaceful Lisbon emerged and, in 1256, King Afonso III proclaimed the city the new capital of the Kingdom of Portugal.
Lisbon and the Portuguese Maritime Expansion
After the famous Lisbon Siege, in which King João I of Castille failed to conquer the city and invade Portugal, the new King João de Avis laid the foundations for the first Portuguese overseas expeditions. During King João de Avis’s reign, Lisbon was a prosperous commercial city, comparable to Antwerp, Venice, or Genoa. However, when the Ottoman Empire invaded North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East, Portuguese merchants feared they might lose the commercial advantages they had enjoyed since the Moorish occupation.
They needed to change their strategy. While the Arabs traveled through the Sahara Desert to trade merchandise between Europe, India, and the Middle East, the Portuguese knew they needed to go directly to the source. Infante D. Henrique, King João de Avis’s fifth son, helped Lisbon merchants fulfill their goals. In the 15th century, Infante D. Henrique set up new trade routes overseas and managed the Portuguese fleet. During his lifetime, Portuguese sailors discovered the Azores and Madeira islands, the Canary Islands, and the Cape Verde archipelago.
As the Portuguese maritime expansion progressed, Lisbon became very popular. Several ships departed to explore unknown seas. Eventually, Vasco da Gama discovered the maritime route to India in 1498. Two years later, Pedro Álvares Cabral reached Brazil and the Portuguese docked in Japan in 1542.
During this Golden Age of Portuguese maritime expansion, Lisbon’s merchants controlled most trade between Japan and Ceuta. In the 16th century, Lisbon was the most prosperous city worldwide.
Lisbon welcomed foreign merchants and sailors while trading African, Brazilian, and Indian slaves. As a result, the city hosted a clash of cultures, filled with people from all over the world.
To boast about Portugal’s achievements and richness, King D. Manuel I frequently hosted parties and parades with exotic animals, such as lions, elephants, and camels. This was also the time when the Torre de Belém, the Jerónimos Monastery, and the Terreiro do Paço were built.
A Series of Unfortunate Events
During King D. Manuel I’s reign, Portuguese sailors traveled the world, reaching lands as far away as Greenland, Terra Nova, and Japan. Portugal enjoyed a prosperous period as a wealthy empire. Yet, this all changed with the king’s second marriage to Dona Maria of Aragón, the daughter of Castillian Christian Kings.
Despite the king’s resistance, he was forced to comply with one particular marriage clause where he had to set up the Inquisition in Portugal. However, it was only in 1536 that the Inquisition first entered Portugal.
Considering religious unity was not at risk, the Inquisition chose new Christians and Jews forced into religious conversions as their greatest enemies. While persecutions and “autos-de-fés” took place, the Inquisition would seize all the belongings of the persecuted.
This climate of insecurity and persecution led the vast majority of merchants to leave Lisbon and settle in other European market towns. Moreover, religious fanaticism replaced the liberal business climate and commercial activities declined.
In the 16th century, conservative nobles saw conquering new territories as an alternative to overseas trade. They convinced King D. Sebastião, a very religious young king eager for battle, to invade North Africa.
Unfortunately, the king disappeared without a trace in the Battle of Alcacer Quibir. Since King D. Sebastião left no heirs, Portugal faced a new succession crisis. The Spanish took over, and King Philip II of Spain became King Philip I of Portugal.
For 60 years, until 1640, Portugal was under the rule of the Spanish Philippine Dynasty. During this period, Lisbon merchants suffered huge losses, leading them to bankruptcy. As a result, Lisbon, previously a cosmopolitan city, became a provincial and conservative city, without any commercial relevance.
Along with Lisbon’s economic decline, unemployment, poverty, and crime rose. At this time, merchants joined forces with the Portuguese nobility to convince D. João, Duke of Braganca, to accept the Portuguese throne. On December 1, 1640, independence was restored, and João IV became king of Portugal.
The 1755 Earthquake
In the 17th century, Portugal regained its independence and found an enormous gold mine in Brazil. In the coming decades, it seemed the country was on the way to better days when a massive earthquake hit southern Portugal in 1755.
Records from Portugal, Spain, and Morocco reveal what may have been the biggest-ever earthquake in the Atlantic Ocean. Although reports state there were damaged buildings throughout the Algarve and Alentejo regions, Lisbon was the most affected. According to present-day seismologists, this was a 9.0 Richter scale earthquake, followed by a 30-meter-high (99-foot) tsunami that swept through the Atlantic, hitting the Caribbean, the United States, and Brazil.
When the population of Lisbon felt the earthquake, they ran over to the Praça do Comércio, a large open-air square, to seek refuge — only to die shortly after in the tsunami. Historians believe more than 90,000 people perished in the earthquake and its aftermath.
Between 1750 and 1777, Lisbon was rebuilt. The Marquês de Pombal, King D. José I’s secretary of state, was behind Lisbon’s new urban layout. Lisbon’s downtown “Baixa Pombalina,” named after Marquês de Pombal, is the best location to admire this man’s forward thinking. After the earthquake, the Marquês de Pombal ordered the construction of wide avenues and all the buildings had to use the gaiola pombalina — an anti-seismic construction technique.
Once Lisbon was rebuilt, the Marquês de Pombal dedicated his time to new endeavors. He limited the Catholic church’s power, expelled the Jesuits, extinguished the Inquisition, established a middle class, and allowed new Christians to study and aim for the highest government roles. In 1761, the Marques de Pombal also abolished slavery in Portugal, making the country the first to take such action.
Lisbon in the Late Modern Age to the 21st Century
In the 19th century, Portugal was an absolute monarchy with a transcontinental empire that spread across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The economy was booming thanks to the exclusive regime in Brazil, which allowed for an unprecedented flow of trade.
Due to this economic prosperity, liberal ideas from the French Revolution had little to no impact on Portugal. Regarding foreign affairs, Portugal decided to stay neutral on most matters. However, when Napoleon declared the Continental Block to England, a long-time ally of Portugal, the Portuguese had to make a stand. Portugal tried to negotiate with France to avoid an invasion but was unsuccessful.
Consequently, French General Junot arrived in Lisbon on November 30th, 1807. The Portuguese royal family escaped to Brazil, and a few Lisbon liberals welcomed Junot. In the years that followed, the economy declined, the king opened up Brazil to international trade, and Portugal was left in the hands of the English once the French were gone. All these events led to the Revolution of 1820, resulting in a shift from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
However, this new form of government did not work. Consequently, on October 5, 1910, a minority of republicans and the military deposed King Manuel II, the last Portuguese king, via a sudden coup d’état.
Lisbon was the main stage where conservatives who defended the old monarchy battled the liberals’ progressive ideas. Although Lisbon enjoyed peaceful times and economic prosperity in the following decades, the political instability led to several government coups.
One of these coups led to António Salazar and Marcelo Caetano’s dictatorships for 48 years, between 1926 and 1974, making it the longest authoritarian regime in Western Europe during the 20th century.
It all ended with a bloodless revolution named the Carnation Revolution. In the first hours of April 25th, 1974, military forces occupied strategic points in Lisbon and overthrew the Estado Novo dictatorship. The area around the ministries, the media, and other places considered sensitive were subdued by the military uprising. The President of the Council of Ministers, Marcello Caetano, took refuge in the Carmo Quartel, which he left under the military escort of Captain Salgueiro Maia, heading for exile. This was the beginning of democracy in Portugal and today, the country is one of the safest and most peaceful worldwide.
