| Year | Date | Event |
| 1502 | | Miguel Corte-Real set out for New England in search of his brother, Gaspar. |
| 1502 | | João da Nova discovered Ascension Island. |
| 1502 | | Fernão de Noronha discovered the island which still bears his name. |
| 1503 | | On his return from the East, Estêvão da Gama discovered Saint Helena Island. |
| 1505 | | Francisco de Almeida "the Great" appointed 1st Viceroy of India, arriving in Cochin in the same year at the head of the 7th Portuguese Indian Armada. |
| 1506 | | Tristão da Cunha discovered the island that bears his name. Portuguese sailors landed on Madagascar. |
| 1506 | | The Lisbon Massacre. |
| 1509 | | The Gulf of Bengal crossed by Diogo Lopes de Sequeira. On the crossing he also reached Malacca. |
| 1509 | | Francisco de Almeida becomes the first Portuguese to arrive in Bombay by sea, seeking to avenge the death of his son. |
| 1509 | 3 February | At the naval Battle of Diu, Francisco de Almeida inflicts a decisive victory on the Mamlûk Burji Sultanate of Egypt, the Ottoman Empire, the Zamorin of Calicut, and the Sultan of Gujarat, ridding the Indian Ocean of Egyptians and Ottomans and giving Portugal a monopoly of the sea route to Indian for almost 150 years. |
| 1510 | | Conquest of Goa by Afonso de Albuquerque, Governor of India. |
| 1511 | | Conquest of Malacca by Afonso de Albuquerque. |
| 1512 | | António de Abreu reaches Timor island and the Banda Islands, Ambon Island and Seram. Francisco Serrão reaches the Maluku Islands. |
| 1513 | | The first European trading ship to touch the coasts of China, under Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello later in the same year. |
| 1515 | | Afonso de Albuquerque captures the Kingdom of Hormuz. |
| 1517 | | Fernão Pires de Andrade and Tomé Pires were chosen by Manuel I of Portugal to sail to China to formally open relations between the Portuguese Empire and the Ming Dynasty during the reign of the Zhengde Emperor. |
| 1521 | | João III of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1521 | | António Correia captures Bahrain, which is under Portuguese rule until 1602. |
| 1526 | | Jorge de Meneses reaches New Guinea for the first time. |
| 1537 | | After moving back and forth between Lisbon and Coimbra in the last two centuries, the General Study is definitely established in the latter. |
| 1543 | | Portuguese explorers Fernão Mendes Pinto, Francisco Zeimoto and António Mota are the first Europeans to land in Japan. |
| 1557 | | Macau given to Portugal by the Emperor of China as a reward for services rendered against the pirates who infested the South China Sea. |
| 1557 | | Sebastião of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1568 | | King Sebastião of Portugal comes of age and takes control of government. |
| 1569 | | Plague epidemic in Portugal. 60,000 people die in Lisbon alone. |
| 1569 | | Nagasaki is opened to Portuguese traders. |
| 1570 | | Luís de Camões returns to Lisbon from the Orient. |
| 1570 | | Goa, in Portuguese India, is attacked by a coalition of Indian forces, but these are defeated by Portuguese Vice-Roy Luís de Ataíde, Count of Atouguia. |
| 1572 | | The first edition of the epic poem The Lusiads is published. |
| 1578 | | Portuguese troops utterly defeated in Africa, in the battle of Alcácer Quibir; king Sebastião disappears in the battle never to be seen again. |
| 1578 | | Cardinal Henrique I of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1579 | | Cortes in Lisbon. |
| 1580 | | Cortes in Almeirim. |
| 1580 | | King Cardinal Henrique I of Portugal dies. |
| 1580 | | Invasion of Portugal by a Spanish army commanded by Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba. |
| 1580 | | Battle of Alcântara between Portuguese and Spanish forces. |
| 1580 | | The Fortress of St. Julian, in Lisbon, surrenders to the Spanish. |
| 1580 | | Anthony of Portugal, the Prior of Crato, is acclaimed King of Portugal in Santarém. |
| 1580 | | Death of Luís de Camões, Portugal's national poet. |
| 1580 | | Beginning of the Cortes of Tomar. |
| 1581 | | Philip II of Spain is acclaimed in the Cortes of Tomar as King Philip I of Portugal in a personal union of the Crowns. Portugal loses de facto independence to Spain. |
| 1581 | | Anthony of Portugal, the Prior of Crato, takes refuge in England. |
| 1581 | | The Azores refuse to recognize Philip I of Portugal as King. |
| 1582 | | The Spanish Fleet of Santa Cruz defeats the Portuguese-French Fleet of Strozzi in the Azores. |
| 1582 | | Introduction of the Gregorian Calendar in Portugal. |
| 1583 | | Cortes in Lisbon. |
| 1583 | | King Philip I of Portugal departs for Madrid and leaves the government of Portugal with Portuguese trustees. |
| 1583 | | The Azores are submitted. |
| 1583 | | Francis Drake attacks the Portuguese colony of Brazil. |
| 1589 | | Anthony of Portugal, the Prior of Crato, attacks Lisbon with English aid, but with no success. |
| 1595 | | Anthony of Portugal, the Prior of Crato, dies in Paris. |
| 1598 | | Philip III of Spain becomes Philip II of Portugal. |
| Year | Date | Event |
| 1621 | | Philip IV of Spain becomes Philip III of Portugal. |
| 1640 | 1 December | A small group of conspirators storms the Palace in Lisbon and deposes the Vicereine of Portugal, Margaret of Savoy. The Duke of Bragança, head of the senior family of the Portuguese nobility, accepts the throne as Dom João IV of Portugal, despite deep personal reluctance, by popular acclaim and at the urging of his wife. His entire reign will be dominated by the struggle to maintain independence from Spain. Francisco de Lucena, secretary to the governing council of Portugal for the past 36 years and thus the most experienced bureaucrat in the country, smoothly changes his loyalties and becomes chief minister of the restored monarchy. |
| 1641 | | The Portuguese Inquisition attempts to derail the national restoration by giving its support to a counter-revolution mounted by a duke, a marquis, three earls and an archbishop. The plot fails, quelled by Francisco de Lucena, who has the ringleaders executed, but it initiates a 28-year-long war against Spain punctuated by frequent internal threats to the stability of the new regime. Meanwhile, the Dutch renew their attack on Angola and capture the most extensive Portuguese slaving grounds in Africa, including the Angolan port of Luanda. The Portuguese garrison flees upriver while trying to decide whether to declare continuing loyalty to the Habsburgs, accept Dutch rule or declare for João IV. They choose the House of Bragança and appeal to the Portuguese colony of Brazil for help in fending off African and Dutch attacks on their enclave. Salvador de Sá, leader of Rio de Janeiro, persuaded by the Jesuits in Brazil, also declares for King João and responds to the Angolan appeal. |
| 1644 | | Elvas withstands a nine-day siege by Spanish troops. |
| 1648 | | The Portuguese from Brazil under Salvador de Sá land in Angola, expel the Dutch and restore the African colony to Portugal. |
| 1654 | | Anglo-Portuguese treaty between João IV and Oliver Cromwell signed at Westminster. João agrees to prevent the molestation of the traders of the English Protector; they are allowed to use their own bible and bury their dead according to Protestant rites on Catholic soil. The Portuguese in Brazil drive the Dutch out of the great plantation colonies of the north-east, re-establishing the territorial integrity of Portugal's South American empire. |
| 1656 | | Death of João IV after a reign of 15 years. His Queen now reigns as Regent for their son, Afonso VI of Portugal. She seeks an accommodation with Spain. Portugal loses control of Colombo in Portuguese Ceylon when it is captured by the Dutch. |
| 1659 | | The Treaty of the Pyrenees ends Spain's long war with France, and Spanish troops are freed once more to suppress the Portuguese ‘rebellion’. The Spaniards besiege Monção and are driven off by the Countess of Castelo Melhor. |
| 1660 | | On the restoration of Charles II in Britain, the Queen-Regent re-negotiates the treaty of 1654. Portugal is allowed to recruit soldiers and horses in England for the fight against Spain; and to seek out 4,000 fighting men in Scotland and Ireland and charter 24 English ships to carry them. The expeditionary force is to be issued with English weapons on arrival in Portugal and guaranteed religious freedom of worship. |
| 1661 | | Catarina da Bragança, sister of Afonso VI, marries Charles II of Great Britain on 31 May. She brings to London a dowry of 2,000,000 gold pieces, the practice of drinking afternoon tea, and England is given colonial toe-holds in the Portuguese Empire at Tangier and Bombay. Servicing the wedding debt burdens the Portuguese exchequer for the next half-century, and this marriage with a Protestant monarch is deeply unpopular with that section of the Portuguese nobility which favours alliance with France. |
| 1662 | | In a palace coup d’etat in Lisbon a restive younger faction of the nobility, supported by the young Afonso VI, overthrows the Queen Regent and installs the 26-year-old Count of Castelo Melhor as ‘dictator’ to prosecute the war with Spain. The adolescent king is married to a French princess and the young dictator models his government on the royal absolutism of the Bourbon dynasty. Opposition to this pro-French absolutism is swept aside, and Castelo Melhor initiates the final, successful phase of the Portuguese war of restoration with the aid of the Franco-German Marshal Schomberg, who brilliantly commands an international mercenary army against the Spanish forces. |
| 1665 | 17 June | Portugal is victorious at the decisive Battle of Montes Claros, in which António Luís de Menezes defeats the Spanish army under the Prince of Parma; Spain ceases to make war, but peace will not be signed for another three years. |
| 1667 | | Castelo Melhor and his Francophile party are overthrown in a new palace revolution. Prince Pedro, leader of the Anglophile party, becomes Regent for Afonso VI, who is declared incapable of governing and removed to the Azores. The French alliance is rejected, though Pedro shores up his political position by marrying his brother's estranged Queen. Castelo Melhor flees into exile. |
| 1668 | | Peace treaty with Spain ends nearly 30 years of war. Portugal keeps all his possessions and territory with the exception of Ceuta in Morocco, which is ceded to Spain. Portugal remains economically weak, however, agriculturally undeveloped and dependent on British grain and trade goods generally, especially woven cloth. The Count of Ericeira, economic adviser to the Prince Regent, advocates the development of a native textile industry modelled on Flemish lines. ‘Factories’ are established at Covilhã with easy access to flocks of sheep and clean mountain water, but are highly unpopular with both town consumers and traditional weavers. Meanwhile, Portuguese attempts to develop a silk industry are fiercely resisted by the French, who wish to monopolize that market. |
| 1683 | | Death of Afonso VI. Pedro II of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1690 | | Suicide of Luís de Meneses, Count of Ericeira. |
| 1692 | | Great drought disrupts Portuguese silk production. |
| 1697 | | Discovery of gold in the interior of São Paulo province, Brazil. |
| 1700 | | Brazil now producing 50,000 ounces of gold per year. |
| Year | Date | Event |
| 1703 | | Sir John Methuen negotiates a Military Treaty with Portugal on 16 May, giving Britain an entry to Portugal at a time when the Bourbon dynastic alliance of France and Spain appears to threaten English access to the Continent. This is followed on 27 December by the commercial Methuen Treaty, signed to stimulate trade with Britain. This opens up new markets for Portuguese wine but helps to destroy the native textile industry by letting in British cloth at preferential rates. The fashion for Portuguese wine in Britain makes the wine trade so profitable and competitive that over the next 40 years inferior wines, often adulterated and artificially coloured are passed off as the genuine article – giving 'port' a bad name. |
| 1705 | | Brazil is now producing 600,000 ounces of gold per year. For the second time in its history, Portugal controls one of the greatest gold-producing sources in the world. |
| 1706 | | João V of Portugal becomes king. He presides over a great flowering of Portuguese art and culture underpinned by the fabulous wealth provided by Brazilian gold. Social and economic reform are neglected for the next 40 years, and the pious King indulges in a penchant for fabulously expensive building. The Portuguese royal family is now the wealthiest in Europe and João V even considers moving his throne and court to Rio de Janeiro. The taxation of the Brazilian trade brings in an enormous personal revenue to the monarch and he is able to construct an absolutist regime similar to that of the French Kings, concentrating on pomp and ceremony at court. There is however no attention to the impoverished national agriculture, inadequate transport, neglected merchant navy and minimal industrial development of the country since corn and cloth can easily be exported, foreign ships can be hired and ‘every problem in Portugal can be solved by the King’s gift of a little basket of gold coins bearing his effigy’. Meanwhile, the Brazilian gold rush continues and civil war breaks out between the mining camps of Portuguese immigrants lately come to the north of the country and the Paulistas of southern Brazil who discovered the gold in the first place. |
| 1716 | | As a result of Portugal's political importance and the extensive global jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lisbon, Pope Clement XI grants the titular Archbishop the title of Patriarchate of Lisbon and the privilege of wearing a Triple Tiara. Later, the Pope agrees to made the Patriarchate a cardinal at the first consistory following his appointment. Tomás de Almeida is appointed 1st Patriarch of Lisbon, becoming a cardinal in 1737. |
| 1717 | | Beginning of construction of the great palace-monastery of Mafra, which João V vowed on the birth of his heir, and which he intends as a rival to the Escorial. The elegance of the suites and courtyards are matched by the costliness of the furnishings in more than 1,000 rooms. The scale of the buildings and formal gardens is stupendous in relation to the impoverished countryside around it. However the roped gangs of forced labourers and the military regiment which controls them provides local employment throughout a generation, particularly in the servicing of the 7,000 carts and wagons and feeding of draught animals. |
| 1732 | | Disaster at Elvas: lightning strikes the gunpowder magazine in the castle. The explosion and fire kill 1500 people and destroy 823 houses. |
| 1735 | | Completion of the palace-monastery at Mafra. |
| 1742 | | João V orders the construction in Rome of the Capela de São João Baptista for installation in the Igreja de São Roque to honour his patron saint and to requite the Pope, whom he has persuaded to confer a patriarchate on Lisbon. For its size, this is reckoned the most expensive building ever constructed. Designed by the papal architect Vanvitelli, and using the most costly materials available including ivory, agate, porphyry and lapis lazuli, the chapel is erected in the Vatican in order that the Pope may celebrate Mass in it before it is dismantled and shipped to Portugal. |
| 1750 | | Death of João V. His son José I of Portugal becomes king. His powerful chief minister, Sebastião de Melo, Marquis of Pombal, embarks on a programme of reform to drag Portugal into the 18th century. |
| 1752 | | Building of the Rococo palace of Queluz. |
| 1755 | | The Great earthquake of Portugal is the most shattering natural phenomenon of the Age of Enlightenment. Striking at 9.30 am on All Saints’ Day, it destroys much of Lisbon and many towns in parts of the Alentejo and Algarve. In Lisbon, three major shocks within ten minutes, a host of rapidly spreading fires touched off by the candles of a hundred church altars, and a vast tsunami that engulfs the seafront, leave 40,000 dead out of a total population of 270,000. The Alfama district of the old city is largely untouched owing to its situation on a rocky massif, as is Belém. The Customs House is flooded and the India House and the English Factory destroyed, so that no trade can legitimately be conducted. The King proves himself able in crisis management and his illegitimate half-brothers, the royal dukes, organize defence, security, the burying of the dead and the continuance of religious observance. The disaster is described by Voltaire in Candide. Rebuilding begins immediately under the vigorous direction of Pombal, who now consolidates his position as Portugal's enlightened despot and leading statesman. It is decided to reconstruct Lisbon as the finest city in Europe, on the grid plan already adopted in the leading cities of Spanish America. |
| 1759 | 13 January | The Duke of Aveiro together with members of the Távora family are executed for high-treason and attempted regicide by orders of the Marquis of Pombal. |
| 1762 | | Spanish invasion of Portugal stopped with the help of Great Britain. |
| 1777 | | Maria I of Portugal becomes Queen regnant. The King consort is her husband and uncle, Pedro III of Portugal. Pombal is dismissed. |
| 1792 | | João assumes royal responsibilities due to the declining mental health of his mother, Maria I of Portugal. |
| 1799 | | João officially becomes Prince Regent |
| Year | Date | Event |
| 1807 | | Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, invades Portugal and the Portuguese Royal Family is transferred to the colony of Brazil, where it becomes the center of the Portuguese Empire. |
| 1808 | | Insurrection against Napoleon's general, Junot and landing of Arthur Wellesley to defeat the French at the Battle of Vimeiro. Beginning of the Peninsular War. Subsequent French attack in 1810 led by Masséna repulsed at the Lines of Torres Vedras. |
| 1815 | | The colony of Brazil is elevated to the status of kingdom. Portugal changes the official name from Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves to United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. |
| 1816 | | João VI of Portugal becomes king. Portugal is governed by a Regency council headed by Marshal Beresford, head of the Portuguese army in the Peninsular War. |
| 1820 | | Liberal Revolution of 1820 against the British-led Regency of William Carr Beresford begins in Porto on 24 August. The Regency's troops decline to act against their countrymen and on 15 September declare for King, Cortes and Constitution. A provisional government is established on 1 October to oversee elections to the Cortes. |
| 1821 | | The national assembly opens on 26 January and on 9 March adopts a liberal parliamentary constitution, inspired by the recent liberal advances in Spain, notably the 1812 Constitution of Cadiz. Metropolitan Portugal demands the return of João VI to Lisbon. João VI advises his son, Pedro, to declare the independence of Brazil and become its emperor, to ensure its continued rule by the Bragança dynasty. João VI lands in Portugal on 4 July, but only after consenting to the restrictions on his power proposed by the Cortes and agreeing to accept the new constitution, to which he swears allegiance on 1 October. But his wife Queen Carlota Joaquina and younger son Dom Miguel refuse to do so and become the focus of a reactionary movement. |
| 1822 | | Portugal's first constitution ratified. Brazil declares independence. Pedro becomes Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Military coup against the parliamentarians. Fearing a move by France against democratic Portugal, or a civil war, Brigadier Saldanha, a grandson of the Marquis of Pombal, raises a small army and expels the ‘constitutional extremists’ from Lisbon. He proposes instead a compromise constitution in which the powers of the crown will be partially restored to the King.. |
| 1823 | | In May a 'Regency of Portugal' is established by the expelled traditionalists who had opposed the constitution at Valladolid, under the presidency of the Patriarch of Lisbon and becomes a centre for plotting to put Dom Miguel on the throne. |
| 1824 | | At the end of April Miguel attempts a coup d'etat but is defeated with British aid and goes into exile in Vienna. |
| 1826 | | Death of João VI, 10 March. The country is split between liberals and absolutists. Emperor Pedro I of Brazil becomes king Pedro IV of Portugal but abdicates in favour of his daughter Maria II of Portugal, naming his sister as Regent and inviting all parties swear to accept a new constitution, drawn up by Pedro on 23 April and somewhat less liberal than that of 1820, based upon the Brazilian constitution. Pedro's constitution assigns authority to the crown to moderate between the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the state and proposes a House of Lords of 72 aristocrats and 19 bishops. Miguel makes a show of agreement. |
| 1827 | | In July Pedro names his brother Dom Miguel as Lieutenant and Regent of the Kingdom. Miguel leaves Vienna and visits Paris and London on his way to Portugal. |
| 1828 | | Dom Miguel arrives in Lisbon in February and though he makes a show of abiding by the constitution, after various moves against the constitutional forces he usurps the throne and abolishes parliament and the constitution, re-instituting the mediaeval Cortes and claiming to be 'Absolute King'. Many of the liberal parliamentarians are imprisoned, executed or driven into exile. All Portuguese territories apart from Terceira in the Azores declare for Miguel, but he is recognized as King only by Mexico and the USA. Beginning of civil war, known as the Liberal Wars. |
| 1831 | | Emperor Pedro I of Brazil abdicates in favour of his son Pedro II of Brazil and sets out to regain Portugal for his daughter. |
| 1832 | | Pedro's expeditionary force of Portuguese exiles and foreign mercenaries gathers in Terceira, regains the Azores, then sails for Portugal. Pedro is supported by Britain and France and the Portuguese intelligentsia, including the politically ambitious soldiers Saldanha and Sá da Bandeira. 9 July: Pedro lands at Pampelido north of Porto, where he is closely besieged by some 13,000 Miguelites across the River Douro. His defending force, the city garrison being commanded by Sá da Bandeira, includes an international brigade with a British contingent under Charles Shaw and Colonel George Lloyd Hodges. The city suffers cholera, starvation and bombardment. |
| 1833 | | Miguel's navy is defeated by Pedro's Admiral Charles Napier at the fourth Battle of Cape St Vincent. The Duke of Terceira defeats Miguel's army at Almada and occupies Lisbon. |
| 1834 | 16 May | The Duke of Terceira wins the Battle of Asseiceira. Miguel capitulates at EvoraMonte on 26 May. End of the civil war: Miguel is exiled to Genoa, where he renounces his capitulation. For many years he plots his return, but is never able to put it into effect. After six years of bitter and destructive war the country is once again bankrupt and beholden to foreign creditors, and the constitutional radicals turn their anger against the landowners and ecclesiastical institutions that had supported Miguel. The crown lands are taken over by the state to help pay the national debt. |
| 1834 | 24 September | Death of Dom Pedro. Maria II of Portugal becomes queen in her own right. Dissolution of the monasteries – over 300 monastic communities are abolished – however the sale of church and crown lands does not revitalise Portugal in the way that had been anticipated. |
| 1835 | | Revolutionary fervour is rekindled by an urban uprising and a military coup d’etat. The national Guard sides with the insurgents and approved the call for Sá da Bandeira to lead the nation and bring back the constitution of 1822. Queen Maria is forced to swear allegiance to the 1822 constitution but the moderate leader, Saldanha, reaches an accommodation with Sá da Bandeira and a modest programme of modernisation can begin. |
| 1839 | | An unsettled period of many short-lived governments ends temporarily with the stable coalition led by the Conde do Bonfim, which remains in power for two years. |
| 1843 | | Queen Maria II marries Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, who rules with her as Dom Fernando II, the thirtieth King of Portugal. He commissions the German architect Baron Eschwege to begin the building of the Pena Palace at Sintra. |
| 1846 | | The Revolution of Maria da Fonte, a ‘peasants’ revolt’ inaugurates the last phase of the Revolution, starting as an uprising of the peasants of the Minho, largely led by women against land enclosures and new land taxes demanded by the Costa Cabral government to finance its grandiose public works. They make common cause with the clergy and call for the return of the exiled Miguel as their saviour. Martial law is declared but soldiers refuse to fire on their kin. Fall of the Costa Cabral government and substitution of a government of national reconciliation in Lisbon. Autumn: A revolutionary government is proclaimed in Porto with Sá da Bandeira at its head. He opens negotiations with Britain, whence Costa Cabral has fled into exile, and settles terms for his return to take responsibility for the national debt. Civil war between the supporters of Queen Maria and the radical constitutionalists. The Count of Bonfim, for the Porto junta, is defeated by Saldanha at the siege of Torres Vedras and exiled to Angola. |
| 1847 | | Convention of Gramido brings the civil war to an end. Return of the political exiles from Angola. |
| 1848 | | Costa Cabral returns as prime minister. |
| 1851 | | Another coup d’etat by Saldanha. He ejects Costa Cabral, appoints himself prime minister and rules reasonably progressively from the house of lords for a full five-year term. Thus a proper parliamentary regime is finally established, with a two-party system and a bourgeois monarchy. Portugal enters its Age of Regeneration, with an old-fashioned cavalry officer in charge. The government embarks on an elaborate programme of public works to modernize the country, beginning with the establishment of a modern post office and a programme of road-building: in the entire country there is less than 200 km of all-weather road surface, and the government uses road taxes to finance 200 km of new road per year. |
| 1853 | | Pedro V of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1856 | | Opening of Portugal's first railway line. |
| 1861 | | Luis I of Portugal becomes king. |
| 1867 | 1 July | After the legislation of 1852 regarding political crimes, the Penal and Prison Reform abolishes the death penalty for all civilian crimes. |
| 1869 | | The government of Sá da Bandeira formally abolishes slavery in all Portuguese territories. |
| 1870 | | A financial crisis in the wake of European recession brings the fall of the government and yet another coup d’etat by the aged Duque de Saldanha. |
| 1891 | | Republican insurrection in Porto. It is violently put down by the authorities, who afterwards institute a tight press censorship. Opponents of the government are accused of anarchism and exiled to the colonies. |
| 1889 | | Carlos I of Portugal becomes king. |
| Year | Date | Event |
| 1906 | | João Franco is appointed as Prime Minister of Portugal. |
| 1906 | | Big strike of the typographers. |
| 1906 | | Foundation of the Escola Superior Colonial |
| 1907 | | João Franco establishes a Dictatorship within the framework of the Monarchy. |
| 1907 | | Student's strike at the University of Coimbra. |
| 1908 | | Manuel II of Portugal, King Carlos's youngest son, becomes king. |
| 1908 | | The Portuguese Republican Party manages to elect all its candidates in the local elections of Lisbon. |
| 1908 | 28 January | Failed Republican revolutionary attempt. The conspirators are arrested. |
| 1908 | 1 February | 1 February, King Carlos I of Portugal and his son and heir, prince Luis Filipe, Duke of Braganza, are killed in the Regicide of Lisbon by Alfredo Luís da Costa and Manuel Buiça, republicans of the Carbonária. |
| 1909 | | King Manuel II of Portugal goes on a personal trip to Madrid, London and Paris. |
| 1909 | | The Portuguese Republican Party's Conference takes place in Setúbal, where the motion to accelerate the revolutionary movement to establish the Republic is approved. |
| 1909 | | In Lisbon a demonstration with more than 100,000 persons protests against the political and economical situation of the Monarchy. |
| 1910 | 4 October | Beginning of the Republican Revolution. |
| 1910 | 4 October | Beginning of the Republican Revolution. The Republic is proclaimed in Loures, just north of Lisbon. |
| 1910 | 5 October | The last King of Portugal, Manuel II of Portugal, flees into exile. After Manuel, several lines of pretenders ensued. |
| 1910 | 5 October | The Portuguese Republic is officially proclaimed in Lisbon. End of the Monarchy. |
| 1910 | 5 October | The Republican Revolution, supported by popular uprising and virtually no resistance, is victorious and puts an end to the Monarchy. |
| 1910 | 5 October | The last King of Portugal, Manuel II of Portugal, and the Portuguese Royal Family embark in Ericeira for exile in England. |
| 1910 | 5 October | The Republic is officially proclaimed in Lisbon. |
| 1917 | | Portugal joins the allied forces in World War I. |
| 1918 | | The Monarchy of the North is proclaimed in Porto, and the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy lasts for about a month before being crushed by republican forces. |
| 1921 | | The Portuguese Communist Party was founded from the ranks of the Portuguese Maximalist Federation as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International. |
| 1925 | | Bernardino Machado is elected President of the Republic for the 2nd time. |
| 1926 | | The 28 May 1926 military coup d'état ends the 1st Portuguese Republic. |
| 1926 | 27 May | The General Manuel de Oliveira Gomes da Costa arrives at Braga with the purpose of initiating a Coup d'état. |
| 1926 | 27 May | The Republican Government and Prime Minister António Maria da Silva, knowing of the forthcoming coup, try to organize resistance believing the uprising can be defeated. |
| 1926 | 28 May | A Military coup d'état begins in Braga led by Gomes da Costa. Believing to have failed, Gomes da Costa announces his surrender. |
| 1926 | 29 May | The Portuguese Communist Party interrupts its 2nd Congress due to the political and military situation. |
| 1926 | 29 May | The Confederação Geral do Trabalho declares its neutrality in the military confrontations. |
| 1926 | 29 May | The Military Coup spreads to the rest of the country, by influence of Mendes Cabeçadas, Sinel de Cordes and Óscar Carmona, and establishes the Ditadura Nacional against the democratic but unstable 1st Republic. |
| 1926 | 29 May | The Government of Prime Minister António Maria da Silva resigns. |
| 1926 | 30 May | The General Gomes da Costa is acclaimed in Porto. |
| 1926 | 30 May | The President of the Republic, Bernardino Machado, resigns. |
| 1926 | 30 May | José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior becomes Prime Minister and President of the Republic. |
| 1926 | 3 June | António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Minister of Finance, he resigns 16 days after nomination. |
| 1926 | 3 June | The Congress of the Republic of Portugal is dissolved by dictatorial decree. |
| 1926 | 3 June | All heads of Municipalities are substituted. |
| 1926 | 3 June | The Carbonária is banned. |
| 1926 | 3 June | All Political parties are banned. |
| 1926 | 17 June | General Gomes da Costa provokes a military coup. |
| 1926 | 19 June | General Gomes da Costa becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1926 | 22 June | Censorship is instituted. |
| 1926 | 29 June | General Gomes da Costa becomes President of the Republic. |
| 1926 | 9 July | General Gomes da Costa is obliged to step down and goes into exile. |
| 1926 | 9 July | General António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona, of the conservative military wing, becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1926 | 15 September | Failed military coup. |
| 1926 | 18 September | Failed military coup. |
| 1926 | 29 November | General António Óscar Carmona becomes President of the Republic. |
| 1926 | 16 December | The Police of Information of Lisbon, a Political Police, is created. |
| 1927 | | The Confederação Geral do Trabalho is dissolved. |
| 1927 | February | Failed Republican revolutionary attempt against the Ditadura Nacional in Porto and Lisbon. |
| 1927 | 26 March | The Police of Information of Porto, a Political Police, is created. |
| 1927 | 17 May | Minimum School years are reduced from the 6th to the 4th grade; in all levels of non-university schooling students are divided by sex. |
| 1927 | August | Failed right wing military coup. |
| 1927 | 1 December | Students demonstrate in Lisbon against the Ditadura Nacional. |
| 1928 | | General António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona remains President of the Republic. |
| 1928 | | Acordo Missionário between the Catholic Church and the Portuguese Republic, giving special status to the action of the Catholic Church in Portugal's colonies. |
| 1928 | | Failed Republican revolutionary attempt against the Ditadura Nacional. |
| 1928 | | The Portuguese Communist Party's Main Office is closed. |
| 1928 | February | The Comissão de Propaganda da Ditadura is created. |
| 1928 | 17 March | The Police of Information of Porto and Lisbon are fused. |
| 1928 | 18 April | General José Vicente de Freitas becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1928 | 26 April | António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Minister of Finance for the 2nd time. |
| 1929 | | Catholic religious institutes are again permitted in Portugal. |
| 1929 | | The Portuguese Communist Party is reorganized under Bento Gonçalves. Adapting the Party to its new illegal status, the reorganization creates a net of clandestine cells to avoid the wave of detentions. |
| 1929 | 8 July | Artur Ivens Ferraz becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1930 | | The Acto Colonial is published, defining the status of Portuguese colonies. |
| 1930 | | The fundamental principles of the new regime are present by António de Oliveira Salazar in the 4th anniversary of the 28 May Revolution. |
| 1930 | 21 January | Domingos da Costa e Oliveira becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1932 | 5 July | António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1933 | | A new Constitution is approved in a false referendum, defining Portugal as a Corporative, Single Party and Multi-continental country. |
| 1933 | | A fascist-leaning right-wing Dictatorial regime entitled Estado Novo is installed. |
| 1933 | | The Single Party União Nacional is created. |
| 1933 | | The Estatuto do Trabalho Nacional is published, prohibiting all free trade unions. |
| 1933 | | A Political Police, the PVDE is created. |
| 1933 | | Censorship, particularly of the Mass media, is systematic and generalized. |
| 1935 | | The Portuguese Communist Party's Secretary General Bento Gonçalves participates in the 7th Congress of the Comintern. Soon after returning to Portugal he is arrested by the Political Police PVDE. |
| 1936 | | The concentration camp for political prisoners of Tarrafal is created in the colony of Portuguese Cape Verde, under direct control of the political police PVDE. |
| 1936 | | The political police PVDE focuses its action against Communism and the underground Portuguese Communist Party. During this pre-World War II period, several Italian Fascist and German Nazi advisors came to Portugal, to help the PVDE adopt a model similar to the Gestapo. |
| 1936 | 19 May | Creation of the Mocidade Portuguesa, a compulsory paramilitary youth organization similar to the Hitler Youth. |
| 1936 | July | Beginning of the Spanish Civil War; Portugal promptly supports Nationalist Spain under General Francisco Franco and sends military aid in their fight against the Spanish Republicans. |
| 1937 | December | December, The female section of the Mocidade Portuguesa is created. |
| 1939 | | The Iberian Neutrality Pact is put forward by Salazar to Francisco Franco. |
| 1942 | | Salazar meets with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. |
| 1942 | | The Portuguese Communist Party's Secretary General Bento Gonçalves dies in the concentration camp of Tarrafal. |
| 1945 | | The Political Police PVDE is reorganized and renamed PIDE. |
| 1945 | 8 October | The MUD is created with official permission. |
| 1948 | January | The MUD is banished. |
| 1949 | | The President António Óscar Carmona meets with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. |
| 1949 | | Spanish dictator Francisco Franco receives a Doctorate honoris causa by the University of Coimbra. |
| 1949 | | In the Presidential elections, General Norton de Matos, backed by the oppositionist illegal organization MUD tries and fail to win the Presidency of the Republic. |
| 1949 | 4 April | Portugal is a founding member of NATO. |
| 1949 | | For the first time, a Portuguese citizen is awarded with the Nobel Prize: Egas Moniz, with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. |
| 1951 | | António de Oliveira Salazar becomes Provisional President of the Republic due to the death of President António Óscar de Fragoso Carmona. |
| 1951 | | Francisco Higino Craveiro Lopes becomes President of the Republic. |
| 1951 | | The Portuguese government overhauls the entire colonial system in an attempt to curb criticism on Portuguese Colonialism, all Portugal's colonies were renamed Portuguese Overseas Provinces. |
| 1954 | | The Dadra and Nagar Haveli Portuguese enclave, dependent of Daman, is occupied by India. |
| 1956 | | Amílcar Cabral founds the PAIGC. |
| 1956 | December | The MPLA, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, is founded by Agostinho Neto. |
| 1957 | | Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola, is founded as União das Populações do Norte de Angola. |
| 1957 | 7 March | First live event of the Portuguese National Television and the beginning of the regular broadcasting. It was opened by the famous and former BBC war reporter, Fernando Pessa. |
| 1958 | | Américo Thomaz becomes President of the Republic. |
| 1959 | | Pijiguiti Massacre – Portuguese soldiers open fire on protesting dockworkers in Bissau, killing 50. |
| 1960 | January | A group of ten Portuguese Communist Party members escaped from the high-security prison in Peniche. Among the escapees was Álvaro Cunhal. |
| 1960 | 4 January | Portugal is one of the founding member of the EFTA – European Free Trade Association. |
| 1961 | | The Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar takes on himself the office of Minister of National Defense and reorganizes the Government to face the war in Africa. |
| 1961 | 4 February | The Portuguese Colonial War starts in Portuguese Angola with the attacks to the Prison, Police headquarters and Radio central in Luanda. |
| 1961 | 15 March | Attacks in northern Angola by the UPA, against Portuguese colonists and African populations, provoking hundreds of deaths. |
| 1961 | 12 December | The Indian army conquers Portuguese Goa. |
| 1961 | 19 December | The Indian army conquers Portuguese Daman and Diu. |
| 1962 | | The PAIGC Guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese begins with an abortive attack on Praia. |
| 1962 | 24 March | The Academic Crisis of '62 culminates in a huge student demonstration in Lisbon brutally repressed by the shock police, which caused hundreds of students to be seriously injured. |
| 1962 | 25 June | The FRELIMO – Frente de Libertação de Moçambique is founded in Dar es Salaam. |
| 1963 | | The FLEC is founded. |
| 1963 | January | Amílcar Cabral and PAIGC declare full-scale war against the Portuguese in Portuguese Guinea. |
| 1964 | | The FRELIMO controls most of Northern Portuguese Mozambique. |
| 1964 | February | The first Party Congress of the PAIGC takes place at liberated Cassaca, in which both the political and military arms of the PAIGC were assessed and reorganised, with a regular army to supplement the guerilla forces. |
| 1965 | | 6th Congress of the Portuguese Communist Party, one of the most important congresses in the Party's history, after Álvaro Cunhal released the report The Path to Victory – The tasks of the Party in the National and Democratic Revolution, which became an important document in the anti-dictatorship struggle. |
| 1966 | | The UNITA – União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola is founded by Jonas Savimbi. |
| 1966 | 6 August | The Salazar Bridge is inaugurated in Lisbon above the Tagus river. It is the longest suspension bridge in Europe and a replica of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. |
| 1967 | | By this time the PAIGC had carried out 147 attacks on Portuguese barracks and army encampments, and effectively controlled 2/3 of Portuguese Guinea. |
| 1968 | | Reorganisation of the Government. |
| 1968 | | Portugal begins a new campaign against the guerillas in Portuguese Guinea with the arrival of the new governor of the colony, General António de Spínola. |
| 1968 | 25 September | António de Oliveira Salazar leaves the Government due to health problems. |
| 1968 | 28 September | Marcello das Neves Alves Caetano becomes Prime Minister. |
| 1969 | | The Single Party União Nacional is renamed Acção Nacional Popular. |
| 1969 | | The Political Police PIDE is renamed DGS. |
| 1969 | | Beginning of the Primavera Marcelista, a timid and failed opening of the regime. |
| 1970 | | Portugal invades Conakry, in the Republic of Guinea, 400 amphibious troops attacked the city and freed dozens of Portuguese Prisoners of war kept there by the PAIGC. |
| 1970 | 27 July | Death of António de Oliveira Salazar. |
| 1973 | January | Amílcar Cabral, leader of the PAIGC, is assassinated in Conakry by a disgruntled former associate under influence of the Portuguese Political Police DGS. |
| 1973 | 24 September | Independence of Guinea-Bissau is unilaterally declared. |
| 1973 | November | A United Nations' General Assembly vote recognizes the Independence of Guinea-Bissau, unprecedented as it denounced illegal Portuguese aggression and occupation and was prior to complete control and Portuguese recognition. |
| 1974 | | The Carnation Revolution of 25 April puts an end to five decades of dictatorship. |
| 1974 | 25 April | The Carnation Revolution puts an end to the authoritarian regime of Estado Novo. Prime-minister Marcello Caetano exiled to Brazil |
| 1975 | | Independence is granted to all Portuguese colonies in Africa and independence is promised to Portuguese Timor. |
| 1975 | 11 March | A right-wing coup fails: A turn to the left in the revolution happens and major industries and big properties are nationalized by government |
| 1975 | 2 August | A meeting takes place in Haga where the Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with Democracy and Socialism in Portugal is created. This Committee supported democratic trends in Portugal and opposed pro-soviet communist tendencies. In the meeting were present Olof Palme, Harold Wilson, Helmut Schmidt, Bruno Kreisky, Joop den Uyl, Trygve Bratteli, Anker Jørgensen, Yitzhak Rabin, Hans Janitschek, Willy Brandt, James Callaghan, François Mitterrand, Bettino Craxi and Mário Soares. |
| 1975 | 25 November | A coup removes far-left influence in politics |
| 1975 | 7 December | East Timor is violently annexed by Indonesia |
| 1976 | 2 April | a new Constitution is approved. The Constitutional Assembly disestablishes itself. |
| 1976 | 25 April | the Constitution of 1976 enters into force. |
| 1976 | 19 November | Jaime Ornelas Camacho becomes the first President of the Regional Government of Madeira. |
| 1980 | 4 December | Prime minister Francisco Sá Carneiro and the Minister of Defence Amaro da Costa died in a plane crash, in strange circumstances. |
| 1984 | | Carlos Lopes wins the first Olympic Gold Medal for Portugal in the Los Angeles '84 marathon |
| 1986 | 1 January | Portugal becomes a member of the European Economic Community, today's European Union' |
| 1998 | | Lisbon organizes the World's Fair Expo '98. |
| 1998 | 28 June | In the first Portuguese abortation referendum, the proposal to allow the abortion until 10 weeks of pregnancy is rejected by 50,91% of the voters. This is the first referendum in the History of the Portuguese democracy. |
| 1998 | 8 October | For the very first time, a Portuguese Language author is awarded with the Nobel Prize of Literature: José Saramago. |
| 1998 | 8 November | in the regionalisation referendum, a proposal to establish, in mainland Portugal, 8 administrative regions and to disestablish the 18 districts, is rejected in the polls: in the first question, the simple institution of the administrative regions is rejected by 60,67% of the voters; in the second question, the proposal to create 8 regions is rejected by 60,62% of the voters. This is the first referendum in the History of Portugal to have more than 1 question. |
| 1999 | 20 December | Macau, the last overseas Portuguese colony, is returned to China |
