The Algarve has a long and interesting history. The Algarve is named so because in Arabic “Algarve” means country of “the west”. Over the years people have made home to the Algarve due to its strong military position along the coast, with great access to shipping lanes and important ports.
Due to the ideal location of the Algarve, it was as ideal area for people to settle. First arrived the Conii around the 5th century BC, followed by the Carthaginians, who were intern followed by the Romans. The Romans made huge improvement to the area, creating many trading ports along the coastline
The Algarve was then conquered by the Visigoths in the fifth century, who occupied the area until the Moorish invasion of 711 AD. The Moors occupied Lagos, which they called Zawaia. Faro was also renamed Faraon which means “the settlement of the Knights”. Silves, another ancient town, was for many years the capital of the area under Moorish occupation, and was renamed Al-Gharb, or Algarve. By the middle of the 12th century the area was reclaimed by the Christians from the Kingdom of Portugal which was located on the Iberian Peninsula. It took nearly one hundred years for the Portuguese to secure the area against the Moorish, and during that time King Afonso III of Portugal began to call himself King of Portugal and Algarve.
The city of Lagos on the west coast of the Algarve became the capital due to its excellent maritime position for trade.
The Spanish and the Portuguese fought over control of the Algarve. The Spanish took a hold of the Algarve from 1580 until 1640 when the Portuguese drove the Spaniards out. Portugal and the Algarve gained its complete from Spain in 1668.
Napoleon also had his time in the Algarve when he invaded in 1807, and this forced the Portuguese royalty to escape to Brazil where they remained until Napoleon left.
1911 saw the beginning of many years of political instability as Portugal attempted to create a new constitution, and during this time also incorporated the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarve into one country. Since then, the Algarve would be known as a province in the southern area of Portugal.
The Algarve’s history is clearly on show today, you can see many ruins, castles, forts, excavations in many of the Algarve’s towns.
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