1143 Portugal becomes independent from Spain, which is still largely occupied by Arabs.
1249 The Moors are expelled from Portugal.
1385 After one of the first bourgeois revolutions in European history, the Avis dynasty comes to the Portuguese throne, headed by King Dom Joao I.
1415-1487 Portugal takes the lead in European naval expeditions with a series of expeditions on the western coast of Africa.
1488 Bartolomeu Dias passes the Cape of Good Hope, on the south of Africa.
1492 The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, arrives in America and takes over the lands in the region for Spain.
1494 Portugal and Spain divide the world into two parts in the Treaty of Tordesilles. The lands to the east of a line 370 leagues from the Island of Cape Verde go to Spain. The rest goes to Portugal.
1498 The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama is the first European to arrive in Indian by sea.
1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral leaves Portugal with three boats. The official aim is to return to India. Cabral arrives in Bahia on 22 April 1500, after one of the boats has been lost on the way.
1530 The first black slaves arrive at the new colony, brought over from Africa.
1532 Portugal decides to colonise Brazil with an expedition by Martim Afonso de Souza to Sao Vicente.