ABSTRACT
Christianity was introduced to what is now Portugal under the Roman Empire; as such, when Portugal was officially founded in 1143, it was founded as a Christian kingdom. The consequent expansion of the kingdom of Portugal toward the south of the Iberian Peninsula was as important politically as it was religiously: as Portugal expanded south, it furthered the Christianization and de-Islamization of the Iberian Peninsula. The Estado Novo regime, which held power from 1932 to 1974, re-established the importance of Catholicism in cultural and societal terms, but did not restore its status as the state religion. The fact that the Portuguese resort to the Catholic Church in milestones such as births and marriages means that they also resort to the Catholic Church for funerals. The impact of the Protestant Reformation in Portugal, a traditionally Catholic country, was extremely low. Protestantism was mainly imported into the country by British merchants, who began to establish influential communities in the 18th century.
