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Azores
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The Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km (950 mi) from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,400 mi) from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands (Flores and Corvo) actually lie on the North American plate and are only 1,925 km (1,200 mi) from St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Azores' most significant industries are tourism, cattle raising for milk and meat, and fishing.
The nine major Azorean islands and the eight small Formigas extend for more than and lie in a northwest-southeast direction.
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Encyclopedia
The Azores is a Portuguese archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km (950 mi) from Lisbon and about 3,900 km (2,400 mi) from the east coast of North America. The two westernmost Azorean islands (Flores and Corvo) actually lie on the North American plate and are only 1,925 km (1,200 mi) from St. John's in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Azores' most significant industries are tourism, cattle raising for milk and meat, and fishing.
The nine major Azorean islands and the eight small Formigas extend for more than and lie in a northwest-southeast direction. The vast extent of the islands defines an immense exclusive economic zone of 1.1 million km². The westernmost point of this area is from the North American continent. All of the islands have volcanic origins, although Santa Maria also has some reef contribution. The mountain of Pico on Pico Island, at in altitude, is the highest in all of Portugal. The Azores are actually the tops of some of the tallest mountains on the planet, as measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean. The archipelago forms the Autonomous Region of Azores, one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal.
Because these once uninhabited, remote islands were settled sporadically over a span of two centuries, their culture, dialect, cuisine and traditions vary considerably from island to island. Farming and fishing are key industries that support the Azorean economy. 240,000 Azoreans live within the archipelago’s 868 square miles.
Although it is commonly said that the archipelago is named after the goshawk ( in Portuguese) because it was supposed to be a common bird at the time of discovery, in fact the bird never existed on the islands. Some historians indicate the archaic Portuguese word "" (the plural of blue) because of the colour of the islands when seen from afar. It could also come from the Classical Arabic word as-Sur meaning the wall. Most, however, insist that the name is derived from birds, pointing to a local subspecies of the buzzard , as the animal the first explorers erroneously identified as goshawks.
History
Discovery
The islands were known in the fourteenth century and parts of them can be seen, for example, in the Atlas Catalan. In 1427, one of the captains sailing for Henry the Navigator, possibly Gonçalo Velho, rediscovered the Azores, but this is not certain. A History of the Azores by Thomas Ashe written in 1813 marks the discovery by Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges in Flanders. Vander Berg was said to have landed there during a storm on his way to Lisbon. Ashe then claims that the Portuguese left to explore the area and claim it for Portugal shortly after.
Settlement
The settlement of the then-unoccupied islands started in 1439 with people mainly from the continental provinces of Algarve and Alentejo. In 1583, Philip II of Spain, as king of Portugal, sent his fleet to clear the Azores of a combined multinational force of adventurers, mercenaries, volunteers and soldiers who were attempting to establish the Azores as a staging post for a rival pretender to the Portuguese throne. Following the success of his fleet at the Battle of Ponta Delgada, the captured enemy were hanged from yardarms, as they were considered pirates by Philip II. (This was added to the "Black Legend" by his enemies.) The Azores were the second-to-last part of the Portuguese empire to resist Philip's reign over Portugal (Macau being the last) and were returned to Portuguese control with the end of the Iberian Union, not by the professional military, who were used in the Restoration War in the mainland, but by local people attacking a fortified Castilian garrison .
Portuguese Civil War
The Portuguese Civil War (1828–1834) had strong repercussions in the Azores. In 1829, in Vila da Praia, the liberals won over the absolutists, making Terceira Island the main headquarters of the new Portuguese regime and also where the Council of Regency of Mary II of Portugal was established.
Beginning in 1868, Portugal issued its stamps overprinted with "" for use in the islands. Between 1892 and 1906, it also issued separate stamps for the three administrative districts of the time.
From 1836 to 1976, the archipelago was divided into three districts, equivalent (except in area) to those in the Portuguese mainland. The division was arbitrary, and did not follow the natural island groups, rather reflecting the location of each district capital on the three main cities (none of which were on the western group).
- Angra do Heroísmo consisted of Terceira, São Jorge, and Graciosa, with the capital at Angra do Heroísmo on Terceira.
- Horta consisted of Pico, Faial, Flores, and Corvo, with the capital at Horta on Faial.
- Ponta Delgada consisted of São Miguel and Santa Maria, with the capital at Ponta Delgada on São Miguel.
In 1943, during the Second World War, The Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar, leased bases in the Azores to the British, despite his previous collaboration with Germany. This was a key turning point in the Battle of the Atlantic, allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic. This helped them to hunt U-boats and protect convoys.
In 1944, American forces constructed a small and short-lived air base on the island of Santa Maria. In 1945, a new base was constructed on the island of Terceira and is currently known as Lajes Field. This base is in an area called Lajes, a broad, flat sea terrace that had been a farm. Lajes Field is a plateau rising out of the sea on the northeast corner of the island. This Air Force base is a joint American and Portuguese venture. Lajes Field continues to support United States and Portuguese military operations. During the Cold War, the United States Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine squadrons patrolled the North Atlantic for Soviet submarines and surface spy vessels. Since its inception, Lajes Field has been used for refuelling aircraft bound for Europe, and more recently, the Middle East. The United States Army operates a small fleet of military ships in the harbour of Praia da Vitória, three kilometres (2 mi) southeast of Lajes Field. The airfield also has a small commercial terminal handling scheduled and chartered passenger flights from other islands in the archipelago, Europe, and North America.
In 1976, the Azores became the Autonomous Region of the Azores , one of the Autonomous regions of Portugal, and the Azorean districts were suppressed.
Politics
Since becoming a Portuguese Autonomous Region, the executive section of the local authority has been located in Ponta Delgada, the legislative in Horta and the judicial in Angra do Heroísmo. The President of the Regional Government is now Carlos César.
Azorean politics are dominated by the two largest Portuguese political parties—PSD and PS, the latter holding a majority in the Regional Legislative Assembly. The CDS/PP, BE, CDU and PPM are also represented in the local parliament. Even though the PS dominates the administrative scene, the PSD is usually more popular in city and town council elections.
Municipalities
The Azores are divided into nineteen municipalities ; each municipality is further divided into parishes . The Azores have a total of 156 parishes.
The Western Group
The Central Group
The Eastern Group
Cities
There are five cities in the Azores: Ponta Delgada and Ribeira Grande on São Miguel Island; Angra do Heroísmo and Praia da Vitória on the island of Terceira, and Horta on the island of Faial. Three of these Ponta Delgada, Angra and Horta are considered capital cities in the regional government, homes to the President (Ponta Delgada), the Judiciary (Angra) and the Regional Assembly (Horta).
Geography
The archipelago is spread out in the area between 37° N and the parallel that passes through Lisbon (39° 43' / 39° 55' N), giving it a tepid oceanic subtropical climate, with mild annual oscillation. The average annual rainfall increases from east to west and ranges from 700 to 1600 annual millimetres (27.6–63 in) on average, reaching in Mount Pico (the highest Portuguese mountain at ). The Azores High, an area of high atmospheric pressure, is named after the islands. The Formigas (the Portuguese word for "ants") islands (also known as Dollabarat Reefs) have rich maritime fauna, including exotic species such as the black coral and manta rays, sharks, and sea turtles.
The archipelago lies in the Palearctic ecozone, forming a unique biome that includes the macaronesian subtropical laurissilva, with many endemic species of plants. Even though the Azores look very green and sometimes wild, the vegetation has been extremely altered. Most of the original laurisilva has been wiped out for its valuable wood (for tools, buildings, boats, fire wood, etc) and to clear land for agriculture. Many cultivated places (which are traditionnaly dedicated to pasture or to growing colocasia, potatoes, maize and other crops) have now been abandoned, especially as a result of emigration. Consequently, some "invasive" plants filled these deserted and disturbed lands. The two most common of these exotic species are Pittosporum undulatum and Acacia melanoxylon. They are usually restricted to ancient agricultural land and fortunately only rarely penetrate into undisturbed native vegetation. The main loss is on the lowland (below 400 m) where virtually all laurisilva was eradicated. A few Persea and Picconia still survive in some places, but appear to be extremely vulnerable. Only Myrica faya seems to have gone through human impact pretty well and is commonly found in hedges or mixed within exotic trees. More recent introdictions could become serious threat, like Leptospermum scoparium which has got the ability to colonize the still quite untouched medium altitude vegetation (Ilex, Myrsine, Erica, etc). Hydrangeas are another potential pest, but to a lesser degree. Notwithstanding the fact that Hydrangeas are introduced from America or Asia, some locals consider them as a symbol of the archipelago and propagate them along roadsides, helping them to escape eventually in the wild. Cryptomeria, the Japanese cedar, is a conifer extensively grown for its timber and of which many seedlings can be found in the last medium altitude native vegetation remnants.
The nine islands have a total area of . Their individual areas vary between São Miguel's and Corvo's . Three islands (São Miguel, Pico and Terceira) are bigger in size than Malta (composed of three different islands), São Miguel Island alone being twice as big.
The nine islands are divided into three groups:
Geology
The islands are located atop an active triple junction between three large tectonic plates: the North American Plate, the Eurasian Plate and the African Plate. Volcanism associated with the formation of the islands arises from the fact that the Azores Triple Junction involves rifting, a process whereby the crust is spreading along three ridge legs radiating out from the triple junction. The volcanism is also related to the Azores hotspot. The islands began forming during the Tertiary period. Pico, a volcano that stands high on the island of the same name, has the highest altitude in the Azores and all of Portugal.
The last volcano to erupt was the Capelinhos Volcano in 1957, in the western part of Faial Island, increasing the size of the island by 2.4km, but it's estimated that the great part of it will be washed away in next 20 years. Santa Maria Island is the oldest Azorean island, formed 4.8 million years ago, and is the only island in the Azores with an abundance of sediments where marine fossils have been discovered.
The Gruta das Torres, Algar do Carvão, Gruta do Natal, Gruta das Cinco Ribeiras are some of the many caves of the Azores.
Demographics
On 31 December 2002, the Azores' population was 238,767 at a density of .
Population
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the Azores are Portuguese, descendants of 15th century immigrants from Algarve and from Minho, with a minor Dutch admixture (particularly from Flanders). The nature of the economy dictated that African slavery never became common in the Azores, although the islands sometimes served as a waypoint for ships carrying African slaves.
Since the 17th century, many Azoreans have emigrated, mainly to Brazil, the United States and Canada. Southeastern Massachusetts, especially the cities of New Bedford and Fall River, was a primary destination for Azorean emigrants.
Traditional festivals from May through September
Holy Ghost Festivals, or Espírito Santo Festivals, are very important to the Azorean people. The festivals are rooted in medieval traditions and typically held on all the islands from May to September, including lively parades and large feasts. As part of the tradition, soup and bread are handed out to revelers during these events. On Terceira and other islands, decorative houses called Imperios are the staging points for the feeding of the masses.
May marks The Festival of Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres (Lord Holy Christ of Miracles) in Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel. The largest religious event in the Azores is the Festa do Senhor Santo Cristo takes place on the 5th Sunday after Easter. Pilgrims from all over the world unite to parade behind the image of Christ on a three-hour procession along the flower decorated streets of the city. The Sanjoaninas Festivities in Angra do Heroísmo in Terceira are held in June honoring S. Antonio, S. Pedro and St. João, in a large religious celebration. The traditional bullfights in the bullring are ongoing, as is the running of bulls in the streets.
The festival of Nossa Senhora de Lourdes, (Our Lady of Lourdes), patron saint to the Whalers, begins in Lajes on Pico on the last Sunday the August and runs through the week - Whalers Week. It is marked by social and cultural events connected to the tradition of whale hunting.? The Festa das Vindimas, (Wine Harvest Festival), takes place during the first week of September and is a century old custom ways by the people of Pico.
In Corvo the people celebrate their patron saints Nossa Senhora dos Milagres, (Our Lady of Miracles), on August 15th every year in addition to the festivals of the Divine Holy Spirit. The Festival da Maré de Agosto (August Sea Festival), takes place every year beginning on the 15th of August in Praia Formosa on Santa Maria. And, the Semana do Mar (Sea Week), dedicated almost exclusively to water sports, takes place in August in the city of Horta, on Faial.
In the Azores, Mardi Gras is known as “Carnaval”, a four-day celebration starting in February. Parades and pageants are heart of the Carnaval festivities. There is lively music, colorful costumes, hand-made masks, and floats.
Population genetics
As in continental Portugal, the most frequent mtDNA haplogroup in the Azores is H (45.2%), followed by U (16.7%), T (10.1%), K (6.5%), pre-HV clades (5.6%) and a smaller sub-Saharan L haplogroups frequency (3.4%) than in Madeira as the number of sub-Saharan slaves in the Açores never reached the proportions that took place in Madeira.
Concerning the males Y-Dna haplogroups, R1b (particularly R1b3) was found to be the most dominant Y chromosomal lineage in the Azores, covering about 60% of the Y chromosomal lineages. The high frequency of this haplogroup is typical in all West European populations, reflecting a cline and likely continuity of the Paleolithic gene pool in Europe. Haplogroups I and G, also characteristic markers for many different West European populations, were found in the Azores at frequencies above 5%. Together with R1b, haplogroups J (13%) and E1b1b (9%) comprise about 80% of the Y-chromosomal gene pool in the Azores. Haplogroups J and E1b1b consist of lineages with differential distribution within Middle East, North Africa and Europe. The typical berber haplogroup E1b1b (M81) was found like in continental Portugal at a frequency of 5-6%.
See also
External links
- — Website of the Azores Regional Government
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