Discovering Portugal OOL (Zoom)
Osher Online - Summer | Registration opens Wednesday, May 20, 2026 12:00 AM EDT
In this course, we will explore how a tiny nation – Portugal – played an outsized role in world history. We will examine Portugal’s fifteenth and sixteenth century maritime expansion (once called the “Discoveries”), as well as its central role in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. We will trace how Portugal, once a fringe region of the Roman Empire, emerged as the only independent kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula as Castile grew into Spain. We will follow Portugal’s rise as a global power, with outposts stretching from Brazil to Japan, and then its decline as rival empires overtook it – culminating in twentieth century poverty under Europe’s longest dictatorship. Finally, we will consider how this past continues to shape Portuguese identity and culture in the decades since a revolution ushered in democracy. As we survey Portugal’s landscapes, art and architecture, and food, we will see why record numbers of Americans are now visiting the country.
Summer 2026 Discovering Portugal - On Vimeo
Note: Registration for the Summer Osher National Online courses will close on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
Osher Online™ courses are not recorded.
Alison Roberts
Alison Roberts is a journalist with nearly four decades of experience, reporting in her native UK and later internationally for English-language outlets including the BBC, NPR, and Bloomberg News. Her work has covered politics, finance, sports, and the arts. She has edited or contributed to a dozen guidebooks and provided online updates for Fodor’s, Time Out, and other publishers. Now based in Portugal, she is writing a history of the country and has explored it extensively from north to south.