Portugal is not in the Caribbean, and it is far from it. It sits on the western edge of Europe, on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. It belongs in this atlas for one reason: the same ocean current and the same sailing routes tie it to the Caribbean.
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The link is the great Atlantic loop. A warm current is born in the Caribbean, runs north up the American coast as the Gulf Stream, crosses to Europe, then turns south down the Iberian side, past the coast of Portugal from north to south. It carries on past the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira, down past the Canary Islands, and turns west at the Cape Verde Islands to cross back to the Caribbean. Portugal sits on the eastern side of this ring, the far shore of the same circle of water that the Caribbean sits at the heart of.
The sailing ships followed the same loop. Ships leaving Europe for the Caribbean stopped at Madeira or the Canary Islands to load food and water, then ran south to catch the trade winds and turned west for the islands. The Portuguese Atlantic islands were the last European ground before the long crossing. Portugal was a starting point of the route that opened the Caribbean to Europe.
