Editing Portuguese Armed Forces (section)

===Background===
[[File:Assault-on-Asilah.JPG|thumb|300px|Portuguese naval and land forces in the [[Conquest of Asilah]], 15th century]]
The history of the Portuguese military itself begins in the 12th century with the creation of the [[Kingdom of Portugal]]. Since the early beginning, the Kingdom had naval and ground forces. The Portuguese Navy exists as a permanent force since 1317, however non-permanent naval forces existed already before, with their first known naval engagement occurring in 1180. The Portuguese ground forces were established as a [[standing army]] in 1570, however they had existed since the 12th century, as the non-permanent [[hueste|''hoste'']]. The Navy and the Army would remain independent from each other for hundreds of years.

By the early 20th century, some joint military and national defense bodies had been created but these had mostly mere political coordination responsibilities. The administration of the several forces of the military remained in charge of separate [[Ministry (government department)|government departments]], respectively the [[Navy Ministry (Portugal)|Navy Ministry]] for the Navy (''Marinha''), the [[War Ministry (Portugal)|War Ministry]] for the Metropolitan Army (''Exército Metropolitano'') and the [[Overseas Ministry (Portugal)|Colonies Ministry]] for the Colonial Military Forces (''Forças Militares Coloniais''). Operationally, the service branches were also completely independent from each other, with totally separated chains of command.

During the 1930s, plans were laid to merge all of the previously mentioned ministries under a single defense ministry. However, the service branches lobbies for the maintenance of their autonomy – represented by their separate government departments – politically opposed and were able to block this reorganization for the next couple of decades.

Nevertheless, the need to defend the [[Portuguese Empire|Overseas Empire]] against possible foreign aggression during [[World War II]], did lead to a significant step being taken during this period for an increased integration of the several military services, when the Colonial Military Forces were placed under the dependency of the War Ministry, which then became in charge of all Portuguese ground forces (metropolitan and colonial).