18 Facts About Azores

The government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service and tertiary sectors.

Climate of the Azores is very mild for such a northerly location, being influenced by its distance from the continents and by the passing Gulf Stream.

Azores's sister, Isabel, was married to Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy, of which Flanders was a part.

Azores granted this and supplied them with means of transport and goods.

The Azores were the last part of the Portuguese Empire to resist Philip's reign over Portugal, until the defeat of forces loyal to the Prior of Crato with the Conquest of the Azores in 1583.

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In 1931, the Azores revolted against the Ditadura Nacional and were held briefly by rebel military.

In 2003, the Azores saw international attention when United States President George W Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, and Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso held a summit there days before the commencement of the Iraq War.

From a geostructural perspective, the Azores are located above an active triple junction between three of the world's major tectonic plates, a condition that has translated into the existence of many faults and fractures in this region of the Atlantic.

Principal tectonic structures that exist in the region of the Azores are the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Terceira Rift, the Azores Fracture Zone and the Gloria Fault.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is the main frontier between the North American Plate and the African-Eurasian Plates that crosses the Azores Plateau between the islands of Flores and Faial from north to south then to the southwest; it is an extensive form crossed by many transform faults running perpendicular to its north–south orientation, that is seismically active and susceptible to volcanism.

The Azores has an endemic bat, the Azores noctule, which has an unusually high frequency of diurnal flight.

Azores archipelago is located in a transition and confrontation zone between air masses of tropical origin and masses of cooler air of polar origin.

In winter, the Azores anticyclone is positioned further south, and allows for a descent of the Polar front, approaching it to the archipelago.

In order of importance, the main sectors of employment of the Azores are services, agriculture, fishery, industry and tourism.

Azores are divided into 19 municipalities ; each municipality is further divided into freguesias, of which there is a total of 156 in all of the Azores.

The Azores were uninhabited when Portuguese navigators arrived in the early 15th century; settlement began in 1439 with migrants from several regions of mainland Portugal and from Madeira.

Since 1976, the Azores has been an autonomous region integrated within the framework of the Portuguese Republic.

Azores has had a long history of marine transport to overcome distances and establish inter-community contacts and trade.