Continental Portugal or mainland Portugal is the colloquial term used to distinguish the portion of the Portuguese unitary state located in the Iberian Peninsula (and so in Continental Europe). Mainland Portugal is commonly referred to, by residents living in the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, as simply the Continent referring to both the socio-geographic and political status that exists between the islands and Lisbon. Before 1975, when the Portuguese territory also included several now independent states in Africa, the designation metrópole was also used.