So, as I was sitting at work bored and pondering random thoughts, I got to wondering, “What’s up with Portugal?”
How is it that Spain never just took it over? And how did a seperate language develop on the end of the Iberian Peninsula? While on that same train of thought, why hasn’t Spain or France taken over Monaco and Andorra? Anyone know?
Capsule history:
The Moors took over the whole Iberian peninsula in the 8th century, and were stopped cold at the Pyrenees by Charles Martel. Iberia had been a patchwork of Visigothic kingdoms, and over the next 600 years, they slowly took the peninsula back. 4 major kingdoms emerged - Leon, Castille, Portugal and Aragon. Portugal remained separate, the other 3 were eventually united into modern day Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella were joint rulers of a unified Spain because one was the heir of Aragon, and one of Leon and Castille.
A much more detailed account and answers to your other questions will be provided by somebody, I’m sure.
And for that matter, that tiny country in Southern Africa that’s completely surrounded by another larger country, whatever they’re called.
There are actually many languages on the Iberian peninsula – including Aragonese, Asturian, Basque, Calo, Catalan, Extremaduran, Fala, Galician, and Gascon – with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility (starting with “none” for Basque) with Castilian Spanish.
Two points:
yabob missed Navarre, a kingdom which included the Spanish provinces named Navarre, Alava, and Guipuzcoa today, and the southernmost Atlantic coast of France. It finally fell into the hands of the united kingdoms of Aragon and Castile in 1513, to finish off what we know as Spain today.
Portugal was a part of Spain from 1580, when the Aviz dynasty died out and left the King of Spain as the nearest heir to the throne, and 1540, when the Braganzas led a revolt against Spain and re-established the independence of Portugal.
(BTW, Portugal was a colony of Brazil for seven years, 1815-22: the legitimate monarch was Emperor of Brazil and had his throne there. He was eventually persuaded to go back to Portugal and reign, whereupon Brazil named his son as Emperor, effectively becoming independent.)
Among the oldest Christian Iberian kingdoms were Pampeluna and Leon. Leon occupied the northwest corner of Iberia, including parts of what is now Portugal. In the 12th century, part of the Muslim land of Badajoz was conquered/liberated by Norman adventurers (I kid you not) and set up as “Portugal”. Over time, Portugal extended south and north to its current borders. However, the majority of the rest of the "reconquista was led by northern or northeastern powers. Thus, in a sense, Portugal’s fairly early independence gave it enough identity to avoid easy assimilation.
There was a brief union of Spain and Portugal that began under Phillip II (who was also king of Naples and King of Sicily). This began in 1581 and ended in 1640, due to a revolt provoked by policies of the Count-Duke of Olivares.
The Portuguese language is just another variation on Latin, as are other Romance languages. It has similarities to Spanish, but is (IMO) much more difficult to learn. Many words seem to be a shortcut of their Spanish counterparts:
See you tomorrow (SP): hasta manana (with tilde)
See you tomorrow (PT): ate’ manha (the ‘nh’ pronounced like the ‘gn’ in cognac)
The primary difference between the language as spoken by the Portuguese and by the Brazilians is in accent and in the manner of speaking.
Day (PT): dia (dee-ah)
Day (BR): dia (jee-ah)
In my experience, Brazilians are much more effusive and demonstrative when they speak. They just seem like happier people. After living in Lisbon, it became my opinion that the Portuguese psyche suffered greatly under Salazar. The country was isolated for many years and the people were generally still reclusive and wary of strangers. Once befriended, however, they are warm and generous.
Polycarp, I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed several - in the course of a several century consolidation, there is room for a lot of kingdoms to be created and absorbed. The four I gave are what you will usually see on a map showing the reconquest of the Iberian peninsula in something like an encyclopedia article. Dogface provides some extra detail as well. As noted, the Visigothic kings who got overrun by the Moors established themselves in the north, and slowly reconquered their way south. It was the 15th century before they finally booted out the last Moorish Caliph.
Lesotho. And we also have San Marino enclosed in the middle of Italy. If this turns into a general discussion of enclave and near-enclave nations, it could get very hard to follow. There are many reasons odd political boundaries can arise, and practically every one of them will have a unique history.
Yep: Asturias, Catalonia – the list is almost endless. My point, such as it was, was that you’d picked up on four of the five long-lasting kingdoms that went to make up modern Spain (other than Granada, the Moorish state, which was conquered), and that Navarre, somewhat smaller than the other four but independent for several centuries and the last (other than Portugal) to remain independent in the reunification under los Reyes Catolicos, deserved listing along with them. No biggie.
As for why Portugal was never “taken over”, a small part of the reason may be that Portugal has historically had a close relationship with the UK, to the extent of offering military aid. Unfortunately I no longer have the book where I think I read this; perhaps someone else can confirm?
England’s oldest alliance:
The Treaty Of Windsor 1386
Thanks!
Also from that site:
The ties with France (and French language) are strong. From what I remember, French is the language that has influenced Portuguese the most in the last couple of centuries (now I think it’s English).
Portugal formed as a separate kingdom starting in the 12th century, and expulsed the moors a century later. At that time, the rest of Spain was a collection of different kingdoms, still trying to expulse the moors. By the time Spain became unified under Castilla y Aragón, in 1492, the Portugal kingdom had existed under a couple of centuries as a separate entity.
Oh, and Portugal, back in the mid-late middle ages, was one of the greatest maritime powers. They sailed around Africa, and reached India and other parts of Asia. Henry the Navigator established a school dedicated to teaching… navigational
sciences.
There were different languages all over the Iberian peninsula… the primitive Portuguese, called Galego-portugues, was the language spoken in the western part of the peninsula. As time passed and the kingdom formed, the southern part of that western section developed the language now called Portuguese, while the northern part (now Galicia, part of Spain) developed into Gallego, which looks like a mixture of Spanish (Castillian) and Portuguese.
When the other kingdoms in the Iberian peninsula where unified by the kings of Castilla y Aragón (Catholic kings), they established an official, common language… Castillian. It then evolved to modern Spanish. The other major languages spoken in Spain (Gallego, Catalán, Basque) are still spoken, although they were repressed during the Franco dictadure. Gallego and Catalán can be more or less understood by Spanish speakers, at least when reading it. Basque is a whole different language.
Another fact: Le langue d’oc, the language spoken in southern France (Toulouse and whereabouts) is similar to Catalán.
Portuguese trains run on the same gauge as pretty much all of Europe, despite the fact that Spain uses a wider gauge.
But you can’t take a train from Portugal to any other country other than Spain.
Not quite - inertia and distance + local resistance over the years first slowed, then stopped the Moors. Much as it is touted, Tours/Pitiers was barely more than a skirmish, it came after the Moors had already mostly halted their forward progress, and it did not prevent further raids. Charles Martel is important for reorganizing the Frankish state, starting the reconquest of some Muslim areas in southern France. and laying the groundwork for the Carolingian empire. Tours/Poitiers is important for establishing Martel’s reputation and primacy, but both it and his military campaigns in the south, while not unimportant, came mostly during a period when the Muslim threat could already have been said to be ebbing.
No, it was a unitary kingdom. Much more so than Anglo-Saxon England and even more so than Merovingian France, a unity largely forged by King Leovigild (r. 569-586 ). It just was a somewhat weak edifice by 711.
Portugal was founded in 1139, reached its present size by 1250.
Castille and Portugal fought a war between 1385-1411, ending in Portuguese victory at Aljubarrota, securing their independence.
As for the Spanish succession of 1580, it might be noted it was more along the line of a hostile takeover that Portugal was helpless to prevent, the King and the bulk of the Portuguese nobility having been extinguished by the Moroccans in the disastrous battle of al-Kasr El Kebir in 1579. It was never popular and proved an utter disaster for Portuguese overseas interests, as it dragged it into the Dutch revolt, leaving Portuguese colonies to be plundered and conquered by Dutch raiders. The revolt in 1640 was the result and was successful because Spain was in crisis and breathing its last as a great power in the latter stages of the Thirty Years War.
- Tamerlane
France and Monaco signed a treaty in the (13th?) century that stated that Monaco would retain its independence for as long the Grimaldi line remained on the throne - if the Crown Prince should ever die without leaving a male heir, Monaco would then be absorbed by France. There’s been a bit of concern in Monaco in recent years about this, since Prince Albert, the next in line to the throne, is in his 40s and has yet to marry, but as to whether France would hold Monaco to that treaty today i’m not sure.