Originally posted by Alva
Portugal has been in some occasions a Spanish province. For example in the 16th century, the Golden Age of Spain. In 1578 the King of Portugal, Sebastian was his name, died in battle in North Africa. Felipe II of Spain was the uncle of Sebastian so he had some right to claim the throne of Portugal. The Nobility refused to recognize Felipe II as their King so Felipe II sends The Duke of Alva (13 june 1580) to conquer Portugal. Two months later (14 august 1580) Portugal and all her colonies belong to the throne of Spain. When Felipe II died Portugal became once again independent. If you study the history of Portugal you can't do without involving also the history of Spain. In the time of the Romans it was one province, the province of Hispania, although the region of what now is Portugal was called Lusitania. When Rome fell a German tribe called the Visigothen (this is the Dutch name, I don't know it in English, sorry guys) took possession of the hole peninsula. But not for long cause once Mohamed the prophet died, the Arabs expanded through the Middle East, Turkey and North Africa, they even conquered Spain and Portugal only to be stopped at the Battle of Poitiers (France) in 732 by Charles Martel. Then began the slow proces of the Reconquista and that's when Portugal and Spain where separated from eachother. Both fought their battles against the Arabs and in 1492 the Arabs where finally expelled from the peninsula by the Catolic Kings of Spain, Isabel and Ferdinand in the Battle of Granada (2 january 1492). The peninsula was free again, Spain was reunited but now there were two kingdoms, Spain and Portugal. Spain and Portugal have been enemies, especially when colonies were involved but they have also been allies when it was needed (against Napoleon for example, Wellinghton became commander of the Spanish Army but his headquarters were in Portugal).
But it is a fact that Spaniards and Portugueses are not the same. There are many differences. The first is the language. It's not the same language, they are both Roman languages buth they are very different. I for example don't understand a word of Portuguese but I do speak Spanish perfectly. Second is the culture. In the Spanish culture you can still see the Arab influence of hundred years of occupation, that's in Portugal less because the Arabs were expelled much earlier. And a third difference is one that makes us laugh a lot. You see, everybody knows that Portuguese women have a moustache so a joke here is that a razor is the most popular gift in Portugal for Mother's Day (It's just a joke, no offence). My point is that Portugal and Spain are not the same although their roots are the same. But what is true is that the Kings of Portugal were often relatives of those of Spain. Hope its a little clearer now
1st, history:
You have said some non-truths there.
When Roman fall, all the 3 Iberian provinces were conquered by Visigoths, not Spanish. They were not spanish nor Portuguese (why hadn't you said that Portugal has ruled Spain? It was the same...)
Visigoths were pulled back to Asturias (very north of the Iberian Peninsula) in 707-711 by the moors. Some centuries later moors start to have differences between them and "Reconquista" began
. In 1000+, Christian territories started to be enough strong to establish in richer areas and moors started to fall.
In 1139, Portugal declared his independence from Leon. At that time there were Portugal, Leon, Castilla, Navarra, Aragon (and perhaps another, not know now...).
Reconquista continued rapidly after. All the christian kingdoms unite their efforts with the help of Franks and in 1243 Portugal had only frontiers with christian territories. Moors were pulled back to Granada, a province in the very south of the Iberian Peninsula.
In the following centuries, politics become important and in 1492, moors were defeated, jewish expelled from Spain and Spain was born by the union of the so called "Catholic Kings". Since then some provinces like Galiza and Batasuna had tried to be independent, but they don't manage it till today...
Portugal begin to declain after Spanish union, slowly but firmelly. Portugal was weak in middle 16th century and wasn't strong enough to avoid conquering in 1580, like you told. Some provinves never accepted orders from Spanish! There is an island in Africa that only obay to Portuguese flag (Spanish had a lion and that was a sign of evil to them
) and in places in the East (Macau is the best known example...) Portuguese flag was never pulled down and substituted. Even the other provinces never accepted well Spanish domain.
Portugal and Holland both manage to get independent when Britain weakned Spain, in 1640.
Portugal had 3 Spanish kings (too many...
) for 60 years.
Portugal had 34 kings in total since 1139 till 1910 (it's a republic since then...).
Kings were relatives like everywhere in Europe. Queen Victoria (English...) was grandmother of all the great kings of Europe when seh dies...
Portuguese language is SUPERIOR to Spanish! I understand Spanish, but they don't understand Portuguese
It's so good!
And yes our culture is quite different, thx!
Same roots, but I prefered to be compared to other latin countries in Europe like France, Italy or Romania.
Hope to make you all see that Portugal is Portugal and Spain is #$%&/"@& to me!
You'd better call me ba$tard, a$$, "#$%$% or another thing you want.
Spanish should be considered a suspension reason...
Thank God TF is not Portuguese...
