THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF IBERIA - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 6

associated with the unification struggles of the 19th century; in France,
with the great revolutionary turmoils of the late 18th; in England, with
the Glorious Revolution of 1688 or the Industrial Revolution a few
generations later. In the case of Spain and Portugal, however, the
Renaissance was truly the formative and decisive experience of their
whole modern existence. Their transition from insignificance to global
dominance; their political, military and cultural glory; and their onset
of decay were concentrated within the Renaissance era. They would
spend much of their modern history looking back upon their Golden
Age, periodically striving to recapture past greatness but perpetually
frustrated by their failure to live up to the achievements of their ances-
tors. In a sense the Iberian kingdoms would be shaped for the whole of
their modern existence by the memory of what they had been in their
earlier days. For this reason it is necessary, if one is to understand the
history of Spain and Portugal during the last five centuries, to form a
clear picture of what they were in this moment when they began to
assert themselves, for their respective characters would be permanently
linked to the identities then established.
OLD BOUNDARIES AND NEW FRONTIERS
The physical geography of the Iberian Peninsula limited options and
presented opportunities for its inhabitants. The Pyrenees walled them
off from northern Europe, while the long stretch of Mediterranean
coastline encouraged contact with Italy, the Levant, and North Africa.
The shores of Portugal and northwestern Spain presented tantalizing
vistas of the Atlantic and what might lie beyond. The mouths of the
Douro and the Tagus at Porto (Oporto) and Lisbon, respectively, gave
Portugal maritime potentials that were echoed in Spain by the Gua-
dalquivir for Seville and the Ebro for the northeast coast. Yet none of
these rivers were naturally navigable routes into the interior. Instead,
like the mountain ranges, they contributed to the compartmentaliza-
tion of the peninsula and the dominance of localized social groupings
as well as political alliances. The great central plateau that dominated
the pastoral economy and shaped the human personality of Castile
reinforced its love-hate relationship with the lush southern lands of
Andalusia and the ruggedly independent dominions of Galicians and
Basques in the north. On a far smaller scale Portugal exhibited regional
distinctions and even antagonisms that manifest themselves in the
mountainous terrain and conservative attitudes of the region north of
the Douro, the proud assertiveness of the central provinces and the
Alentejo, and the more easy-going environment of the Algarve.