Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
M
Macao (Macau)
This Portuguese colony on the southeastern
coast of China was established in 1557. For
several centuries it was, with nearby Can-
ton, the only point of entry into China
available to European traders. When Brit-
ain established its control of Hong Kong,
some 40 miles down the coast, Portugal
asserted (1849) her sovereignty over Macao,
which had been hitherto regarded as leased
territory. This claim was not acknowledged
by China until 1887. The enclave—with a
population of some 300,000 crowded into a
few square miles on a peninsula and two
islands linked by causeway—remained in
Portuguese hands after the rest of her
empire had vanished. Although the Com-
munist regime in China sought Macao's
surrender in the 1960s, a later policy change
encouraged her retention as a useful open-
ing to the outside world. Macao was finally
returned to China by mutual agreement
and with elaborate ceremonies of mutual
respect in 1999. Macao was, thus, the last
surviving remnant of Portugal's once globe-
girdling empire.
literary traditions, Machado was himself a
member of that G
ENERATION
OF
'98 that
sought to overcome the spirit of defeatism
and disarray gripping Spain after her mili-
tary and political failure in 1898. Machado
was, moreover, a product of the Institución
Libre de Enseñanza founded by F
RANCISCO
G
INER
DE
LOS
R
ÍOS
, whose graduates were
viewed as the potential renovators of their
country. Having studied at the Sorbonne
and received a doctorate in literature,
Machado dedicated himself to the teaching
of French at secondary school in C
ASTILE
.
During his time there this native of A
NDA
-
LUSIA
became thoroughly imbued with a
love and sympathy for the people and land-
scapes of his adopted region. His happiest
years came to an end in 1912 with the
death of his adored wife and the necessity
of taking up a new teaching position in the
south. A serious and solitary figure who
avoided the cliques and intrigues of the lit-
erary world, Machado was much esteemed
by many of the leading figures in contem-
porary Spanish culture, but it was not in his
austere temperament to be close to the men
or movements of his time. Loyal to the Sec-
ond Republic, he remained in its last capi-
tal, B
ARCELONA
, until the very end and left
for France, escorting his aged mother, only
under the compulsion of the retreating
Loyalist soldiers. Both he and she died
Machado, Antonio
(1875-1939)
Spanish poet
The son of an eminent folklorist who had
advocated the revival and renewal of Spain's
257
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