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particular reason why this portion of the
Iberian Peninsula began a separate political
existence hundreds of years before a uni-
fied Spain emerged. It was recognized as a
nation-state in the 12th century, while
petty kingdoms covering the greatest part
of the Iberian Peninsula were still contend-
ing with Moorish invaders or with one
another. Students of linguistics assert that
Portuguese is no more a distinct language
than the dialects spoken in various regions
of Spain, and some even describe it as little
more than a variant of Galician. Portuguese
nationalists sometimes fall back upon the
decision by imperial Rome to distinguish
between “Hispania” and “Lusitania,” a rec-
ognition that the land along the Atlantic
shore was more remote than the rest of the
peninsula. Spain has certainly not seen
much merit in Portugal's claim of sover-
eignty. It has repeatedly laid claim to the
smaller country and invaded it on numer-
ous occasions.
And yet Portugal stands apart, even
ignoring the origin of its two great rivers,
the Douro and the Tagus, which flow west-
ward out of Spain. Would the Germans,
they ask, disown the Rhine merely because
it rises in another part of Europe? For the
Portuguese it is enough that these rivers
form estuaries on the Atlantic that encom-
pass Portugal's two largest cities.
Although their country stretches only
360 miles north to south and is nowhere
more than 140 miles wide, the Portuguese
dwell upon the distinctive characteristics
and traditions of its regions. These are the
Minho, Trás-os-Montes, the Douro, and the
Beiras (Alta, Baixa, and Litoral) in the north
and Ribatejo, Estremadura, the A
LENTEJO
(Alto and Baixo), and the A
LGARVE
in the
southern lowlands. For each they will point
out a particular crop, a local turn of tem-
perament, or some pattern of historical
experience that fits into the Portuguese
national mosaic but sets its inhabitants
apart from the Spaniards. The Portuguese
think of their country in terms of the cooler
and rainier climate north of the Douro and
the warmer environment south of the
Tagus, as the terrain slopes down in the
southeast toward the Mediterranean.
Administrative rearrangements are less
important to them than their age-old sense
of natural boundaries. Although the near-
Atlantic outposts of M
ADEIRA
and the
A
ZORES
were acquired at the end of the
Middle Ages, most Portuguese think of
them as part of the otherwise vanished
colonial empire because they have never
been a part of that small segment of the
European continent that is the age-old land
of Portugal. Neither the Roman Empire nor
their own world-girdling empire, the inte-
gration with Spain that they once endured
nor the membership in the European Union
that they now enjoy, not even their inclu-
sion in the spiritual abstraction called Chris-
tendom, has ever been as important as the
fundamental Portuguese identity.
Portuguese Guinea
This West African territory was first touched
upon by Portuguese navigators in 1446.
Although it contributed to the Portuguese
slave trade for the next several centuries,
the exact territorial limits were not fixed
until the late 19th century, when boundar-
ies were negotiated with neighboring Brit-
ish and French colonies. Portugal was still
unable to secure complete mastery in the
area until 1915, and there was a serious
uprising in 1936. By the time Portuguese
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