CHRONOLOGY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 440

1978
Adoption of a democratic constitution in
Spain. The Cortes, elected by universal
suffrage and working with a prime min-
ister who can command a majority of its
votes, will henceforth include all political
persuasions.

ation of her transatlantic empire. Elabo-
rate celebrations take place at Madrid and
Seville. These are linked to the 1992
Olympic Games staged at Barcelona. The
tremendous expenditures on the beauti-
fication of these cities and the enhance-
ment of transportation facilities is justified
on grounds of national prestige.

1981
Reactionary groups within the army and po-
lice seize the Cortes chamber and threaten
to topple the new parliamentary system.
The king, putting aside his merely symbolic
duties as chief of state, rallies the support
of the nation and demands the obedience
of the armed forces to the constitution. The
collapse of this coup marks the end of any
serious threat to the “new Spain.”

1996
Socialists win Portuguese national elections,
taking the presidency (Jorge Sampaio)
and the prime ministership (António
Guterres).

1996-2004
José María Aznar, leader of the conservative
Popular Party becomes prime minister
and is subsequently reelected with an in-
creased majority. Spain, now a member
of the European Union, commits itself to
an active role in world affairs, including
a special involvement in Spanish Amer-
ica. Like his Socialist predecessor, Aznar
is bedeviled by economic instability and
controversies over regionalism.

1982-96
The Socialist Party, under Felipe González,
wins three successive national elections in
Spain. Moving toward an increasingly
centrist position González leads Spain into
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,
which his party had previously opposed.
His economic policies are a mixture of so-
cialist theory and pragmatic capitalism.
Although presiding over a new “boom” in
national prosperity and a rejection of all
restrains on personal liberties, he gradu-
ally loses support through his inability to
deal with autonomist demands.

1999
Portugal hands over its last remaining col-
ony, Macao, to China.

2000
Portugal and Brazil celebrate the 500th an-
niversary of the European discovery of
Brazil.
Despite the political convulsions of its 20th-
century history Spain's cultural achieve-
ments lead some to speak of a new Siglo de
Oro. Spain produces five winners of the
Nobel Prize in literature: José Echegaray
(1904), Jacinto Benavente (1922), Juan
Ramón Jiménez (1956), Vicente Aleixan-
dre (1977), and Camilo José Cela (1989),

1986
Portugal is admitted to the European Union
in recognition of a decade of economic
and political stability.

1992
Spain marks the quincentenary of the 1492
voyage of Columbus that led to the cre-