Spain and Portugal (Cultures and Costumes)

64 Pages·2003·8.62 MB·english

by  Keith Stuart

E U R O P E A N N AT I O N S
S P
PAIN AND ORTUGAL
A REFERENCE GUIDE
FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO THE PRESENT
Julia Ortiz-Griffin
and
William D. Griffin
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Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present
Copyright © 2007 Julia Ortiz-Griffi n and William D. Griffi n
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any infor-
mation storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For
information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
ISBN-10: 0-8160-4592-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-4592-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ortiz-Griffi n, Julia.
Spain and Portugal : a reference guide from the Renaissance to the present / Julia Ortiz-
Griffi n and William D. Griffi n.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8160-4592-5 (hc : alk. paper)
1. Spain—History. 2. Portugal—History. I. Griffi n, William D. II. Title.
DP66.O78 2007
946.0009’0303—dc22 2006026951
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities
for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales
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Text design by David Strelecky
Cover design by Semadar Megged
Illustrations by Dale Williams
Printed in the United States of America
VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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CONTENTS
Foreword iv
Introduction v
History of Spain and Portugal 1
THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF IBERIA 3
H ABSBURG SPAIN 9
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 25
THE AGE OF REVOLUTION IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 33
T HE NEW DEMOCRACIES 57
Historical Dictionary A–Z 67
Chronology 417
Appendixes 441
RULERS AND STATESMEN OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 442
M APS 451
Bibliography 463
Index 467
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FOREWORD
This series was inspired by the need of high school and college students
to have a concise and readily available history series focusing on the
evolution of the major European powers and other influential Euro-
pean states in the modern age—from the Renaissance to the present.
Written in accessible language, the projected volumes include all of
the major European countries: France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy,
and Russia, as well as other states such as Spain, Portugal, Austria, and
Hungary that have made important intellectual, political, cultural, and
religious contributions to Europe and the world. The format has been
designed to facilitate usage and includes a short introduction by the
author of each volume, a specialist in its history, providing an overview
of the importance of the particular country in the modern period. This
is followed by a narrative history of each nation from the time of the
Renaissance to the present. The core of the volume consists of an A–Z
dictionary of people, events, and places, providing coverage of intel-
lectual, political, diplomatic, cultural, social, religious, and economic
developments. Next, a chronology details key events in each nation’s
development over the past several centuries. Finally, the end matter
includes a selected bibliography of readily available works, maps, and
an index to the material within the volume.
— Frank J. Coppa, General Editor
St. John’s University
iv
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INTRODUCTION
Spain emerged as the dominant power in Europe at the beginning of
the modern era. Like France Spain became a centralized nation-state
and defeated that country in the struggle for mastery that left Spain’s
rulers dominant from the North Sea to the Mediterranean through a
combination of arms and diplomacy. Spain became a cultural leader
as well through its writers, artists, and even styles of dress. Moreover,
Spain was not only the first European Great Power, it was the first
European global power. Its proudly named conquistadores were indeed
the “conquerors” of a New World that they had found in the Western
Hemisphere and explored. Subsequently Spain imposed its language,
its religion, and much of its tradition on North and South America. In
the Old World Spain took the lead in what would become a centuries-
long clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam. The sheer
wealth and power wielded by Spain would decline through economic
and political reverses, however. During the 19th century its European
and global standing diminished and its colonial empire shrank. Civil
war and dictatorship engulfed its during most of the 20th century. Yet
the restoration of democracy in 1975 and its return to full membership
in the international community in subsequent decades have restored
Spain to much of the rank and respect formerly commanded by its posi-
tion as one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe.
Portugal, only a fraction of Spain’s size, has been called an “acciden-
tal country.” Its success in driving out the Islamic invaders who overran
the entire Iberian Peninsula during the early Middle Ages 300 years
before the Spaniards accomplished the same feat of liberation and uni-
fication gave her special advantages that compensated to some extent
for its smaller size. Even though Spaniards would continue to complain
that Portugal had no more justification for separate nationhood than
any of Spain’s provinces, the Portuguese soon forged ahead in global
outreach. Portugal’s navigators and traders found an all-water route to
V
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vi Spain and Portugal
the riches of Asia, made decisive contacts with sub-Saharan Africa, and
even staked its claim to a part of South America before Spain had effec-
tively begun its colonial conquests. After a “Golden Age” that lasted
only a few generations, Portuguese resources were stretched too thin.
Portugal would eventually have to surrender control over a commer-
cial empire that stretched from the Cape of Good Hope through South
Asia, the Spice Islands, the China coast, and Japan. Even Portugal itself
would, between 1580 and 1640, be subjected to the direct rule of its
powerful neighbor. During the 18th century Portugal would occasion-
ally be at war with Spain but during the 19th century would more char-
acteristically share an epoch of decline. During the 20th century there
were the parallel experiences of depression and dictatorship ending at
almost the same moment. For Portugal the new era of democracy and
optimism dawned in 1974 with the so-called Carnation Revolution.
The Iberian Age of European history encompasses more than 400
years, stretching from the High Renaissance to the onset of the Indus-
trial Revolution (c. 1450–1850) with its harsh discrimination between
“modern” and “agrarian” nations. The significance of the Iberian coun-
tries is to be found, however, not merely in their paucity of natural
resources and their lagging production figures but in a history that tran-
scends mere comparative statistics. Spain and Portugal reached out to
circumnavigate the globe while others cowered in Europe fearing the
unknown. They created the cultural heritage that encompasses a large
part of the Western Hemisphere in terms of language and religion. They
filled the art galleries and the library shelves with masterpieces. Rein-
venting postcolonial relations, they have established diplomatic and
economic bonds with the peoples of America, Africa, and Asia in a
spirit of mutual respect and cooperation. Finally, having entered a new
millennium as good citizens of a united Europe, they have contributed
the work of their statesmen and thinkers to the collective prosperity of
the Continent.
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HISTORY OF
SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
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T L
HE ANDS AND
P I
EOPLES OF BERIA
Spain and Portugal are inescapably linked to one another by their geo-
graphical position and their historical experience. That these two coun-
tries have preserved their separate identities within the Iberian
Peninsula is due to a complex array of physical, political, economic, and
cultural factors and, at times, unpredictable accidents of fate.
Modern Spain and Portugal emerged from more than 2,000 years of
life on the periphery of Western civilization. Like most of the Mediter-
ranean peoples, the Iberian and Celtic inhabitants of the peninsula
experienced Greek, Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman influence in
varying degrees. Roman rule, as elsewhere, yielded to the triumph of
Christianity and the ascendancy of Germanic tribes.
The arrival of Muslim invaders in the Iberian Peninsula in 711 cre-
ated a distinct dimension of European history. For the next eight cen-
turies Islam, Christianity, and Judaism coexisted in a relationship that
was often financially and intellectually enriching but periodically dis-
rupted by religious tensions and civil strife.
During the Middle Ages a number of Christian kingdoms arose, pur-
suing a “Reconquest” of the territory lost to the “Moors.” Of these,
Castile and Aragon gained dominance over lesser realms to become the
progenitors of a united Spain. By 1147 the Portuguese had expelled the
Muslim overlords from Lisbon and secured effective independence.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RENAISSANCE
In the conventional periodization of European history, the Renaissance
has long been viewed as the shift between “medieval” and “modern.”
All the major European states are described as making this fundamental
transition some time in the second half of the 15th century. A more
sophisticated understanding of their respective experiences reveals that,
for most of them, modernity came later. In Germany and Italy it was
3
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