Spanish Motorcycle Diaries - Day 7 (part II). A Little Bit of Portuguese History. (May 2017)
Not a country at the core of Europe or that many of us have had the chance to spend much time in (probably more people have visited its former colony Brazil), it was helpful to read up a bit and learn more before dropping by for a 2nd short trip in this millennium; Dad always said: you don’t see the things you don’t know about.
Historical facts and takeaways:
1. Having finished its own ‘reconquista’ in 1242 and pushed out the Moors, and having gained independence from Castille/Spain in 1411, Portugal’s golden age is intrinsically tied to its seafaring explorers, with Vasco da Gama the first to reaching India sailing south of Africa (1497; Goa the resulting colony), followed by many others including Magellan & Elcano, who were the first to circumvent the earth in 1519-1522 (and put the Magellan straits in southern LatAm on the map), proving that it was round. After the pope had divided up the world between the competing colonial powers of Spain and Portugal in the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, giving Brazil to the latter and the rest of Latam to the former, a period of economic boom followed based on exploitation of the colonies and the slave trade, amongst others, but coming to an end in 1580 when Spain again took over Portugal. http://www.nealslavin.com/PORTUGAL/1/
2. Politics and governance have been unstable, to put it mildly. Having lost Brazil in 1822, the monarchy clung on to power and its remaining African and Asian colonies, while the late 19th century saw modernisation and expansion of education, rise of industrialization, and concomitant rise in trade unions, workers’ assertiveness and leftist ideas. In 1910, the monarchy is overthrown and a republic declared, but chaos rules, with 45 governments between 1910 and 1926 (a period of instability and lack of governance not unlike Germany’s largely contemporary Weimar Republic, with similar results in some ways).
3. Unsurprisingly, the result was the longest dictatorship in Europe in the 20th century. Salazar seized power in 1932 (one year before Hitler), creating in his ‘New State’ a Mussolini-like corporatist, nationalist, autocratic, Catholic and repressive regime. He supported Franco in neighboring Spain and ruled until 1968, i.e. largely a congruent period with Franco in Spain (1939-1975). The country was depressed and backward, again much like Spain, despite growing by 7-9% in the 1950’s and 1960’s. See the photographs by Neil Slavin (see post below) to get an impression from 1968, when 30 years of repression and economic underperformance depicted a despairing and sad country.
4. After a bloodless coup in 1974 (‘revolution of the carnations’), the country formally ended military dictatorship. The decolonization of its remaining former colonies in 1974/5 (incl. Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome e Principe and East Timor) created more instability, and led to the inflow of 1m African refugees from the former colonies. Only in 1986 was the first civilian head of state elected in 60 years, and Portugal joined the EU that same year. Initial growth gave way to dealing with the competition of the internal market from 1992, and by 2001 Portugal stalled economically, experience a decade of stagnation before the 2007 global crisis hit it hard.
5. Like Ireland and some Baltic countries, Portugal imposed strong very strong austerity as part of a EUR 78bn 2011 EU bail-out, so that prior to its recent recovery it had experienced 15 years of difficult economic conditions, resulting in unemployment rates peaking at 18% (now down to 10%) and overall youth unemployment of up to 40%, now down to 23%.
6. We sometimes question why modern Islam has not been able to create secular states, or where it has (Turkey), why they are reverting to a less secular status. Well, Portugal serves as a reminder that in the western Catholic world, church and state also went hand-in-hand until very recently. Ever since the Reconquista gained momentum in the 11th century, state and church in Portugal worked jointly. Only in the 18th century was there a first attempt at de-secularisation by Pombal, resulting in the banning of religious orders and the confiscation of church property in 1821. Not until the 1st republic in 1910 was the separation formally confirmed under a constitution, and it was only made to stick in 1976 after the end of Salazar’s New State dictatorship. Salazar, who had studied 8 years for the priesthood before switching to law, used the church and its authority to support his authoritanism. In that, he was no different than the Inquisition, which ravaged Portugal from 1536 for over 200 years and was also used against internal enemies. Victims were kept in prison for a decade, tortured, and if they confessed, strangled before being burnt at the stake; otherwise alive. All in the name of Christianity, mind you. -- One of the legacies is the state of education, which was church-controlled for centuries. Secondary-level education levels in Portugal were, until recently, at only half the level in many of the more developed European countries, with some 45% finishing secondary school against some 78% on average in the OECD, and over 90% in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic (ahead of all OECD economies including the US; Spain and Italy are around 60%).
7. The Portuguese language has a word that does not translate well into other languages, and which reflects that state of mind that is evoked by some of Neil Slavin’s photographs: saudade. Citing Wikipedia: Saudade (European Portuguese: [sɐwˈðaðɨ], Brazilian Portuguese: [sawˈdadi] or [sawˈdadʒi], Galician: [sawˈðaðe]; plural saudades) is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Walking around Lisbon earlier today, you could also hear it through their famous fado songs.
8. Yours truly knows Brazil much better, having lived there for 8 months in 1988/89, and having learned the much easier Brazilian version of its beautiful language. And while Brazil can be a hard place at times, what stands out is the eternal optimism of the Brazilians, their joie de vivre, as expressed in countless great pieces of music and dance. One of my favourites is the following (which contains some saudade but takes it away from there …): Tristeza nao ten fim, felicidade sim! (Sadness knows no end, happiness does!) -- see
