Portuguese history storyboard
Cláudia Martins
claudiam@ipb.pt
Instituto Politécnico de Bragança
Escola Superior de Educação
Abstract
This paper intends to present relevant facts about the Portuguese culture
and history, so as to enable a better understanding of who the Portuguese are
and provide an overall perspective of the course of history in this westernmost
part of Europe. Although the choice of historical facts was subjective by nature,
it is believed it achieves the aim of presenting information in a critical but
blithesome way, with a view to also deconstructing national stereotypes, such
as that Portuguese people are always late or are crazy about football. Finally, it
focuses on some information about the Portuguese language mainly to serve as
a term of comparison with other European languages.
Keywords: Portuguese culture, Portuguese language, historical facts, national
symbols and icons.
Introduction
This paper starts with providing a brief introduction to Portugal, by focusing
on general information about aspects such as our governmental system and suffrage,
national languages, territory and climate, literacy and education, and national
,146 Elisabete Silva, Clarisse Pais, Luís S. Pais
holidays. Then five historical events of the utmost importance for the history of
Portugal will be referred to, namely the independence of the kingdom in the 12th
century, the two main struggles to regain independence towards Spain due to the
succession crises (in the 14th century and then in the 17th century), the liberal
revolution of the 19th century, the birth of the Republic at the beginning of the 20th
century and the right-wing dictatorship which was overthrown by the Carnation
Revolution of 1974.
Thirdly, it shall focus on a group of national symbols and icons that enhance
the characterisation of the Portuguese people and their cultural and historical
contexts. This choice of symbols and icons follows a European Union publication
(López-Menchero & Milano 2011) intended to describe each of its nations.
Finally, the last part will cover some basic aspects about the Portuguese
language, namely where Portuguese is spoken and its varieties, the origins of the
language and its Indo-European family, the alphabet it uses and some features of
its phonological system in terms of consonants, vowels and diphthongs.
As a final note, it should be emphasised that this paper is not a research paper
based on Portuguese culture and language, but rather a very personal selection of
historical and cultural issues that intends to provide an in-depth perspective of
Portugal’s history throughout 6 centuries, without neglecting the modern times.
Despite the conversational tone, academic concerns have been followed and
information is to be considered trustworthy and reliable in historical terms.
1. Brief Introduction to the Country
As a Portuguese citizen, it is quite a thorny issue to introduce one’s own
country. Therefore, for the first image of Portugal, CIA Factbook (2012: online)
was selected, which will aid us throughout this first introduction part:
Following its heyday as a global maritime power during the 15th and 16th
centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction
of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic
Wars, and the independence of its wealthiest colony of Brazil in 1822. A
1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six decades,
repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a left-wing military coup
installed broad democratic reforms. The following year, Portugal granted
independence to all of its African colonies. Portugal is a founding member
of NATO and entered the EC (now the EU) in 1986. (CIA 2012: online)
Portugal consists of a Republic, i.e. a government based on representatives
and a president elected by the people, and comprehends mainland Portugal and
the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores. It also included the African colonies and
East Timor or Timor Lorosae until 1975 (though they were unlawfully occupied
by Indonesia until they became a sovereign country in 2002) and Macau, which
was finally ceded to China in 1999. Her well-known capital is Lisbon, as it always
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was during the period of the Portuguese empire, though there were times when
the capital shifted to other cities, such as Coimbra.
In administrative terms, it is divided into 18 districts: Aveiro, Açores, Beja,
Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa,
Madeira, Portalegre, Porto, Santarém, Setúbal, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real and
Viseu, covering an area of 92,090 sq km and a coastline of 1,793 km.
As far as the official languages are concerned, Portuguese and Mirandese
must be mentioned. An interesting fact about our national language is that Portugal
has always presented herself as a monolingual country, the oldest in Europe to have
one common language for the whole of her population. However, when Mirandese
came to be recognised as the second official language in 1999, there was no legal
document to be found stating that Portuguese was the first official language of the
country, perhaps explained by the fact that everyone took it for granted. It was only
in 2004 in the Lei constitutional no. 1/2004 of 24th July, within the context of the
6th constitutional revision (article 11), that Portuguese was enshrined as the first
official language of the country. However, the Portuguese sign language spoken by
about 30,000 people has not yet been acknowledged as an official language, despite
the fact that the Portuguese constitution states the following in the law referred to
above: “Proteger e valorizar a língua gestual portuguesa, enquanto expressão cultural
e instrumento de acesso à educação e da igualdade de oportunidades” (DR I-A
2004: 4662) [to protect and appreciate the value of Portuguese sign language as a
cultural manifestation and a tool to access education and equality of opportunities].
As for her climate, it is described as maritime temperate, usually cool and rainy
in the north, and much warmer and drier in the south. For instance, while the north
might bear 15ºC during the day, several places in the south will have splendid 20ºC.
Nonetheless, there is also a difference between inland and coastal areas: Bragança
often has 5 or 6ºC during winter days, whereas Porto will have 14ºC or 15ºC. This
10-degree difference can be understood in light of the mountain range of Marão
that separates the region of Vila Real and the remaining of Trás‑os-Montes (literally
‘behind the hills’), which also led to the widespread use of a proverb: “para além do
Marão mandam os que lá estão”, that is ‘beyond Marão, those who are there are in
charge’, as if they were unreachable, and maybe untamed, due to geological features.
There are not many cases of natural hazards in Portugal, apart from volcanism
in Azores, though sporadic occurrences of earthquakes can be accounted for,
particularly in the south, such as the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon, preceded by a
tidal wave.
Portugal’s terrain is generally described as mountainous at the north of
the Tagus River (rio Tejo) and rolling plains in the south. The main resources the
country has to offer are fish, forests (i.e. cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten,
silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable land and hydropower (CIA
2012: online). Unfortunately, many of these resources, though still abundant, are
