# Portugal

Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa), is a country located in the southwestern tip of Europe, in the Iberian Peninsula. It borders with Spain by land (North and East) and with the Atlantic Ocean by sea (West and South).

## Quotes

* If maps were shaded like balance sheets, the bottom part of mainland Europe would be deepest red. Italy, Spain and Portugal are heavily in debt. They are also Catholic countries. Their predominantly Protestant neighbours to the north, including Germany and Scandinavia, are in comparatively good shape financially. Is that simply a coincidence, or is Max Weber's theory about the Protestant ethic being intertwined with the spirit of capitalism still valid, over 100 years on?
** Chris Arnot, “Protestant v Catholic: which countries are more successful?”, The Guardian, (Mon 31 Oct 2011 13.00 EDT First published on Mon 31 Oct 2011 13.00 EDT)
* I remember vividly in 1974 being in the mass of people, descending the streets in my native Lisbon, in Portugal, celebrating the democratic revolution and freedom. This same feeling of joy was experienced by the same generation in Spain and Greece. It was felt later in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Baltic States when they regained their independence. Several generations of Europeans have shown again and again that their choice for Europe was also a choice for freedom. I will never forget Rostropovich playing Bach at the fallen Wall in Berlin. This image reminds the world that it was the quest for freedom and democracy that tore down the old divisions and made possible the reunification of the continent. Joining the European Union was essential for the consolidation of democracy in our countries. Because it places the person and respect of human dignity at its heart. Because it gives a voice to differences while creating unity. And so, after reunification, Europe was able to breathe with both its lungs, as said by Karol Wojtiła. The European Union has become our common house. The “homeland of our homelands” as described by Vaclav Havel.
** José Manuel Barroso, Nobel Peace Prize Lecture of the European Union, 10 December 2012
* Portugal is a small but, we are sure, proud nation located somewhere in Europe and boasting a history. During the Age of Exploration, Portugal produced many great navigators, men such as Vasco da Gama (literally, "Vasco the Gama"), who set out across the vast, stormy Atlantic in tiny ships, which of course immediately sank like stones, thus paving the way for the Age of Remaining on Land. Today the main industry in Portugal is manufacturing the Portuguese man-of-war, which is a type of jellyfish that can sting you to death if provoked, so tipping is strongly recommended.
** Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need (1991), New York: Fawcett Columbine, p. 149
* O Christ! it is a goodly sight to see What Heaven hath done for this delicious land!
** Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812), Canto I, stanza 15.
* As armas e os barões assinalados Que da ocidental praia lusitana Por mares nunca de antes navegados Passaram ainda além da Taprobana Em perigos e guerras esforçados Mais do que prometia a força humana E entre gente remota edificaram Novo Reino, que tanto sublimaram.
** Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon's shore, Thro' seas where sail was never spread before, Beyond where Ceylon lifts her spicy breast, And waves her woods above the watery waste, With prowess more than human forc'd their way To the fair kingdoms of the rising day: What wars they wag'd, what seas, what dangers past, What glorious empire crown'd their toils at last.
*** Luís de Camões, opening lines of The Lusiads (1572), as translated by William Julius Mickle (1776).
* Esta é a ditosa pátria minha amada.
** This is my happy land, my home, my pride.
*** Luís de Camões, The Lusiads (1572), Canto III, st. 21, as translated by Richard Francis Burton (1880).
* I found my April dream in Portugal with you When we discovered romance, like we never knew. My head was in the clouds, My heart went crazy too, And madly I said: "I love you."
** José Galhardo, Coimbra (1947), translated by Jimmy Kennedy as April in Portugal (1950).
* Portuguese wit suggests rebranding the whole country as Poortugal.
** The Economist, "More Pain, Less Gain" (20 October 2012)
* In Portugal in April 1974, before the liberals in the army turned on the oldest Fascist dictatorship in Europe and broke open all the literal and metaphorical prison gates, there had been only one legal party. On May Day of that year, the Socialist and Communist Parties were able to fill the streets of the capital city. Within days, a conservative and a liberal party had been announced, and within a very short time Portugal was, so to say, a “normal” European country. Those parties, with their very seasoned leaders, had been there all along. All that was required was for the brittle carapace of the ancien régime to be shattered.
** Christopher Hitchens, "What I Don't See at the Revolution", Vanity Fair (April 2011)
* The year 1492 marks not only Columbus's voyage, but also one of the major expulsions of the Jews from Spain; Portugal would be next.
** Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism (2007)
* The European Union and many of its countries, which used to take initiatives in the United Nations for peaceful settlements of conflict, are now one of the most important war assets of the U.S./NATO front. Many countries have also been drawn into complicity in breaking international law through U.S./U.K./NATO wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and so on.
** Mairead Maguire in The Disturbing Expansion of the Military-Industrial Complex, Common Dreams, (14 October 2014)
* Unlike the fleeting visits paid by Cheng Ho, the actions of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers symbolized a commitment to alter the world's economic and political balances. With their shipborne cannon and musket-bearing soldier, they did precisely that. In retrospect it sometimes seems difficult to grasp that a country with the limited population and resources of Portugal could reach so far and acquire so much. In the special circumstances of European military and naval superiority described above, this was by no means impossible. Once it was done, the evident profits of empire, and the desire for more, simply accelerated the process of aggrandizement.
** Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), p. 27
* The example of family unity, pursuit of education and respect for the elderly set by the Portuguese are profound lessons for all of us.
** Barbara B. Kennelly, "Commemorating Day of Portugal", Congressional Record, Volume 143, Issue 69, (May 22, 1997), Page E1024, United States House of Representatives.
* Ó mar salgado, quanto do teu sal São lágrimas de Portugal!
** Oh salty sea, how much of your salt are tears of Portugal!
** Fernando Pessoa, Poem "Mar Português" (1934), lines 1–2
* Cette petite nation se trouvant tout-à-coup maîtresse du commerce le plus riche & le plus étendu de la terre, ne fut bientôt composée que de marchands, de facteurs & de matelots, que détruisoient de longues navigations. Elle perdit aussi le fondement de toute puissance réelle, l'agriculture, l'industrie nationale & la population. II n'y eut pas de proportion entre son commerce & les moyens de le continuer. Elle fit plus mal encore: elle voulut être conquérante, & embrassa une étendue de terrein, qu'aucune nation de l'Europe ne pourroit conserver sans s'affoiblir.
** This small nation, suddenly finding itself mistress of the richest and most extensive commerce in the world, was soon peopled only by merchants, factors and mariners, whose health was destroyed by long voyages. It thus lost the foundation of all real power, namely agriculture, national manufactures and population. There was no proportion between its trade and the means of continuing it. Worse still, it set out to make conquests, and extended itself over a vast area of land that no nation in Europe would have been able to retain without making itself weak.
*** Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, Histoire des deux Indes (1770), Book I, Ch. 29 — A History of the Two Indies, Peter Jimack (ed.) (2006), Extract IX, p. 14
* Most Portuguese soldiers, as AR Disney notes, were “scoundrels from the prisons of Portugal” and were happy to serve in Asia as it gave hope for a better life.
** Twilight of Pepper Empire by AR Disney (Pg. 21)
* Notorious for their unethical trade practices, the Portuguese would levy illegal taxes and sometimes seize ships belonging to traders and sell their goods for sheer profit.
** The Portuguese, India Ocean And European Bridgeheads 1500–1800(Pg. 313) by Nagendra Rao

## See also

* Portuguese Empire
* Europe

## External links

* Official website