Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-07-21

duced annually in Portugal for each
man, woman and child in the country.
Port and Madeira are the best known
of the vintages. They are shipped
through Opporto in great quantities,
going chiefly to Great Britain and
Brazil, but in less quantities to many
other markets. Nearly two gallons of
olive oil per inhabitant are produced
each year. PortugaPs cork forests are
one of the chief sources of wealth for
the country. From them comes nearly
one-half of the. cork produced in
the world The United States imports
from Portugal about three-fourths Of
the cork which it uses.
South of the Tagus river the long
occupation of the country by the Moors
is evident not only through the archi'
lecture, but also because of the ap-
pearance Of the people. Almost pure
Berber types are met in many parts
Of the district.
Its Rise as a Kingdom.
There was really no Portugal during
Roman. Germanic and Moorish dOmina-
ton. Portugal may be considered
to have begun to emerge for the
first time in 1895 when the Spanish
crown, having conquered small part
of the northern portion Of the
present Portugal, made it an hered-
itary countship. The rise of Portugal
from this small beginning to an i'm
portant kingdom and then an empire
constitutes perhaps the most spectacu-
lar development of nation to be found
in modern history. The son of the
first count, Alfonzo Henriques, made
his country Independent of Spain and
himself its king. He then began
what was practically a crusade against
the MoOrs to the south, and with the
assistance of Christian knights from
other countries of Europe, succeeded
in driving the infidels from Lisbon in
1147. He and his successors continued
the fight, and by about the hundredth
anniversary of the fall of Lisbon the
entire area of the present Portugal
had been freed of Moorish dominion.
The country continued to grow in
Importance, wealth and power. Prince
Henry the Navigator became the patron
of navigation early in the Fifteenth
century, and under his encouragement
Portugars great page of discovery and
colonization began to be written. The
Portuguese were the first of the
Europeans to have the necessary vision
to make an ordered search for the
hidden places of the earth; and their
sailors were the first to establish con-
tact between Europe and large part
of the then unknown world, both east
! and west.
But if the rise of Portugal was rapid
it's fall from great power and wealth
was equally swift. Its man power was
severely drained to take care of its
extensive possessions and its ever
broader spheres of influence. Even
then colonial affairs were managed
| rather poorly and there came the in
evitable reaction. Weak kings at home
with spendthrift proclivities combined
to undermine Portugal's rapidly bull
overseas empire; and the competition
of other nations which went about the
building of empires more methodicall!
was no unimportant factor in the dis
placing of Portugal from the foremos
position in world affairs which she haC
won so quickly and with such seeming
ease.
Even though shorn Of many Of it:
former possessions, Portugal still con
trolls more than 100000 square mile
of colonial dependencies, chiefly il
Africa. The possession of this exten
sive territory makes Portugal th'
fourth colonial power Of the world, /
Russia be disregardeo.