the day the portuguese got rid of the spanish invaders, Portugal for 60 years was under Spain, it happen in these day today, a national holiday we finally got rid of Filipe III Foi há precisamente 364 anos, no dia 1 de Dezembro de 1640, que Portugal reconquistou a sua independência em relação a Castela, depois do País ter vivido durante 60 anos sob o jugo da dinastia filipina.
In the day we comemorate this date our Futsal national team is eliminated by Spain...they forgot to kick some Spanish arse.
Forca Portugal, in our history we have kicked ass against several different groups that have tried to conquer Portugal. Some occupied the country for a short period but they were all repelled eventually but our forefathers. Romans Moors Spaniards Visigoths Celts We should all be proud of them for creating such a great country. Small but still grand! Be thankful for the country you currently live in, but never forget were you came from.
that's why 1 de Dezembro is a national holiday, a day we should never forget, the day we got rid of the spanish regime
Frank, you must of been what 3 or 4 back then. A jogar com uma bola de trapos. I love your history lessons it reminds of the guy from RTP. I learned most of this in school, but it has gotten pushed to the forgotten zone. Thanks for the refreshing courses.
Makes you wonder though... can you imagine if the guys that overturned the spannish rule stayed in bed in that 1st December of 1640? We could all be living in one BIG country called.... Iberia! One good thing about it would be... ... Iberia would be a stunning 55-60 million people country (like France and England) and other countries would actually have to listen to what we had to say or risk a severe spanking. on the other hand, ... we would probably have had to fight in WW2 ... and, given the History of Nationalism and Fascism in Iberia... we'd be most likely entering on the German side another good thing would be ... We would still speak portuguese, even though only as a second language, like the catalans but ... we would also be 2nd rate Iberians for those arrogant Castillians. and in football... ... I would still be a FC Porto fan, but Porto's main rivals would be Real Madrid (where all the power is) and Celta Vigo (Regional rivalry). however ... Porto would be a UEFA team, at best... with only 3-4 league titles ... After a brief spell of glory back in the 60's winning 1 Copa del Rey (Sporting) and 5 La Liga titles (Benfica), all portuguese teams except Porto, Sporting and Benfica would have been relegated to div. 2 and 3. ... our NT would would kick even bigger ass on paper, and CHOKE EVEN WORST when it mattered! anyway Here we are celebrating centuries of hard fought independence and at the same time, a BIGGER country is being put together. Slowly, but steadily. A country that will inexorably reunite Portugal and Spain; France, England and Germany, Italy and Greece... maybe even Turkey! I call it the United States of Europe. The future of the European Union. Nationalism is dead.
acording to legend she was also one hell of a ugly woman, probably the basis for all the "portuguese woman are so ********in ....." jokes that come out of brazil and spain thanx for the thread frank im a big history buff. and heres a link to the great battle of aljubarrota its worth a read especialy if your into Medievil combat tactics. 600 thousand pork chops against 30 thousand olay olay chantin spaniards Blessed is the name of Nuno Alvares Pereira http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aljubarrota
another time the british had our backs. Always been behind Portugal bad teeth and all ..wtf says I have to spread the rep around before i hook up frank and ferrji again.. sorry guys you had some good rep comin
the european union is for hippys , communists, and people who think the can forget thousands of years of strife. I forget who wrote it but someone predicted this crap in the 20's, orwell or someone i forget. They allready pissed a bunch of people off in portugal I dont remember the story to well but I guess the EU wanted to change the name of the bank of lisbon (portugal?) to something more encompassing for the EU so as not to seem to national , if anyone remembers this pleas pipe in my minds eye is cloudy im tired
Camoes... you blind phvck open your good eye!! it's 6 and a half thousand portuguese not 600 thousand! That would not be portuguese heroism like it really was, it would be more like spannish martyrdom.
We may not all agree with the European Union, everybody has their own opinion. But would Portugal continue to grow if not an investment in the EU. I don't think so... We rely heavily on exports and imports since the self-destruction of our trades, our lands, our businesses and ourselves. That is how capitalism works. We should have made an investment in our future a long time ago, but we didn't! Government after government has come and gone, and with every departure, Portugal is a little bit poorer. (How can our politicians earn more money than their counterparts in Spain?) With the Euro2004 we proved that we are a world class nation capable of greatness. But it is all a memory now and people have returned back to their old ways. We have not invested in ourselves, we have not tooted our own horns. We seem to be content in complaining and complaining about everything and anything. If they could only take that energy and redirect it somewhere else. Look at the textiles factory in northern Portugal taht was to be closed by the German owners. When they realized they were losing their jobs they, themselves, went out and got new contracts, new orders to sustain their employment. Why didn't they do this in the beginning. All countries are losing out in this new World Order. Americans had a campaign to "Buy American" a couple of years ago. That went nowhere. Americans invested their money in their steel industry only to get burned by the Brazilians. Canada invested in the three big automakers, and then their labourers went on strike, so jobs moved to Mexico. Nike, Reebok, Levis have all picked up shop and moved to the Philipines, Malasia, and India. Portugal used to have a big T-Shirt and Jean manufacturing industry, but the ridiculous wages, the holidays, and the investment wasn't worth it anymore, so the owners left. We may lose a little bit of nationalism, we are defenitely losing control of our government, but I think if Portugal plays their cards right, we can come out on top. We can't be requesting Doctor's salaries for doing labourer's jobs. We can't want all of the health services for free without paying for them somewhere down the line. As an aside, I notice that Portugal is starting to lose its tourism tag also. It is gettign to be very expensive to Vacation in Portugal. The Algarve is starting to lose its luster as a Vacation destination. I work with people who vacation every Feb in Portugal (for the past 10 years) and sometimes they go back a second time in Sept. This last time, they complained that it was getting ridiculously expensive and they be looking for a new location. One mor eloss for Portugal.
there's an interesting article by niall ferguson in the newest issue of foreign affairs magazine. if i recall correctly, it's titled sinking globalization. the title refers to the sinking of the lusitania in 1915. in it, he analogizes contemporary internationalization - like the EU, and global markets - to what was developing during the run up to world war I. i was reminded of this because it seems to me that he makes reference to george orwell's thoughts on the subject, too. good article. great magazine. congrats on another year of independent portugal. you never kissed madrid's ass. don't kiss brussells'.
your post is doing just that! Yeah boo hoo poor Americans and Canadians. Those evil Brazilians and Mexicans don't let them grow. If you can't pay decent wages, provide minimal benefits to your workers like holidays, than you should shut down! Portugal can not become a competitive country at the expense of workers! Go to Pakistan for that! You want us to be Pakistan? They make T-shirts like no one else Im sure. But is that the industry that brings in the money? Take this example: A french stylist may buy a Pakistan T-shirt for almost nothing, add a few touches and sell it for a fortune because he added value. In this case he added style! That's what we need to do, have some people with new ideas creating something new and adding value to our economy. While many so called "doctors" are working at McDonalds fliping burgers.... have you payed a mechanic lately? Or a plumber? OUCH Yes, but tourism in Portugal is high quality! You should pay for a high quality destination like Portugal.
I'm sorry to say that... Yes we did. And when we weren't kissing Spannish ass, we had to be kissing English ass for protection against Spain or France. Plenty of examples of that in history (the Canary Islands were discovered and colonised by Portuguese and then literally given away to Spain, our Alliance with England which has cost us a lot, has been a direct result of fear of Spannish/French invasion, etc.) Portugal policiy was always to avoid confrontation with Spain because, let's face it... they are 4-5 times our size! Just because we miraculously managed to beat them in deffensive wars doesn't mean we were all that tough. And we didn't grow any tougher since then.
Think of countries like Holland, Belgium and Denmark who are nearly our size and have way higher standards of living. What direction would you rather have us go? Pakistan or Belgium?