Reconquista After the
Umayyad conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, a long process of reconquest (in
Portuguese and
Spanish: Reconquista) began. The
Battle of Covadonga and the establishment of the
Kingdom of Asturias are often regarded as the starting points of the process. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in the peninsula thereafter. The
County of Portucale, successively a vassal of the Kingdoms of Asturias,
Galicia and
León, eventually rebelled and won the
Battle of São Mamede on 24 June 1128, It was led by
Afonso Henriques, who, after defeating the
Moors in the
Battle of Ourique, proclaimed himself
King of Portugal on 25 July 1139. Portugal's independence was recognized in 1143 by King
Alfonso VII of León and in 1179 by
Pope Alexander III. Portugal's Reconquista finished in 1249. Spain began with the Union of the Crowns of
Castile and
Aragon in 1469 although it was not until 1516 that they had a single unified King. Until then, the word "Hispania" was only a geographic location and referred exclusively to the Iberian Peninsula. It was only in the Constitution of 1812 that the name "Españas" (Spains) was adopted for the country along, with the use of the title of "king of the Spains". The Constitution of 1876 adopted for the first time the name "Spain" for the Spanish state, and from then onward, its kings used the title of "King of Spain". The Reconquista was finally over with the
Fall of Granada in 1492. An attempt to unite all of the Iberian mediaeval kingdoms failed with the death in 1500 of
Miguel da Paz,
Prince of Portugal,
Asturias,
Girona and
Viana.
Overseas expansion Portugal's copy of the
Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) divided the New World between Portugal and Castile. During the 15th century, Portugal built increasingly large fleets of ships and began to explore the world beyond Europe, sending explorers to Africa and Asia. Castile followed suit decades later. Following the first Spanish voyage of
Christopher Columbus to the Caribbean in 1492, both states began acquiring territory in the New World. As a result of the 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal acquired its most potentially important colony,
Brazil (much of
South America), as well as a number of possessions in Africa and Asia, and Castile took the rest of South America and much of the North America, as well as a number of possessions in Africa, Oceania and Asia as the important colony of the
Philippines. The line of demarcation was about halfway between the Cape Verde Islands (already Portuguese) and the islands claimed for Castile by Columbus on his first voyage. Although the Treaty of Tordesillas attempted to clarify their empires, many subsequent treaties were needed to establish the modern boundaries of Brazil and the 1529
Treaty of Zaragoza was needed to demarcate their Asian possessions.
Iberian Union was crowned King Philip I of Portugal in 1580. He did not officially unite the two kingdoms. . In 1578, King
Sebastian of Portugal died in the
Battle of Alcácer Quibir against the Moroccans and the Ottomans. Having no heirs, he was succeeded by his great-uncle
Henry of Portugal, who reigned until his death (31 January 1580). Henry also lacked heirs and his death triggered a
succession crisis in which the main claimants to the throne were
Philip II of Spain and
Anthony, Prior of Crato. After the Spanish victory in the
War of Portuguese Succession Philip of Spain was crowned king in 1581 and started a personal union between the two nations, known as the
Iberian Union, that generated a decline of the Portuguese Empire. The Iberian Union lasted for almost sixty years until 1640, when the
Portuguese Restoration War was initiated against Spain, and Portugal re-established the Portuguese dynasty under the
House of Bragança.
18th century between Portugal and Spain, in the Maliebaan, on 6 February 1715. The
Dom Tower is visible in the background. From left to right: the
Duke of Osuna, in red coat,
Luís da Cunha, in black coat, the Secretaries, in blue and yellow coats, and the Count of Tarouca, crouched. During the 18th-century wars, which were often fought by the major powers to maintain the
European balance of power, Spain and Portugal usually found themselves on opposite sides. The Portuguese, courtesy of their
long-standing alliance, aligned themselves with
Great Britain, and Spain, through the
Pacte de Famille, allied itself to
France. In 1762, during the
Seven Years' War, Spain launched an unsuccessful
invasion of Portugal. In 1777, there was a
conflict between the two states over the borders of their possessions in
South America.
19th century and Napoleonic era The
War of the Oranges (Portuguese: Guerra das Laranjas; French: Guerre des Oranges; Spanish: Guerra de las Naranjas) was a brief conflict in 1801 in which Spanish forces, instigated by the French government and ultimately supported by the French military, invaded Portugal. It was a precursor to the Peninsular Wars, resulting in the
Treaty of Badajoz, the loss of Portuguese territory, particularly
Olivenza, as well as ultimately setting the stage for the complete invasion of the Iberian Peninsula by Spanish and French forces. In 1807, the king of Spain and his French allies invaded Portugal successfully and unusually quickly by using a route that crossed through Spanish territory. However, the French decided to take over both countries and so overthrew the King of Spain and forced the Portuguese royal family to
escape to the Portuguese colony of
Brazil. Spain and Portugal subsequently became allies for the first time in centuries and, allied to a British army under
Sir Arthur Wellesley, drove the French back across the border in 1813 after a prolonged, brutal and victorious conflict for Spain and Portugal against the French that is known as the
Peninsular War. After the fall of Napoleon, both countries came close to war a number of times during the early 19th century. Both lost their American colonies shortly after the end of the
Peninsular War, which severely weakened their global power.
1930s in Spain and Portugal The 1930s saw similar right-leaning,
authoritarian and
nationalist regimes emerge in both countries. In Portugal,
António de Oliveira Salazar established his
Estado Novo in 1933. In 1936,
Francisco Franco launched a coup against the Spanish government, and after the three-year
Spanish Civil War, his
Nationalists were triumphant. Both states remained neutral in
World War II though Spain was more predisposed to
Nazi Germany. Portugal also maintained a friendly relationship with Nazi Germany by supplying it with many key resources such as
tungsten. Yet, in virtue of the 14th-century alliance Portugal had with England, it was also supplying Britain with all sorts of produce, and whilst the Germans had to pay immediately, Britain had an open account for most of the war. Later in the war, the Estado Novo regime agreed to the leasing of the Azores as a bases for Allied operations in Europe. World War II came to a close in 1945. With the
Allies victorious, a new status quo was set which favored regimes which were more ideologically similar to the victors. While Portugal and Spain were not democratic states, Portugal's membership in NATO as a founding father made Portugal less isolated than its counterpart, Spain, which was unable to join NATO because of its relationship with the Axis during World War II. However, Spain, like Portugal, still opposed the Soviet-led
Warsaw Pact, and both considered that communist and other left-wing movements threatened their regimes. Yet, the two nations suffered politically and economically because of their reluctance to liberalising their national economies and their stifling of freedoms to preserve order and political supremacy. While the other European colonial powers, such as
France, the
United Kingdom and the
Netherlands, gave up their colonial empires in the post-war years, both Spain and Portugal clung to their possessions around the globe. Portugal fought a costly
colonial war in
Africa and in 1961 saw its territory of
Goa invaded by
India. Despite their apparent mutual self-interest, there was very little co-operation between Spain and Portugal when it came to defending their empires.
End of isolation In 1974, the dictatorship of the
Estado Novo was brought to an end by a military
coup known as the
Carnation Revolution. That left Spain increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe until the death of Franco a year later after which Spain returned to being a
constitutional monarchy and embraced
parliamentarism. The
PREC, which had followed the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, came to an end in 1976, and Portugal then also became a democracy. The two new democracies signed the
Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Spain and Portugal in 1977, which replaced the
Iberian Pact, which had been signed in 1939, whilst both countries were autocratic. The two countries gave independence to their former colonies, liberalised their economies and began the process of applying for membership of the
European Economic Community. In 1986, both of them formally entered the Community, which is now known as the
European Union, pursuant to the ratification of the
Treaty of Lisbon. == Present ==