What Every American Should Know About Europe

by Melissa Rossi

  A subtle fear persists that Spain will reach out and grab Portugal again. In the early 1900s, Spanish king Alfonso XIII seriously considered forcibly annexing Portugal. Today the neighbor is conquering Portugal economically. Spain, Portugal’s biggest foreign investor, has 3,000 Spanish firms operating there, and Spanish companies run about 15 percent of Portugal’s banks.19

  COLONIAL CONSIDERATIONS

  At her height, the Portuguese Empire encompassed lands in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, but Brazil was her baby; the South American land where Portuguese royalty often took residence and where rubber barons grew so rich they built opera houses in the jungle became independent in 1822. Any holdings that remained into the mid-twentieth century were economic and military liabilities, but Portugal continued to cling, ignoring a 1960 UN mandate for European countries to give up their colonies. By the 1970s, military missions abroad were eating up almost half of Portugal’s budget, and territories kept drifting away nonetheless. India grabbed Goa in 1961, and after Portugal’s 1974 Revolution of the Carnations, she finally granted independence to Cape Verde, Mozambique, Angola, São Tomé e Príncipe, and Portuguese Guinea. East Timor proclaimed independence in 1975, and Portugal handed Macau to China in 1999. Only Madeira and the Azores, her first conquests, now remain of the once-vast Portuguese Empire.

  Between 1755 and 1822, Portugal received three major blows from which she’s never fully recovered: one was geological, one was military, and one was a political move with deep economic effects. During the eighteenth-century’s downward slide, Portugal was knocked around in numerous shake-ups and anticlerical movements, and rattled in every possible way, including by a devastating earthquake—one of the world’s worst.

  LISBON’S DISASTER: NOVEMBER 1, 1755

  On the evening of October 31, 1755, the sky over Lisbon took on a yellow tinge, a strange smoke rose from the ground, and as sunrise approached the following day, dogs began howling, cattle appeared nervous, birds stopped singing, and a sulphurous scent hung in the air. The day nevertheless appeared serene as the Portuguese headed out to celebrate All Saints Day in their churches, illuminated with candles and gas lamps. At 9:30 AM, the ground began shaking, rocking, and convulsing so violently that entire buildings collapsed, palaces fell, and churches crumbled down on the devout. Six minutes later, most of Lisbon lay in ruin, her streets littered with stones, wood, and corpses, and ripped open with cracks twenty feet wide. Her people’s prayers were transformed into hysterical cries as thousands ran from the collapsed buildings that caught fire from the candles tossed about. Many fled toward the water to escape from smoke and falling debris. Thirty minutes later, the ocean pulled back—exposing the seabed littered with lost boats, skeletons, and treasures—then slammed the coast with a fifty-foot-high wall of water that battered all in its path. The tsunami pulled back, sucking thousands into a sickening whirlpool of broken bodies, trees, horses, shop signs, historical documents, explorers’ maps, and smashed architectural treasures, and then disappeared in an eerie silence, only to hammer the coast twice more. The fires spread, starting an inferno that raged for seven days. In all, some 90,000 people (a third of Lisbon’s population) were killed, 85 percent of the city was destroyed, and the faith of the fervently Catholic country was shaken—one factor in rising anticlerical movements.

  Had there then been a Richter scale, the Lisbon earthquake would have registered almost 9—making the 1755 quake nearly 100 times more powerful than the 7.2 quake that shook Kobe, Japan, in 1995. Portugal actually laid the foundation for seismology. The prime minister sent out interviewers to ask about observations prior to the temblor, gathering detailed information about the behavior of animals and the physical changes that foreshadowed the quake.

  The royal family survived—they’d left Lisbon that morning on a holy outing—and so did the prime minister, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, later known as the Marquěs de Pombal. The king became phobic about enclosed quarters, henceforth often insisting that the royal family sleep in tents, but the prime minister proved to be a coolheaded disaster management man. The Marquěs de Pombal calmed survivors, preventing riots and looting, and dispatched rescue teams to “bury the dead, [and] feed the living.” Within a year, Lisbon was rising again, the Marquěs de Pombal supervising the redesign of the city into more orderly quarters and squares. His modernizing ideas entailed more than physical redesign: an anti-Catholic, he cut Portugal’s ties to the Vatican, ground the Inquisition to a halt, banished Jesuits, and made education a secular affair—controversial moves that earned him enemies. An attempt on the king’s life became an excuse for the Marquěs to kill over 1,000 detractors, and he tossed thousands more behind bars. The Marquěs de Pombal also ended slavery, shaped up Porto’s wine business, and reinvigorated Portugal’s economy. When devout Queen Maria (1734–1816) came to power in 1777, she reversed all of his reforms, released the political prisoners he’d locked up, and banished the Marquěs to his villa in Pombal.

  In the early nineteenth century, Napoleon fixed his gaze on the western strip of Iberia. Having already nabbed Spain, Napoleon’s brother Joseph struck a deal with a Spanish general for the Portuguese conquest: one-third would go to France, one-third to Spain, and one-third to the general himself. Napoleon’s forces entered the country in 1807, and Portugal’s royal family fled to Brazil; the French lasted only four years and never fully settled in, thanks to the British who helped give the heave-ho. But Napoleon was yet another factor in Portugal’s diminishing stature. Fighting the occupiers drained Portugal further, and the royals so adored Brazil that Prince João became emperor and nobody wanted to come back; the empire became the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil, and the Algarves, and a wobbly regent babysat Portugal. João finally returned to Lisbon in 1821 to calm down a revolution, leaving his son Pedro as Brazilian emperor. Two years later, Pedro (facing a revolution himself) made Brazil independent, a crushing loss to Portugal, both economically and psychologically.

  At the turn of the twentieth century, Portugal, now broke, was restless: revolts and riots often broke out, and church and monarchy served as scapegoats for the national decline. Intellectuals blamed the passive, nonentrepreneurial “Sebastianismo” spirit of the Portuguese people on brainwashing by king and clerics, and in 1911 legislators slashed the power of both. Parliament wrote a new constitution abolishing the monarchy, calling for separation of church and state, banning religious instruction in schools, and even forbidding soldiers from attending church. The government seized land held by the king and the Church, distributing it to peasants. Catholicism lost its hold—but only briefly.

  FÁTIMA

  Catholicism was nearly driven underground, and the time was certainly ripe for a miracle. On May 13, 1917, in the village of Fátima, three shepherd children claimed to have had a vision as controversial as it was extraordinary. The trio said they saw the Virgin Mary, although only two heard her speak. Over six months, according to the later written accounts of one of the children, Lucia dos Santos (1907–2005), Mary revealed herself six times, disclosing three secrets: in the first, she showed them hell, telling them that lost souls suffered in the flames because the living didn’t sacrifice enough. The second concerned Russia, and how her rise would cause the death of millions and lead to a great war. The third—which some believe to be a ruse, with the “real” third secret still hidden—was not made public until 2000. The Church said that in the final secret, revealed to the children as a vision, a bishop in white is shot and falls, apparently dead. Pope John Paul II, who was shot in 1981, believed that he was the man in the vision. The current Pope Benedict, however, contradicted that version of the third secret in 1984, when the then-cardinal said the third vision concerned the last days of earth.

  Lucia dos Santos became a Carmelite nun who was so respected that Pope John Paul II popped in for visits; like the pope, she died in 2005. Her cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto, died within three years of Mary’s visits. Francisco, who Mary said would die soon and was not guara
nteed entry to heaven, became severely depressed and stopped studying, doing little but praying; at eleven, he succumbed to the 1918 Spanish flu. Little Jacinta, only seven during the visions, was most profoundly affected by them—particularly the vision of souls suffering in hell. She took to making numerous sacrifices—among them, wearing knotted rope that abraded her skin and giving up water—and within three years, she too had died from the flu. Like Francisco, Jacinta was beatified by Pope John Paul II.20

  The Catholic Church didn’t officially endorse the Fátima visions for another thirteen years, but they quickly became a mainstay in the Portuguese belief system and culture; few dare question their legitimacy even now. At the time of the visions, 1917, Portugal certainly needed something to believe in; the new republic was self-destructing and anarchy prevailed. Secret societies of Catholics and monarchists in the north tried to reinstate the king, which led to a brief civil war. The economy and the political system collapsed. Even the military was a mess—it kept failing in attempts to overthrow the government. If there was ever an hour for Dom Sebastião to return, this was it. But instead António de Oliveira Salazar took center stage.

  In 1926, the military finally succeeded in overtaking the government, but that immediately led to infighting. Eighteen months of flying generals later, a cabinet was finally appointed. And that’s how an economics professor from the University of Coimbra entered the government: António de Oliveira Salazar was appointed finance minister in 1928. Within two years, he had reformed the Portuguese economy and was the hero of the merchant and working class. As his power soared, Salazar outlined his plan for continued success. He endorsed a new authoritarian government that would emphasize Catholic morality, hard work, and patriotic duty. Few opposed him; he was the only leader to have a vision at all. In 1932, he stepped in as prime minister, a role he held for the next thirty-six years. Salazar kicked off public works projects, including paved roads, but before long he gagged the press, banned other parties, and settled in as a self-serving autocrat, relying on secret police to battle opposition. Favoring the rich, he let the poor starve and hindered industrialization. The education system atrophied with millions never learning to read, and millions fled the country as she grew backward during his dictatorship.

  Salazar’s only notable accomplishments were keeping Portugal out of World War II and signing her up for NATO. The coalition didn’t care that he was a dictator: it wanted to build bases on Madeira and the Azores, seen as crucial to guarding the Mediterranean.

  Salazar fell out of the power seat in 1968—literally—sustaining head injuries when he slipped out of his chair; he died two years later. Marcelo Caetano stepped in and continued the Salazar regime until 1974, when the military, sick of fighting losing battles in Africa, finally rose up and brought democracy to a people who were the most backward in Europe.

  In the 1960s, 8 percent of the Portuguese population moved to France, where many still live. Some 5 million Portuguese live abroad most of the year.21

  REVOLUTION

  On April 25, 1974, when “Grândola Vila Morena” played over Lisbon radio, few thought it was anything but a pleasant tune. But for a group of young Portuguese officers—the Armed Forces Movement—it was a coded call to overthrow the government, an act accomplished in mere hours and without bloodshed. The Portuguese greeted the revolutionaries with carnations, and thousands accompanied them into the villages to inform the peasants that they were free. The weeks of jubilant celebration that followed—and the common sight of officers walking around with flowers sticking out of their guns—gave the overthrow its common name: the Revolution of the Carnations. Under General António de Spínola, the military government disbanded the secret police, restored civilian freedoms, ungagged the press, allowed the return of political parties, and, within a year, set almost all of Portugal’s remaining colonies free.

  The military ran a liberal transitional government for two years, until a new constitution was hammered out in 1976 and presidential elections took place for the first time in fifty years. Among the additions in the 1976 constitution: women were given the right to vote.

  According to European Database, less than 11 percent of Portuguese women graduate from high school.22

  Hot Spots

  Lisbon: The hilly, Atlantic-hugging capital is Europe’s most western and one of the prettiest, with a hopping nightlife and street celebrations that impart an ever-present sense of fun. Just watch out for them cabbies.

  Porto: Portugal’s second-biggest city straddles the Douro River, and is a lively transport hub in part due to its famous export, port. Restaurants, bars, and narrow paths are carved into the stone hills at the river’s edge, making it all the more fetching.

  Fátima: Millions descend on the site, many requesting miracles. “If you’re sick or your football team isn’t winning or you can’t make a baby, you go to Fátima,” explains one Portuguese.

  Alentejo: Cork forests and cork factories are what the southern area is best known for; now it is also the home of burnt stumps and ashes after fires ravaged an area the size of Luxembourg during the summer of 2005. Also one of the country’s poorest and most illiterate regions.

  Cork kicks in almost $1 billion of Portugal’s GDP, and some 16,000 Portuguese work with the spongy substance made popular by blind monk Dom Pérignon, who first stuffed a plug of the peeled bark into a champagne bottle in 1650. Now Portugal produces over half of the world’s cork.

  Algarve: Book now to reserve your space on the crowded beaches in Portugal’s south next summer.

  The Azores: Flung 900 miles to the west of Portugal are the nine Azores, the volcanic islands that Portugal still won’t cut loose. Now populated mostly by sheep and punctuated by the occasional military base, the islands still reflect their glory days as pit stops between Europe and the New World; navigators landed here with ships brimming with gold, silver, and other stolen treasures. The island of Angra was the biggest beneficiary of the wealth that came through: she still sparkles with stunning palaces, churches, and forts that are now on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

  Hotshots

  José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa: Prime Minister, 2005–present. Without a head of government for months in 2004, the Portuguese voted in Socialist Sócrates, who pulled troops out of Iraq and daringly says he will float a new referendum on the country’s antiabortion laws. The former parliamentarian who previously worked on environment issues and prison reform is more on the ball than any Portuguese leader has been in ages.

  José Manuel Durão Barroso: President, EU European Commission, 2004–present; Portuguese Prime Minister, 2002–2004. The former Maoist, who recently made a leap to the hard right when he signed on with Social Democrats, has serious luck. It was a fluke when he became prime minister after 2002’s surprise election. It was just as improbable that he would be selected as head of the European Commission, the EU’s mighty policy-making arm.

  Barroso, now president of the weighty European Commission

  Egas Moniz: Just call him “Dr. Lobotomy”: in 1935, the Portuguese physician invented the practice of cutting out parts of the brain to “cure” schizophrenia and other behavioral problems.

  Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935): Portugal’s most beloved poet suffered multiple personality disorder; he wrote poetry under different names and using different styles, and his assorted personalities also wrote scathing critiques of the poems written by the others. Almost all of the personalities were indeed talented.

  José Saramago: Born in 1922, he is considered among the world’s most gifted writers; a playwright, travel writer, novelist, and journalist, he won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature. Tellingly, he lives in Spain.

  News you can understand: Portugal News: www.the-news.net

  9. THE NETHERLANDS

  (Holland; Nederland)

  The Thinker

  FAST FACTS

  Country: Kingdom of the Netherlands; Koninkrijk der Nederlanden

  Capital: Amsterdam; gover
nment seat: The Hague

  Government: Constitutional monarchy

  Independence: 1579 (from Spain)

  Population: 16,492,000 (2005 estimate)

  Head of State: Queen Beatrix (1980)

  Head of Government: Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende (2002)

  Elections: Monarchy is hereditary; prime minister appointed by monarch

  Name of Parliament: States General; Staaten Generaal