Portugal

The Making of a People 

The Portuguese are a cosmopolitan people living on the far western 
shore of Europe. Many different ancient tribes swept through the 
area and settled. The first group were the Iberians from which the 
land occupied by Portugal and Spain gets its name, the Iberian 
Peninsula. Iberians also settled in Italy, Scotland, and the Basque.  

The Iberians were a mixture of migrant tribes of which one was the 
Lusitanians. They were described by the classical geographers 
Polybius and Strabo as a loose, quarrelsome federation of tribes, 
living behind the walls of fortified villages in the hills, engaging in 
banditry as their primary occupation, and carrying on incessant 
tribal warfare."  Lusus was the mythical first settler of Portugal 
which the classic Portuguese poet Camoes in his epic poem "The 
Lusiads" or sons of Lusus is given its name.   The Lusitanians 
inhabited the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula. 

The Phoenicians established trading stations along the Portuguese 
coast, and they were followed by the Carthagians, Greeks, and 
Romans who also were involved in commerce. The city of Olissipo, 
which is modern Lisbon, was founded by the Greeks. The Romans 
gave the Portuguese the Latin language, political culture, the 
Christian church, and also bullfighting.  Today's seaport city of Porto 
was originally the Roman settlement of Portus Cale from which the 
name Portugal came.  The Romans named the peninsula where 
Portugal and Spain are located, Hispania. 

The Celts too made their presence known, as well as the barbaric 
invaders from the north: the Vandals, Suevi, Alans, and the Visigoths. 
From the 8th to the 12th century, Portugal was under Arab and 
Berber control.  The Arabs dominated the southern part 
which is where the province of the Algarve is located. From these 
people, Portuguese got science and navigation principles especially 
the compass which help set the stage for the period of exploration.  
The Muslim invasion and Moorish dominance strengthened the 
Portuguese's resolve and faith in Jesus Christ. They fought the 
Muslims unceasingly for several centuries employing guerrilla tactics 
of hit and run. The Christians held the mountains while the Muslims 
controlled the cities and valleys. It was a period of unrelenting 
Christian crusade.  

The Christian Knights of Leon, fighting from 1055 to 1064, were 
able to free northern Portugal from the Moors. In 1095, the King of 
Leon gave this area, the county of Portugal, to his daughter, Theresa, 
as part of her dowry.  Her son, Alfonso Henriques, defeated the 
Moors in a major battle which separated Portugal permanently from 
Spain. Crusaders from Germany, England, and Flanders drove the 
Moors out of Lisbon in 1147. Battles continued after this in southern 
Portugal to rid the Moors completely from the Iberian Peninsula.  
This Christian fervor was the impetus for Portuguese exploration 
which was initially a mission to save the world for Christ.   

The composition of the Portuguese people is heterogeneous. Being a
land bordered by the ocean, with its seaports serving as trading
centers, Portugal became a mixture of peoples. It has been said, 
"There is no color prejudice in Portugal; there could not be . . . in 
Lisbon you can see the races of the earth in a single individual."  This 
attitude of multicultural, of acceptability, became part of their 
colonial policy. They were tolerant of the native peoples they 
encountered and mixed freely and especially sexually with them. 
(The Brazilian philosopher Gilberto Freyre, said, "God created the 
white and the negro, and the Portuguese made the mulatto!"  The 
offspring from these liaisons were "family" and treated as such, a 
characteristic of the Portuguese. They have a strong sense of 
responsibility to the family which became a major force in their 
migration.   

One scholar wrote, "The mainspring of their [Portuguese] thought and 
actions is the heart . . . their successful treatment of native peoples 
consists of sentimental approach . . . It is in this aspect of their 
character no less than in their humanity, they approximate to the 
English. Both peoples have a similar intuitive distrust of the 
intellectual, especially the hypercritical."   

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