The nucleus area has been fundamental to Portuguese existence. After the independence of the north, the problem ceased to be that of the establishment of the Portuguese nation, but became a matter of its extension. The lands later added had not been exclusively Portuguese, culturally and historically, nor did they, through much of their extent, belong physically more to an Atlantic fringe than to the central meseta.

The extension of Portuguese control from the nuclear area is, to some degree at least, a matter of politics and opportunism. The inclusion of the Alentejo and the Algarve may be largely, although not entirely, credited to the determination of ambitious Portuguese kings and nobles, and to the preoccupation of Spanish kings and nobles with affairs elsewhere in the peninsula. Conquest was achieved against a weakening resistance and a diminishing base of Moslem action. Everywhere south of the Mondego the extension of political control was simplified for the Christians by dissension among the Moslem Taifa [172] kingdoms, and their willingness, often indeed their desire, to give ground to the Christians, who presented a lesser evil than that of their co-religionists, the Almorávides and Almohades. To a considerable extent the task of conquest, control, and resettlement was assigned to the military orders ⁽¹⁾ which, in return, received great grants of land in the Alentejo, where the problem was mostly one of establishing a population and arranging means for its support, rather than that of conquest.

For the first time this territory became exclusively Portuguese. However, that it was not merely an historical accident -- the chance decisions of kings and nobles -- that made the area Portuguese, is indicated by the boundaries of the Roman Conventus Iuridicus as well as the boundaries of the church, neither of which differed greatly from those of present southern Portugal. ⁽²⁾ As has been said above, the Romans were not unconscious of local cultural differences, and their placement of boundaries was not capricious. Rather, it was based upon local loyalties, wherever possible. Certainly this seems to have been the fact in the north, where the persistence of the Minho and Douro River boundaries is striking. The conditions in the Alentejo were in some degree comparable. Here, however, the differences were considerable, for the Alentejo was thinly populated and strongly influenced by herding peoples during Moslem, Visigoth, Roman, and pre-Roman times. This was very different from the conditions in the north, where the strongly rooted farming populations always thought of themselves in relation to one piece of land with fixed boundaries.

The Portuguese Algarve is a case apart. It had been an isolated and individualized territory through most of its existence until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Age of Discoveries. The serras of Monchique and Caldeirão separated it effectively from the Alentejo on the north, and the open coastal areas to the east of the Guadiana River generally isolated it on [173] that side. In the earliest records, the local people were recognized as being distinct from their neighbors. The influence of Tartessós had reached into it, but without submerging it. Later, Celtic influences were felt, but still the area remained distinct. The Carthaginians fished and evaporated salt in nearly a dozen places along the coast, but changed the ways of life little, if any. The Greeks had less interest than did the Carthaginians. The Romans fitted the Algarve into their Conventus luridicus, which included a larger territory to the north and east. This obviously was procrustean, but expedient to administration. However, there is no evidence to the effect that the area was drawn culturally closer to the territories with which it was politically associated. Under the Arabs the association with Andalusia was greater than it had previously been, an obviously reasonable arrangement in view of the similarities of climate, vegetation, and exploitation. Nevertheless, the immemorially old zone of separation, the sterile coastal lands to either side of Huelva, was again determinative when, at the time of the break-up of the Moslem Caliphate, one of the little Taifa kingdoms established its eastern boundary along the Guadiana River.

At the time of the reconquest the Algarve was neither clearly Spanish nor Portuguese. Its inclusion in the Portuguese state had nothing at all to do with historical cultural affinity. It was a matter of political opportunism.
 

Atlantic position served Portugal well during her period of southward expansion. Maritime aid shortened the schedule of the reconquest and perhaps without it Portugal would not have maintained her independence. When seventy vessels of crusaders dropped anchor in the mouth of the Douro at Porto they were greeted effusively by Affonso Henriques and persuaded to join in an attack upon Lisbon. They sailed southward, while he marched overland to meet them. Between the two forces [174] the countryside was devastated, but Lisbon held out. ⁽³⁾ Seven years later, however, another group of crusaders made up of several nationalities, including English, Flemings, Germans, and French, were enlisted by the rallying call to restore Lisbon to Christian hands, and also by Affonso's promise of all of the loot and ransom of the city, as well as donations of lands to be taken from the Moslems. ⁽⁴⁾ Lisbon fell after seventeen weeks of siege. ⁽⁵⁾ Directly after this, Sintra was taken, and Palmela was found to have been abandoned, as hopeless of defense, when the Christians arrived. ⁽⁶⁾ Silves, in the Algarve, was temporarily subjugated with the aid of crusaders in 1189. ⁽⁷⁾ Alvôr was taken temporarily as well, ⁽⁸⁾ and in 1217 crusaders took part in the conquest of Alcácer do Sal. ⁽⁹⁾

In the quick southern expansion of both the Portuguese and Castilian-Leonese states the problem of delimitation of their respective areas could have been the source of disastrous conflict. That it was not was largely a matter of enlightened cupidity. In all of Iberia, the drives against the Moslems were aimed southward or southeastward against the centers of wealth. ⁽¹⁰⁾ While the Portuguese were driving south, pointed toward the Algarve, a small area of prosperity, the Leonese had their eyes upon Seville and Andalusia, the great Moslem center of wealth, which under all conquerors had been considered a premium area.

During the reign of Affonso Henriques, the northern boundary [175] of Portugal had been established as almost precisely that of the present. ⁽¹¹⁾ During his life, the northern section of the east boundary was probably also established approximately along the line of the present boundary of eastern Trás-os-Montes. ⁽¹²⁾ South of this province, the Spanish-Portuguese boundary between the Douro and Tejo rivers then ran along the Côa River, somewhat to the west of the present boundary. Below the Tejo River, the problem was more complex, as there were fewer of the physical characteristics useful for boundary lines. This area was largely bounded through agreements. Due to its lack of attractions through much of its extent, the precise lines had little importance. It was at this time that Affonso Henriques of Portugal and Ferdinand II of León, recognizing that they stood to profit more from Moslem lands than they could from trying to take land from each other, agreed in the Treaty of Celanova, probably in 1160, to respect a certain line of division to separate the lands yet to be conquered toward the south. ⁽¹³⁾

The Portuguese took Evora in the Alentejo permanently from the Moslems in 1166. It never again fell into Moslem hands, even in the great Almohad drive of 1191, which captured virtually everything up to the Tejo. With the conquest of Alcácer do Sal in 1217, the Christians controlled the strong points of Alcácer and Evora and the territory between them. To the east of Evora, Moslem control extended north, probably to Marvão, but during the reign of Sancho II (1223-1248) this salient was eliminated by taking Elvas and Juromenho. The southern [177] boundary was thereby somewhat straightened, so that it ran in a gentle arc across Portugal from Alcácer do Sal to Evora to Elvas. ⁽¹⁴⁾ With these strongholds in Portuguese hands, the end of Moslem occupation of Portugal was in sight.

The exact terms of the Treaty of Celanova are not known, but it seems probable that the boundary on the south was the line of the lower Guadiana River. If this was the decision it was reasonable, as it re-established an immemorially old boundary that had been serviceable throughout millennia. The Castilian-Leonese conquest of Seville was completed in 1248, after first piercing southeastward to Málaga and then following the coast westward. This was just prior to the conquest of Silves (1249-1250) in the Algarve by the Portuguese, ⁽¹⁵⁾ which virtually established the form of present Portugal.

Only minor adjustments followed. For example, there was a short period of tension and rivalry for the borderlands along the Guadiana River. Ayamonte, to the east of the river, was in Portuguese hands in 1255, and other small territories, now Spanish, were held by Portugal until 1267. ⁽¹⁶⁾ The Castilian-Leonese king crossed the Guadiana River near its mouth, apparently contrary to the agreement of Celanova, and occupied some Algarvian towns. Alfonso X believed that he had a proper claim to the territory, as he had purchased it from the local Moslem ruler while he (Alfonso) was Infante. ⁽¹⁷⁾ In any case, this problem was settled in 1267, when the Castilian-Leonese king renounced all claim to territory in the Algarve while Portugal relinquished its castles in present Spain. Later in the century, in 1281, Serpa, now of the Portuguese Alentejo, was still under Spanish control, ⁽¹⁸⁾ as were the territories north of the Tejo, west [178] to the Côa River. It was in 1295 that King Diniz of Portugal essentially established the present eastern boundaries of Portugal, with one exception. He acquired the areas of the Côa River basin, Castelo Rodrigo, Sabugal, Campo Maior, and Monforte in the north, and Serpa, Moura, and Mourão in the south. ⁽¹⁹⁾ The only change of importance in Portuguese boundaries since that time is that of the region of Olivena, which was Portuguese, except for the two-year interim (1657-1658), until the Spanish took it in 1801. This matter is discussed below.
 

By the end of the thirteenth century the question of boundaries was no longer a major problem to the national state of Portugal. The problem had become one of assimilation of the newly acquired southern territories. The lands south of the Tejo River were effectively made Portuguese during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Prior to this time, on the basis of their physical constitution, climate, vegetation, economic exploitation, or cultural development, they could have become Spanish as well as Portuguese.

During these centuries the Castilian conquest of Iberia stagnated against the kingdom of Granada, not because of Moslem strength, but because of the internal quarrels between Castile and Aragon and the remnant of the immemorially old attitude of Spanish leaders to derive profit from raiding, looting, and ransom, which at times took precedence over the permanent conquest of territory. ⁽²⁰⁾ This situation redounded to the benefit of Portugal, which was left generally in peace. This Atlantic fringe, not greatly desired at any time by the Spanish, only occasionally fell within the focus of their interest. Disturbances that occurred were minor and quickly settled. Portugal was given the opportunity of consolidating its territory under the leadership of the court at Lisbon, which became the center of political balance in the country. Here the various economic and [179] political lines of the state were drawn together and effectively tied. ⁽²¹⁾
 

After completing the reconquest of its territory from the Moslems, Portugal promptly set about establishing the economic life of the nation. An interesting comparison can be made between the attitudes and methods of Portugal of that time and those of neighboring Spain. Differences were clearly marked in the opposed attitudes toward the exploitation of land, partly, but only partly, induced by climate. Portugal established a well-rooted and ultimately prosperous agriculture in the southern lands taken from the Moslems. The record is clear as to the intention of the Portuguese kings. Numerous laws set up provisions under which families settled on the land for the purpose of planting and harvesting crops. The primary concern of the Portuguese governments, for long generations, was to establish a settled peasantry. ⁽²²⁾ Unoccupied land was given to families with the express intention of establishing permanent cultivation, Uncultivated land reverted to the crown to be redistributed. One of the most famous of Portuguese kings, Diniz (or Deniz), was especially active in this, ⁽²³⁾ and because of his contribution to the well-being of his country he is gratefully known to history as "the Farmer King" (o Rei Lavrador). He publicly proclaimed that "no baron would lose caste by dedicating [180] himself to the soil" ⁽²⁴⁾ and thus helped to avoid one of the great Spanish plagues, the distaste for labor. The results of the efforts of Diniz and others was that at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it entered into the great period of "discoveries," Portugal had a prosperous agriculture. ⁽²⁵⁾ It had little need for imports or for exports to obtain foreign currency. Fruits and wine had been exported prior to this time, ⁽²⁶⁾ and by the end of the fourteenth century olive oil -- earlier of little importance -- entered the export lists. It appears that home consumption of the olive was then negligible and that the tree had been planted and cultivated chiefly to provide an export product for cash. ⁽²⁷⁾
 

Affairs in Spain were taking a very different course. Political control was in the hands of nobles of the meseta whose interest had been in pastoral industries long before the territory had been fully conquered from the Moslems, an interest that had been furthered by the exigencies of the centuries of siege. During the years of the reconquest, tax exemptions were given to sheepherders along the routes of migrations, in exchange for loyalty to and support of the crown. Klein reports dozens of such exceptions in the documents of the period, 970-1273. ⁽²⁸⁾ These, in turn, apparently harked back to Visigothic regulations of the Fuero Juzgo, which favored sheepmen in the semiannual migrations with their flocks. ⁽²⁹⁾ The Visigothic regulations, we
[181] may assume, were based on attitudes present in the peninsula prior to the arrival of the Visigoths. In all probability they were merely codifications made in the sixth or seventh centuries of ancient Visigothic and local practices.

Under the Mesta (the sheepowners' organization) the sheep industry of Spain developed in a fashion somewhat comparable to that of England. In both cases the industry satisfied the king's need for cash. Wool, high-priced, compact, readily preserved, and with a large world demand, made a good export item. It became so important to the Spanish kings that they imported wheat from Aragon to feed Castile, so that there should be no inducement for farmers to plant grain on pasture lands. ⁽³⁰⁾ In the fourteenth century Castile had the largest pastoral industry in Western Europe and a growing foreign trade. By the mid-sixteenth century the Mesta, greatly favored by the crown, was so powerful and arrogant that it took over town commons and town pastures and other special enclosures for its flocks. Every device of the government was used to support sheep raising, ⁽³¹⁾ obviously to the detriment of planting. Toward the end of the sixteenth century corregidores sent out by the central government almost unanimously reported that the sparsity and poverty of agricultural population was due to the emphasis on sheep raising. ⁽³²⁾ The extent to which this was true is indicated by the law passed under Ferdinand and Isabel by which a Mesta member had permanent tenancy of a given field, either at a rent paid under his earliest lease or, if his flocks occupied these fields for a season or even a few months without being discovered by the landowner, for nothing at all. ⁽³³⁾

How very different this was from the attitude in Portugal, where, for the most part, the cultivator was supported against the herder. ⁽³⁴⁾

[182] Clearly such a striking economic difference, with all that it entails with regard to social attitudes, could contribute to a separation of the peoples involved and likewise to the ultimate political division.

1. H. V. Livermore, A History of Portugal, pp. 98, 135; Edgar Prestage, "The Chivalry of Portugal," Chivalry, pp. 150-151.

2. António García y Bellido, La Península Ibérica en los comienzos de su historia, p. 393.

3. Charles Wendell David (ed. and trans.), De Expugnatione Lyxbonensi, pp. 16-17.

4. Ibid., pp. 111, 113.

5. Ibid., p. 14.

6. Ibid., p. 179.

7. João Baptista da Silva Lopes, Relação da derrota, naval, façanhas, e successos dos cruzados que parti rão do escalda para a Terra Santa no Anno de 1189, p. 12.

8. Prestage, Chivalry, p. 151.

9. Loc. cit.

10. See Chapter 11 of this book.

11. J. Leite de Vasconcellos, "Delimitação da fronteira Portuguesa," Boletim da Classe de Letras, XIII (1918-1919), 1282. Not that it would have seemed stable at the time, for Affonso Henriques had pushed beyond it as did his successors. They, like Affonso, were ultimately obliged to renounce their claims.

12. Leite de Vasconcellos believed this to be so. Ibid., p. 1282. However this may be, the Portuguese culture region had not filled Out the territory that far eastward. See Vasconcellos, reference above, note, p. 160 and citation of Conde de São Payo.

13. Hermann Lautensach, "A Individualidade geográfica de Portugal no conjunto da Península Ibérica," Boletim da Sociedade de Geografía de Lisboa, XLIV (1931), 386, Amando Melón y Ruiz de Gordejeula, Geografía histórica española, I, 258.

14. Leite de Vasconcellos, "Delimitação da fronteira Portuguesa," Boletim da Classe de Letras, XIII, 1283-1284.

15. Ibid., p. 1284.

16. Loc. cit.

17. Amando Melón y Ruiz de Gordejuela, Geografía histórica española, I, 257-258.

18. Leite de Vasconcellos, "Delimitação da fronteira Portuguesa," Boletim da Classe de Letras, XIII, 1285.

19. Loc. cit.

20. Louis Bertrand, The History of Spain, p. 197.

21. Affonso III moved the capital from the north Coimbra and Guimarães had both served to Lisbon, in 1248, just prior to the completion of the Portuguese reconquest. Livermore, A History of Portugal, p. 134. A. de Amorim Girão speaks of Lisbon, centering upon the sea, as being the polarizing element bringing diverse parts together. See his Condicões geográficas e históricas da autonomia política de Portugal, p. 21, and "Origines de l'etat Portugais," Revue Géographique des Pyrénées et du Sud-Onest, XI, Nos. 3-4 (1940), 158. His concept is somewhat mystical but has the basis of reality in it.

22. Virginia Rau, Sesmarias medievais portuguesas, pp. 42 (especially), 54 at seq., 68-71.

23. Damião Peres, "A Actividade agrícola em Portugal nos séculos XII a XIV, Congresso do Mundo Português, II, 469, 471, 472.

24. Livermore, A History of Portugal, p. 152.

25. Peres, "A Actividade agrícola em Portugal," Congresso do Mundo Português, II, 478.

26. Ibid., p. 466.

27. In the north of Portugal olive oil began gradually to replace butter in the sixteenth century. See Orlando Ribeiro, "Cultura do Milho, economía agrária e povoamento," Biblos, XVII, No. 2 (Coimbra, 1941), 645-663.

28. Julius Klein, The Mesta, A Study in Spanish Economic History, 1273-1836, p. 162.

29. Ibid., p. 301.

30. Ibid., p. 314.

31. Ibid., p. 318.

32. Ibid., p. 94.

33. Ibid., p. 328.

34. The Alentejo is the most Spanish of the Portuguese provinces. Physically there is no sharp distinction to be made between it and Spanish Extremadura. Historically the two regions have had somewhat parallel experiences; both were given into the hands of the religious-military orders. The A1entejo is now noted for its great estates and owners, whose titles, in many cases, come down from the period of the reconquest. As in Spanish Extremadura, grazing is important, but the farmer was not sacrificed to the herder. In the Alentejo, now as at the time of Diniz, there is a blend of pastoralism and agriculture.