[212] While this work is primarily concerned with Portugal, the evidence considered in it has been drawn widely from areas throughout the peninsula. In conclusion it will be well to focus especially upon Portugal, in a summation of the factors that have conduced to its separateness and to its independence. I shall discuss them in what seems to me to be the order of their importance.

In the first place, and of crucial importance, are the immemorially old cultural differences between the humid periphery of the peninsula and the meseta. These are basically associated with the physical differences of the areas involved. Thus all of the north and northwest is set apart from the remainder of the peninsula. In the second place, the present international border, throughout most of its extent, runs through zones of disinterest, imposed by physical conditions. These zones have isolated Portugal, especially in the north, the cradle area of Portuguese independence. Thirdly, there was the political isolation of present northwest Portugal during parts of the eighth and ninth [213]centuries, following the creation of the so-called "desert" lands by Alfonso I. During this period an early line of cultural subdivision was made more pronounced, and economic ties were re-oriented in such fashion that Galicia and Portugal were drawn apart. Fourthly, there were the troubles of the meseta kingdoms prior to and at the time of Affonso Henriques. Although this fact was of lesser importance than the factors outlined above, it had great immediate importance. The Portuguese had freedom of action that would have been impossible had they been opposed by the full power of the kings of León. The above factors are salient, for they were crucial to the establishment of freedom in the germ cell of the Portuguese state, whereas the extensions southward from that region were partly a result of political opportunism, after the northern nucleus had been established as an independent unit.

Aside from the factors enumerated above, there were others less important, yet contributing to Portuguese independence. For example, even after the time of Affonso Henriques, Spain continued to be beset with internal difficulties which occupied her attention. Even more important than this was the Spanish concern with the loot to be gained from the Moslem kingdoms to the south. These Spanish preoccupations offered Portugal relative freedom from threats to her independence. Particularly after 1267, peace offered the opportunity to assimilate the southern lands, the Alentejo and the Algarve, which had become integral parts of the Portuguese state by the time that Spain had ended its Moslem conquest in 1492.

Much has been written and said about Portuguese position relative to the Atlantic. Part of it has been sheer mysticism. But after that element has been discarded, there is merit in the idea that this position has contributed to Portuguese independence. In the first place, due to partial isolation, it offered Portugal tile opportunity to turn her back upon Iberian turmoil, just as Holland was able to ignore Germany. ⁽¹⁾

[214] Yet no freedom of action would have served, had Portugal not been equipped to take advantage of it. Here again good fortune was a factor. Few countries have a harbor of the quality of that of Lisbon, and the harbors of Porto, Setúbal, and others along the west and south coasts serve most parts of the country. They are an obvious invitation to the sea. Not the smallest item in Portugal's luck is the fact that none of the international rivers is navigable into Spain, so that there has been no tendency for either country to follow the stream beyond the border. However, as ports may be valuable even without further inland navigation, the Portuguese harbors might have tempted Spain had she needed them. Luckily for Portugal there is no part of Spain, except for the very sparsely populated section in the province of Cáceres and a part of the middle Tajo River valley, that is closer to Lisbon than to one of the Spanish ports. The ria, or river-mouth, harbors of Galicia are infinitely superior to the harbor of Porto, as that of Cádiz is to those of the Algarve.

The association with England was mutually advantageous. Both countries profited by the trade that was established. Portugal also received much-needed support on several occasions when otherwise it might well have lost its independence.

Portuguese independence and the reconquest of her territories from the Moslems came concurrently with improved techniques in navigation, and when Portugal was in a position to take advantage of them. These techniques were to be credited partly to the Arabs, who also offered specific knowledge as to the areas of Africa, and within Portugal there were men suitable to the opportunities available. Under such conditions opened the great Age of Discoveries, commonly associated with the name of Prince Henry, the Navigator. The Age of Discoveries created a sense of common experience, common pride, and a community of interest for all parts of the country, welding it together as perhaps nothing else could have done.

The division between modern Portugal and Galicia cannot be satisfactorily explained by age-old differences, even by those that have existed since prehistoric time -- notably the physical differences between the two peoples involved, and the suggestive [215] fact of the Roman division along the Minho River -- because modern Galicia is closely allied to Portugal in its language and customs. The separation of the two areas, politically, results partly from the fact that Galician physical connections with Spain are better than those between Spain and Portugal. It results also, again in part only, from the fact that its emotional ties with Spain have been strong ever since the time of the establishment of the great peregrination to Santiago de Compostela, which bound the area to Spain in a very positive sense. There is also the important fact, albeit negative, that Galicia did not take part with Portugal in the Age of Discoveries. The sense of common experience in this achievement which is felt by all Portuguese is lacking to Galicians. On the contrary, through the centuries that have elapsed since Galicia was separated from the culturally similar Minho, its economy has become closely geared into that of Spain. Its harbors and pastoral industry have become essential to Spanish economy. Through time, the political boundary, somewhat arbitrary at first, has become culturally satisfactory, if not perfect.

Through the history and prehistory of the area of present Portugal, there seems to have been a general lack of interest in the region. The area was offside and apparently little exploited throughout most of prehistory. There is almost no evidence of Upper Paleolithic occupation nor of settlement during most of the Neolithic, much of the Bronze Age, and considerable parts of the Iron Age. The Tartessians had but slight interest even in the Algarve, an area physically similar to their own. To the conquerors of Iberia, Portugal has always been a largely unwanted, but sometimes troublesome land, which had to be taken under control to secure the places of greater profit elsewhere in the peninsula. Phoenicians and Carthaginians were little attracted, except to small areas of the south. Greek interest was even less than that of the Punic peoples. To the Romans only limited areas were attractive; the remainder was [216] occupied and controlled only because its occupants presented a threat to their use of desirable territories, especially that of the lower Guadalquivir River. Within Portugal proper the only areas of primary importance for the Romans were those of the lower Tejo River, Beja, Evora, the Algarve in part, and a few others of lesser importance. For the most part Roman interest was attracted elsewhere. The Visigoths had even less interest than did the Romans but assumed control for essentially the same reasons that had prompted Rome. It was Swabian intransigence that prompted the Visigoths to end the independence of the Swabian kingdom in the late sixth century. Moslem interest, like that of the other Mediterranean conquerors, was mostly confined to areas that are climatically Mediterranean.

The exceptions to the above statements apply to the north. To the unidentified prehistoric Central European farmers, and to the Celts and the Swabians, the humid northwest of the peninsula was attractive in itself, and the early fundamentals of Portuguese culture are largely to be traced to these peoples.

Spain at times has wanted to "fill out the peninsula," but with no more than this vague and ultimately profitless mystique on the one hand and the meagreness of Portuguese territory on the other, she has made little consistent effort. Actually, Spain needs very little that now appertains to Portugal. The economy of Portugal, like that of Spain, is based on agriculture and stock raising, and the chief products of one country duplicate those of the other. Furthermore, Spain has already in her possession nearly all of the good irrigable lowlands near the border, those of the Guadiana, the Alagón, the Salor, and the Tajo around Alcántara. To the west of these there are large areas of little promise, for the most part, before the fertile coastal regions are reached. The only good reason for Spanish desire to control Portugal now -- aside from the megalomaniac drive for prestige through size which afflicts most national states -- would be based upon a matter of defense strategy.

Portugal is an excellent land for a frugal, self-sufficient agriculture. The proof of this can be seen in the number and variety of things that can be cultivated there. But it does not offer [217] surpluses for absentee owners nor does it lend itself to large ownership. ⁽²⁾ It offers no prize for conquest, but only satisfaction to humble farmers on the land. The values of Portugal are fundamental but unappropriable. They can be realized only by people with the age-old traditions and techniques of frugality, such as those of the Portuguese farmers.

1. For this comparison see Otto Jessen, "Politisch-geographische Betrachtungen über die Iberische Halbinsel," Freie Wege Vergleichender Erdkunde, pp. 118ù139, especially pp. 131-134.

2. The Alentejo, of course, is to be excluded from the above two statements. It is an area of large estates and of absentee ownership. The great bulk of the population of Portugal is not there, however, but in areas for which the above statements are valid.