Portuguese History Storyboard
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Portuguese history storyboard Cláudia Martins [email protected] Instituto Politécnico de Bragança Escola Superior de Educação Abstract This paper intends to present relevant facts about the Portuguese culture and history, so as to enable a better understanding of who the Portuguese are and provide an overall perspective of the course of history in this westernmost part of Europe. Although the choice of historical facts was subjective by nature, it is believed it achieves the aim of presenting information in a critical but blithesome way, with a view to also deconstructing national stereotypes, such as that Portuguese people are always late or are crazy about football. Finally, it focuses on some information about the Portuguese language mainly to serve as a term of comparison with other European languages. Keywords: Portuguese culture, Portuguese language, historical facts, national symbols and icons. Introduction This paper starts with providing a brief introduction to Portugal, by focusing on general information about aspects such as our governmental system and suffrage, national languages, territory and climate, literacy and education, and national 146 Elisabete Silva, Clarisse Pais, Luís S. Pais holidays. Then five historical events of the utmost importance for the history of Portugal will be referred to, namely the independence of the kingdom in the 12th century, the two main struggles to regain independence towards Spain due to the succession crises (in the 14th century and then in the 17th century), the liberal revolution of the 19th century, the birth of the Republic at the beginning of the 20th century and the right-wing dictatorship which was overthrown by the Carnation Revolution of 1974. Thirdly, it shall focus on a group of national symbols and icons that enhance the characterisation of the Portuguese people and their cultural and historical contexts. This choice of symbols and icons follows a European Union publication (López-Menchero & Milano 2011) intended to describe each of its nations. Finally, the last part will cover some basic aspects about the Portuguese language, namely where Portuguese is spoken and its varieties, the origins of the language and its Indo-European family, the alphabet it uses and some features of its phonological system in terms of consonants, vowels and diphthongs. As a final note, it should be emphasised that this paper is not a research paper based on Portuguese culture and language, but rather a very personal selection of historical and cultural issues that intends to provide an in-depth perspective of Portugal’s history throughout 6 centuries, without neglecting the modern times. Despite the conversational tone, academic concerns have been followed and information is to be considered trustworthy and reliable in historical terms. 1. Brief Introduction to the Country As a Portuguese citizen, it is quite a thorny issue to introduce one’s own country. Therefore, for the first image of Portugal, CIA Factbook (2012: online) was selected, which will aid us throughout this first introduction part: Following its heyday as a global maritime power during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal lost much of its wealth and status with the destruction of Lisbon in a 1755 earthquake, occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, and the independence of its wealthiest colony of Brazil in 1822. A 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy; for most of the next six decades, repressive governments ran the country. In 1974, a left-wing military coup installed broad democratic reforms. The following year, Portugal granted independence to all of its African colonies. Portugal is a founding member of NATO and entered the EC (now the EU) in 1986. (CIA 2012: online) Portugal consists of a Republic, i.e. a government based on representatives and a president elected by the people, and comprehends mainland Portugal and the archipelagos of Madeira and Azores. It also included the African colonies and East Timor or Timor Lorosae until 1975 (though they were unlawfully occupied by Indonesia until they became a sovereign country in 2002) and Macau, which was finally ceded to China in 1999. Her well-known capital is Lisbon, as it always Teaching Crossroads: 7th IPB Erasmus Week 147 was during the period of the Portuguese empire, though there were times when the capital shifted to other cities, such as Coimbra. In administrative terms, it is divided into 18 districts: Aveiro, Açores, Beja, Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Évora, Faro, Guarda, Leiria, Lisboa, Madeira, Portalegre, Porto, Santarém, Setúbal, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real and Viseu, covering an area of 92,090 sq km and a coastline of 1,793 km. As far as the official languages are concerned, Portuguese and Mirandese must be mentioned. An interesting fact about our national language is that Portugal has always presented herself as a monolingual country, the oldest in Europe to have one common language for the whole of her population. However, when Mirandese came to be recognised as the second official language in 1999, there was no legal document to be found stating that Portuguese was the first official language of the country, perhaps explained by the fact that everyone took it for granted. It was only in 2004 in the Lei constitutional no. 1/2004 of 24th July, within the context of the 6th constitutional revision (article 11), that Portuguese was enshrined as the first official language of the country. However, the Portuguese sign language spoken by about 30,000 people has not yet been acknowledged as an official language, despite the fact that the Portuguese constitution states the following in the law referred to above: “Proteger e valorizar a língua gestual portuguesa, enquanto expressão cultural e instrumento de acesso à educação e da igualdade de oportunidades” (DR I-A 2004: 4662) [to protect and appreciate the value of Portuguese sign language as a cultural manifestation and a tool to access education and equality of opportunities]. As for her climate, it is described as maritime temperate, usually cool and rainy in the north, and much warmer and drier in the south. For instance, while the north might bear 15ºC during the day, several places in the south will have splendid 20ºC. Nonetheless, there is also a difference between inland and coastal areas: Bragança often has 5 or 6ºC during winter days, whereas Porto will have 14ºC or 15ºC. This 10-degree difference can be understood in light of the mountain range of Marão that separates the region of Vila Real and the remaining of Trás-os-Montes (literally ‘behind the hills’), which also led to the widespread use of a proverb: “para além do Marão mandam os que lá estão”, that is ‘beyond Marão, those who are there are in charge’, as if they were unreachable, and maybe untamed, due to geological features. There are not many cases of natural hazards in Portugal, apart from volcanism in Azores, though sporadic occurrences of earthquakes can be accounted for, particularly in the south, such as the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon, preceded by a tidal wave. Portugal’s terrain is generally described as mountainous at the north of the Tagus River (rio Tejo) and rolling plains in the south. The main resources the country has to offer are fish, forests (i.e. cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten, silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable land and hydropower (CIA 2012: online). Unfortunately, many of these resources, though still abundant, are 148 Elisabete Silva, Clarisse Pais, Luís S. Pais limited either because of European laws and restrictions, but also due to lack of national investment for the exploration of, for example, our fertile land or metals. The National Census conducted by Statistics Portugal (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) in 2011 states that our population is 10,561,614, of which 246,746 live in Azores and 267,785 in Madeira; 15% of the 10.5m people are between 0 and 14 years, 66% between the age of 15 and 64 and 19% 65 years or over (INE 2011: 11). In 2009, the Portuguese’s life expectancy was situated at the age of 79.2, though for males it was 76.1 years and for females 82.1, concurrent with the European average and tendency (PORDATA 2011: online). The ethnic groups are classified as Mediterranean stock, black-African descent immigrants, especially from the former colonies, since 1990, East Europeans and lately Chinese. In terms of religion, Portuguese are said to be mainly Roman Catholic, an impressive 94% of people, which is highly doubtful, and the remaining 6% for other religious beliefs. (CIA 2012: online) The literacy in Portugal, that is those who are aged 15 and over that can read and write, is of 93.3% – 95.5% males and 91.3% females (CIA 2012: online). This concept of literacy can be greatly criticised, since it does not cover the extent of the ability to read: is it to be able to interpret a text and be critical about it? Not to mention the ability to grapple with official documents. The Portuguese government is based on a Parliamentary Democracy, a system that nevertheless is turning out to be flawed and leading to a great deal of dissatisfaction, expressed in the high (and frightening) numbers of abstention at the several most recent elections. People are demanding a more participatory system, where they can actually see their governors fulfil their election promises and care for their interests and needs, which is not happening at present. Suffrage is universal and comprehends those over 18 years of age, a situation that only changed after the 1974 coup. In the 1934 “elections”, all autonomous citizens over 21 could vote and be elected; however, the illiterate could vote only if they had paid their taxes – the astounding amount of 100 escudos (the old currency) – and women could also if they possessed secondary education, a technical or higher education degree; this curtailment in clear violation of the law no.