History

My walking tour around Lisbon provided some very enlightening facts, some of which I was embarrassed not to have known prior.

For example, they were under a dictatorship up until as recently as 1974. Did you know? This was ended with a blood-less civil revolt – possibly unique in the history of man. It has been suggested to me that this repressive government is the reason Portugal is 50 years behind their European counterparts – for bad and for good equally.

Going back to the Moorish invasion that colonized and civilized this piece of the Iberian peninsula, the country was initially only inhabited within the first 50 miles of the coastal regions. This may help explain the haphazard boundary between them and Spain, which is mostly delineated by rivers but is otherwise not too obvious.
But for 60 years Spain invaded and controlled Portugal in the height of their world colonization expeditions (1480-1540 I think?). This explains some of the animosity and pride Portuguese have in defining themselves as a separate nation. Bit of a long held grudge perhaps, though equivalent to Ireland and the UK.