Lusitania
Donor
OH BOY IT'S SPAIN TIME
Yes you knew we were not finished with them.
Yes, Yes and Yes.I always believed that Olivenza should have been returned to Portugal after the treaty of Vienna on 1815. But it didn’t, which always perplexed me since it was Portuguese and then the Spanish conquer it in 1801; the Portuguese with British help then in the Peninsular War basically occupied all of Iberia, but still the region was not given back to Portugal, which for me, personally, was stupid.
Portugal should have gotten it back!
Unfortunely it showed the relative weakness of the Portuguese in relations to other countries that we never were able to get the territory back. Enough said though we got it back.
I have a observation. The break-of-gauge between Portugal (1664 mm) and Spain (1672 mm) always allowed interoperability of trains between both countries.
Yes I read that but the building of the transit railway in Portuguese gauge allowed for faster transportation since it did not require the Portuguese trains to slow down at point of transition.
Ok little background, the revolt against the Fascist Rightwing government in Madrid took place after a relative tense period during the 1950s where tens of thousands were arrested and tens of thousands had fled to France and few thousand to Portuguese Federation. When the revolt took place many of those returned to Spain or rebel control areas such as Aragon ready to bolster the revolt. This also happened in other areas such as Castelon and Teruel that were not loyal to Catalan but to Spain. As the reprisal against leftist and those fighting for democracy increased more and more "refugee" fled to safe areas. When the cease fire was implemented they were in no delusion of what would happen to them if and when they returned to live under Madrid's control. Therefore the people in Catalonia and the other two breakaway regions were left with few choices. Return to Spain, flee Iberian Peninsula or become independent in a democratic country. Even while the negotiations were taking place stories of Spanish security forces and secret police arresting any it considered an enemy of the government spread through the Iberian Peninsula.Great work Lusitania!!
The only thing I found a little ASB is Aragón becoming part of Cataluña.
So the people voted to leave a repressive ruled Spain for a democratic country. Catalan people soon discovered that they had become a minority in the new country of Cataluña.
As I had indicated many had expected half or more of the regions of Cataluña to vote to return to Spain and that majority in every region voted to reject Fascism and the dire economic conditions of the country was a great shock not only in Spain by in Cataluña. Only the Basque and Galician people really voted on a more nationalistic lines instead of fear and economics. From 1956-1969 over 500,000 Spanish would migrate, flee Spain for its neighbors which now numbered four countries.
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