Would Spain be more stable if Portugal was part of it?

[psychic]

I sometimes feel that an independent Portugal inspires the Catalonians to want their own state. So if Iberian unification was complete would Spain be more stable now?

 

[miguelrj]

You posted this in the "After 1900" so no.
However if Portugal had merged into Spain since long, yes, I believe that the geopolitical psyche of a unified peninsula would soften separatist tendencies in Catalonia. With that said, a united Great Britain doesn't eliminate Scottish separatism. Whatever drives one nation to perceive itself as a nation and to go as far as to want independence is much more than geographic perception albeit I don't devalue the concept at all.