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Portugal and Spain
or the Portuguese Republic and the Kingdom of Spain
The two neighboring southwestern European countries that make up most of the Iberian Peninsula.
At one point in history, the two had major empires around the world, and were two of the early major players during the Age of Exploration, but more on that a little later.
Despite both not being that particularly big as countries go, both have had a tremendous influence over the entire world.
One example of that? Well around 250 million people around the world today speak Portuguese, the official language of Portugal.
Around 525 million people around the world today speak Spanish, the official language of Spain, making it the fourth most-spoken language in the world.
The largest city in both countries is also the capital.
However, Madrid, the capital and largest city in Spain, is two and a half times bigger than Lisbon, the capital and largest city in Portugal.
Both have among the highest life expectancy in the entire world. (S-83.3, P-81.3)
The average age in both is about the same. (S-43, P-42.2)
Both have islands quite a ways off the mainland in the Atlantic Ocean.
Spain has the Canary Islands down here. Portugal has the Azores and Madeira here and here.
Spain also has the Balearic Islands of its east coast.
On the mainland, both generally don’t have to worry about natural disasters that much.
Sure, there are occasional earthquakes, but rarely do the earthquakes do that much damage.
One big exception is a devastating earthquake that almost completely destroyed Lisbon in 1755.
Both have a lot of debt, although Portugal’s debt is worse.
The poverty rate is about the same in both, although it’s a bit higher in Portugal. (S-21.6%, P- 23.3%)
Both are in the European Union. Both don’t have the death penalty nor life in prison for crimes.
In fact, Portugal was the first country in the world to get rid of life in prison, way back in 1884.
Football, aka soccer... is the most popular sport in both countries. Well duh.
The running of the bulls is a regular crazy event in both countries, although it’s the one in Pamplona, Spain that gets worldwide attention every year.
There's even a passionate minority in both that love bullfighting.
But what about their differences? There’s actually quite a bit more.
First of all, Spain is about five times larger than Portugal.
And yeah, has lots more coastline. Overall, Portugal gets more precipitation than Spain, on average. (S- 650mm, P- 800mm)
Spain also has almost five times as many people. (S- 49 million, P- 10.3 million)
While Spain’s population has been growing at a slow pace, Portugal’s population has been shrinking for several years now.
Spain borders not only Portugal to the west, but also France and the tiny country of Andorra to the north.
Morocco is also just a 14 km jump over the Strait of Gibraltar.
Portugal, the westernmost country of continental Europe, is only bordered by Spain and is often like, “Spain, get off me bro!”
Spain is more religious. While the majority of residents in both identify as Roman Catholic, over 27% of Spain residents have no religion.
Spain has a more varied climate.
While most of the peninsula has a Mediterranean climate, with dry summers, wet winters, and mild temperatures year round, parts of Spain have an oceanic climate, semiarid climate, continental climate, humid subtropical climate, and mountain-related climate.
Mountains? Yeah, mountains. Spain has a lot more mountains, which explains that climate variation, eh?
Sure, Portugal has some from the Sistema Central range. But in Spain there are mountains seemingly everywhere.
Portugal is more rural.
Spain has more land used for agriculture.
Major industries in Spain include pharmaceuticals, metals, textiles, and chemicals.
But, tourism is also huge in Spain. I mean, it’s the second most-visited country in the world.
Major industries in Portugal also include textiles and chemicals, but additionally footwear and leather.
Portugal is older. In fact, it has had the same borders pretty much since 1139, making it the oldest nation-state in Europe.
But let’s go back further. The Iberian Peninsula was mostly inhabited by the Celts and...you guessed it...Iberians before the Phoenicians and later Romans took it over.
The Romans called it Hispania.
In the early 400s, several Germanic tribes came down and kicked the Romans out, establishing their own kingdom on a big chunk of the peninsula.
The Byzantines claimed a province on the peninsula for awhile, but it was the Visigoths who dominated there from the 400s to the 700s, forming the Kingdom of Toledo.
In 726, Muslim conquerers commonly referred to as the Moors took over most of the peninsula and turned it into an Islamic state.
Afonso I, aka the Founder, fought off the Moors, established the Kingdom of Portugal, and became the first king of that...uh...kingdom.
Meanwhile, slowly but surely, the Moors would be pushed out of the rest of the peninsula during a period known as the Reconquista.
By 1492, the Moors were gone, and the Spanish Empire was a thing. Let’s see, what else happened in 1492.
Oh yeah, that Columbus dude went off to the Americas and began claiming new lands for Spain.
But hold up, the Kingdom of Portugal had been creating overseas colonies since 1415, and throughout the 1400s Portuguese explorers had sailed the coast of Africa, establishing several trading posts.
After Columbus, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas to divide up newly discovered lands outside of Europe.
In 1498, the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama became the first European to reach India by sea.
So in the 1500s, both Spain and Portugal became very powerful countries and built up huge empires man.
Now, Spain’s empire ended up becoming a bigger deal and the world’s first truly global empire, but regardless both empires were impressive.
By the 1600s, both Spanish and Portuguese influence was inescapable.
The Spanish Crown and Kingdom of Portugal even joined forces for awhile with the Iberian Union.
However, all things come to an end.
By the early 1800s, most of the Spanish Empire was gone, and after Brazil declared independence in 1822 the Portuguese Empire was on its way out, too.
During the early 1900s, both Spain and Portugal went through an unstable period.
Spain went from a straight up monarchy to a republic to a monarchy again to a civil war to a dictator.
Portugal also had authoritarianism, even though it also had bouts of democracy here and there.
Spain managed to officially stay out of World War I and World War II but, like I said, had its own civil war in the years in between them.
Portugal fought the Central Powers during World War I but stayed out of World War II.
Both transitioned to full fledged democracies, but not until the 1970s.
Today, while both have elections, Spain has a constitutional monarchy and Portugal is a constitutional republic.
Yep, Spain still has a king, while Portugal hasn’t had one since 1910.
Don’t be fooled, though. Spain has one of the most decentralized democracies in the world.
While the governments of both score high on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, Spain scores higher.
Spain has a lower cost of living. Stuff is around 18.4% cheaper there, on average.
The GDP per capita is higher in Spain. (S-33,146, P-23,738)
However, the unemployment rate is also a lot higher in Spain. (S-15.5%, P- 6.9%)
Oh yeah? But the minimum wage is higher in Spain, so there’s that. (S-1,050 EUR, P- 700 EUR) And Portugal has higher taxes, overall.
With more wealth comes more obesity, which is more common in Spain.
Portugal mainly exports to Spain and imports from Spain.
But Spain is like nah and exports mostly to France and imports mostly from Germany.
Less residents in Portugal have internet access.
Ah, but Portugal spends a higher percentage of its GDP on education. (S-4.3%, P-5.1%)
Spain, especially Andalusia, is known for flamenco, a unique style of song, dance, and mostly instrumental guitar music.
(fado music playing)
Portugal has fado, a style of music also guitar-based, but with a more melancholy feel to it.
Other random differences?
Spain produces almost half of the world’s olive oil. Woah.
But if you want more woahness, Portugal produces 70% of the world’s cork.
Well Spain has a lot of cork, too, so put a cork in it. That didn’t make any sense. Sorry.
Speaking of not making any sense, there’s a traditional Spanish festival in which men dress up as the Devil and jump over babies.
Yes, baby jumping is a real thing. Look it up. Another tradition in Spain?
People voluntarily get carried around town in an open casket to think about death. Yes, that’s also a real thing.
Back in 2001, Portugal became the first country in the world to decriminalize using all drugs.
Since then, drug use has declined overall and drug overdoses have gone way down there.
Spain has a siesta culture, whereas Portugal, not as much.
A siesta is a short nap usually after lunch, and yes, there are still places in Spain that completely shut down after lunch due to it being siesta time.
Portugal has the oldest continuously operating bookstore in the world, and Spain has the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the world.
Ok, I could go on forever baby, so it’s time to wrap this up. In conclusion, Spain and Portugal are two European gems often overlooked today by the rest of the world.
I find this very strange, especially since at one time these two countries really dominated the entire planet.
Regardless, check them out if you ever get the chance. You won’t be disappointed.
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Spain or Portugal? What did I get wrong? What did I get right? What did I leave out?
I obviously left out a lot, especially with the history portion. I kinda had to.
But I do like to read most of the comments. I especially want to hear from you if you are from one of those two lovely countries.
And a shout out to my friend Paul from The Felt Show and my friend Will from the channel The Exploration for looking over my script.
Supreme Court Briefs returns next week.