PORTUGAL 



4-79 



The entrance of more vigorous nationalities into the arena of competition has ousted Spain 

 from the great position she once held as an imperial power. The war with America in 1898 

 may be said to have brought her colonial history to a close. Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the 

 Philippine Islands were given up to America; while in the following year the Ladroue, Caroline, 

 and Pelew Islands were ceded by purchase to Germany. Her over-sea possessions now consist 

 only of Fernando Po and Annabom in the Gulf of Guinea, the Canary Islands, a strip of 

 territory on the west coast of the Sahara, and some settlements on the north coast of Morocco. 

 Spanish influence will, however, long be felt all over the world. The language is spoken over 

 a large portion of the earth's surface. Nearly the whole of Central and about half of South 

 America are Spanish in speech, and to some extent in blood. The Spaniards have amalgamated 

 freely with the black races with which they have come into contact, and it must be acknowledged 

 the result has not, on the whole, made for the moral improvement of the human family. 



In their own country the Spaniards of the lower classes are sunk in poverty and ignorance. 

 Their methods of agriculture are antiquated, and their lot is made harder by burdansome 

 taxation. The solution of economic and social problems is scarcely attempted by their rulers. 

 The Spanish Parliament is filled with politicians who make speeches of extraordinary eloquence 

 to one another. If a country could be governed by rhetoric, Spain would be among the most 

 fortunate. Oratory is a gift in which the Spaniard is seldom wanting. He is by nature 

 an incessant chatterer, and parliamentary life gives him an opportunity for developing the 

 rhetorical art of which he gladly avails himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that the work 

 of administration, with its prosaic details, should receive less than its due share of attention, 

 amid all this clamour of fluent tongues. Bribery and corruption flourish in a country where 

 the officials are poor and d spend largely for their living on impartial robbing of the 

 Government and the governed. If the country is backward, however, there are signs that 

 the low- water mark has been reached and the tide is beginning to turn. The spread of 

 railways has done much to quicken the trade of Spain, and foreign capital and foreign 

 enterprise have been largely introduced of late years. 

 France and Great Britain, and more recently Germany and 

 America, have been thus instrumental in awakening the 

 Spaniards from their economic slumber. The land is being 

 brought more and more into cultivation; and its mineral 

 wealth lead, copper, and iron is being more actively 

 developed. It is unlikely that the Spaniards will again 

 take so prominent a place among the nations as they 

 formerly held; but with improved education and more 

 intelligent development of their material resources there is 

 no reason to suppose that "the decadence of the Latin 

 races," which they are popularly held to typify, is so irre- 

 trievable as it appears at first sight. 



PORTUGAL. 



THE Portuguese occupy a narrow strip of laud on the 

 western side of the Iberian Peninsula, amounting only to 

 about one-sixth of the whole territory which lies south 

 of the Pyrenees. In 1890 they numbered 5,082,247, in- 

 cluding the inhabitants of the Azores and Madeira. 



The division of the inhabitants of the peninsula into 

 two nations, Spanish and Portuguese, is historical and 

 political rather than ethnical. Much of what has been 

 said of the former will apply to the latter people. As 

 with the Spaniards, the basis of the Portuguese is Iberian, 



A PORTUGUESE WOMAN. 



