Just remembered an almost drunken argument I had with a British student. He told me he was a history major and, as I'm very fond of history and am not a complete ignorant on the subject, we got on comparing our historic perspectives. At some point in this amiable discussion this gentleman says that present day Portuguese borders on the mainland Europe were still occupied by Moorish Kings in the sixteenth century!
I nearly lost my temper but managed to restrain my proud Latin blood and said that Portugal's present borders date back to the conquest of the Algarve in the thirteenth century. He insisted I was wrong and that he was the history major there and the obvious authority on the subject. My blood boiled, I confess. I take my national pride seriously and don't like anyone take big chunks of my country's history to the cleaners. I pointed my finger at his face like a gun and called him an ignorant to his shrinking face, blazing facts and dates past him. I'm not proud for losing my composure but I do not repent telling him off. I am right after all.
1249. This was the year the Moors were last driven away from what nowadays is still Portugal. And there were definitely no more Moorish territories in the Iberic Peninsula form 1492 on, upon the rendition of the last Muslim ruler in Granada.
I can understand that that boy meant fifteenth century, not sixteenth, and was thinking about the Peninsula. That is even more serious. It means that a history major doesn't know his geography and was telling me to my face that Portugal and Spain are one identity. They're not. Not since 1143.
1 comment:
pffff
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