Portugal - Faction Thread.

[numerosdecimus]

Portuguese diplomacy in the 18th century

During the 18th century, portuguese diplomacy greatly characterized by neutrality, although during military conflicts Portugal usually supported England militarely, still, João V's reign was marked by neutrality.

Economically and and diplomatically there was a mutual support between Portugal and England although most treaties were almost just profitable for England, the Meduem treaty being an excellent example of this.

Later on during Sebastião de Melo's government, neutrality issues were crucial, the attitude adopted by portuguese diplomacy was of of distance in some cases for all sides and a reinforcement of the empire own economy and production. Portuguese companies were created with the objective of acquiring control over production side, and in some case to increase product quality such as the case of port wine production.

[Viriatus]

Jesus...

Nice! Very well done.. (orgulho português em alta)

[Ludicus]

[CENTER]
During the 18th century, portuguese diplomacy greatly characterized by neutrality, although during military conflicts Portugal usually supported England militarely

Exactly.As foreign policy the government aligned itself with England with England as long as this did not clash with Portugal ´s European interests.
One major example of this alignment occurred in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Initially Portugal sided with the French bloc; however, “The Grand Alliance” had been formed, in which England, the Low Countries and Austria united against France, and after two years Portugal was drawn into this league.

[Boicote]

1755 Lisbon earthquake

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake took place on November 1, 1755, at 9:40 in the morning. It was one of the most destructive and deadly earthquakes in history, killing between 60,000 and 100,000 people (though the exact number is uncertain). The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fire, resulting in the near-total destruction of Lisbon.The earthquake accentuated political tensions in Portugal and profoundly disrupted the country's eighteenth-century colonial ambitions.
The event was widely discussed by European Enlightenment philosophers, and inspired major developments in theodicy and in the philosophy of the sublime. As the first earthquake studied scientifically for its effects over a large area, it signaled the birth of modern seismology. Geologists today estimate the Lisbon earthquake approached magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent.

Source: Wikipedia



Lisbon before the earthquake:

Lisbon during the earthquake:

Reconstruction:

Physically, Lisbon recovered with a celerity astonishing for the time, but the shock left its mark upon the thinking of generations to come. The reconstruction—a good deal of foreign aid was forthcoming—was achieved by Joseph I's prime minister, Sebastião José de Carvalho, the virtual ruler of the nation. He put Manuel da Maia, engineer in chief of the realm, in charge of five architects and soon had a plan for remaking the totally devastated centre of the town, the Baixa. The riverside palace had been destroyed, and its terrace was expanded to create the new Commerce Square. Northward from there, a grid of 48 streets led inland to the Rossio and a neighbouring new square, Figueira. The two-story, uniform buildings were topped by two tiers of dormers projecting from tiled roofs. The corners of the eaves, in the Lisbon tradition, turned up, in faint echo of a pagoda. The building style, evolved for fast, cheap construction, was Baroque but virtually stripped of decoration. After the minister was rewarded with the title of marquês de Pombal, the style became known as the estilo pombalino.

Source: Encyclopædia Britannica

[numerosdecimus]

The Lisbon 1755 earthquake was also a crucial mark in the evolution of phylosophy and enlightment because of it's devastating consequences.

Sebastião de Melo is also recognized as one of the "fathers" sismology, because of his analysis and inquiries into the causes of the earthquake, side effects, etc.

[Ludicus]

According to the historical accounts, some of the greatest damages were in term of diamonds, gold, silver and furniture lost, as well as losses to foreigners. Consequently, especial attention was given to them. In terms of diamonds, one of the few reliable contemporary sources, the priest Manuel Portal argues that just in the earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged India House (Casa da India) there were “11 to 12 million carats in diamonds” from Brazil.

So far from seeing the disaster as an act of divine retribuition, Pombal saw it as a huge political opportunity. He wrote and published a manifest entitled: “The Advantages The King of Portugal Can Obtain from the Earthquake of 1755” The overall design, novel to Europe then, was that of the pioneering town planner, Manuel Maia. The essence of his design was a huge square on the waterfront, with the new royal palace set back, facing the river. Another feature, which deeply impressed visitors from elsewhere in Europe, was the – for the names – great width of the streets. Almost as remarkable, they were straight and formed a grid (Boicote´s post)
The style of building which had become known as “Pombaline” was actually of the great architect Eugénio dos Santos
In seeking to redevelop Portugal as a leading centre of international commerce, Pombal saw in the merchants Jews (New Christians) the means of regaining Portuguese ascendancy over the foreigners in commerce.. He sent emissaries to Portuguese Jewish communities in exile elsewhere in Europe, inviting them back.
Another part of Pombal´s plan for Portugal´s commercial recovery was to set up trading cartels, roughly on the lines of East India Company. The most lasting of them was the Upper Douro Wine Cultivation Company.
In 1772 a radical reform of the University took place.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/1983/
Then turned his attention to primary and secondary schooling.
His plan to implement a programme of mass education aroused attention from the rest of Europe, and alarm.Voltaire, who had mocked Portugal for its naivety, now asked "who will cultivate the fields, husband the animals, maintain roads?”
These various programmes of reform were rigourously enforced in face of strong opposition.

Brazilian gold created a marked upswing after 1700; by 1715, state income was nearly twice the level of 1680. This revolutionized the finances of the crown.In the early eighteenth century the crown enjoyed a comfortable surplus, leading to great sumptuary spending but also to the rehabilitation of public institutions.


The cyclical phases of overseas commerce moved approximately as follows:
1570-1600
expansion
1600-1620
depression
1620-1640
expansion
1640-1670
depression
1690-1760
expansion
1760-1780
depression
1780-1805
expansion

By the 1680s tobacco (from Brazil ) tax had become the Braganças´s biggest source of revenue - import and export was a state monopoly -The craze for Brazil tobacco swept across Europe namely,Spain,Italy,France (London merchants supplied Northern Europe with tobacco grown by English merchants in Virginia)
The craze spread to Goa;by 1680 Goa were paying Lisbon ten sacks of diamonds a year to sustain their habit.

The main factor in the transformation of the commercial economy at the end of the seventeenth century was the development of Brazilian gold production. The arrival of gold in Lisbon reached the following annual levels:
1699
725 kilograms
1701
1,785 kilograms
1714
9,000 kilograms
1720
25,000 kilograms
1725
20,000 kilograms

The early eighteenth century Portuguese economy was thus keyed to the balance of trade provided by Brazilian gold.
Between 1720 and 1740 there was a rise in domestic manufactures, stimulated by royal support for textiles, paper, and weapons and by the military and commercial uncertainties of the period.

Pombal's regime may be divided into four phases: 1)1750-1760, devoted to government and mercantile reforms; 2)1760-1763, dealing primarily with the military challenge of the last phase of the Seven Years' War and the colonial struggle with Spain; 3)1764-1770, facing a commercial and fiscal crisis, devoted to mercantile and tax reforms; and 4)1770-1777, concerned mainly with educational reform and the stimulation of domestic manufactures.

When José I died, Maria's government was generally benevolent and did not expel all of Pombal 's administrative and juridical appointees, but most of the special economic projects of the reign of José I were either cut back or abolished. The l780s and l790s were a time of greatly increased commercial prosperity. Cotton had become a major new export from Brazil.In England, at the end of the eighteenth century there was an increasing demand for Brazilian products, chiefly sugar and cotton(during the Independence War)and the balance of exchange was reversed in favor of Lisbon.(The Cotton Plant, editado em 1922 : “for a few years all the increased supply came from Brazil “)while wine exports to Britain almost doubled. For the first time since 1740, the balance of trade with Britain began to run in Portugal' s favor, with credits in 1790-1792 and 1794-1795. The trading stations and fortresses on the Angolan coast of west Africa became increasingly valuable,as the volume of the slave trade to Brazil mounted.

The main significance of the second half of the eighteenth century for Portuguese social structure was the development for the first time of a relatively strong, wealthy, and independent mercantile upper middle class not tied to the aristocracy.

Excerpts from:
Payne,S. G. History of Spain and Portugal
Pereira , A. The Economic Impact of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake
Page , M. The first global village
Oliveira Marques, A.H. History of Portugal
Boxer, C.R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825

[numerosdecimus]

After losing it's economical value from 1642 to 1688(and among the last there was one in Brasil in 1722 of about 20%), the period from 1722 to 1833 was of stability concerning the value of the both the portuguese coin and the brazilian coin, an entire century of stability.

An interesting fact was that due to the abundancy of gold in Brazil and Portugal, the brazilian coin of 20$00 of aproximately 53.78g and of 22 carats was the equivalent of 32 dollars at that time or 6.4 british pounds, thus making it the curency of highest value in circulation in the entire western history, or at least betweem those of ample exchange and international use.

The "conto de reis" was also the highest monetary currency in the west.

This article is a translation from the brazilian economist, AC.Costa

[Ludicus]

After losing it's economical value from 1642 to 1688

1706-1750 -Reign of João V

Unlike his father, Pedro II, and his grandfather, João IV, João V was not severely limited by fiscal restraints. He was one of the best-educated princes of his time, devoted to pomp and luxury but also generous in charities. When his reign began, Portugal was already deeply involved in the Spanish Succession War. It was the result of British influence and the offer of two small slices of Spanish territory in return for support of the pro-Habsburg, anti-Bourbon forces.
With British assistance, Portugal withstood a Bourbon offensive in 1704, then participated in successful campaigns by the allies in Spain between 1705 and 1707. Military operations on the Portuguese –Spanish frontier, starting in 1704, dragged on for eight years; in 1706 a Portuguese army, lead by Marquês de Minas entered Madrid, where the Habsburg pretender, the Archduke Charles III, one of the Leopold ´s son , was acclaimed king. Charles III, however, was prevented from entering Madrid, by the excessive time he lost whilst receiving homage from those towns under Aragon which supported him,and was defeated soon after at Almansa. After that the Portuguese front in western Spain lapsed into stalemate.
The Treaty of Utrecht brought the conflict to an end in 1713.This brought some advantages to Portugal, notably in Brazil where, in the north, Portuguese rights to both banks of the Amazon were recognized. (French claims being withdrawn), while in the south the frontier was extended to the River Plate. (Spanish claims to the colony of Sacramento being retired).
During this conflict the Portuguese army of some 30,000 was transformed from the old proto-Spanish tercio organization of the seventeenth century into the more modern French regimental system, but altogether it was a very costly war from which Portugal derived little benefit.

During 1716-1717 the revitalized Portuguese navy answered a call from the papacy to defend the Adriatic, and defeated a Turkish fleet. The Turks at this time had occupied the Peloponnese and threatened to blockade the Adriatic. Induced by the Pope Clement XI, the Portuguese attacked the Turkish navy and won a resounding victory at Matapan.(1717).

Other military engagement of João V's reign was the colonial struggle with Spain over Uruguay (1723-1777). Portugal's distant but axial geographic position, together with its alliance with England, enabled it to avoid major involvement
Between 1680 and 1683, contesting Spanish ownership of the region of Uruguay, Portuguese colonists in Brazil established several settlements, such as the Novo Colonia del Sacramento, along the Río de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires. However, the Spanish made no attempt to dislodge the Portuguese until 1723, when the latter began fortifying the heights around the Bay of Montevideo. A Spanish expedition from Buenos Aires forced the Portuguese to abandon the site, and there the Spanish founded the city of Montevideo in 1726. Spanish-Portuguese rivalry continued in the 18th century, ending in 1777 with the establishment of Spanish rule in the territory under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of La Plata.
In 1816 the Portuguese in Brazil—perceiving that the newly emancipated territory, known as the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Shore of Uruguay), was weak after its struggle with Spain—invaded the territory. The Portuguese conquest was completed in 1821, when the Banda Oriental was annexed to Brazil.

From a social standpoint, the Nation had kept up with the general development of western Europe during the first half of the seventeenth century and, in spite of problems caused by the hounding of New Christians, the mercantile bourgeoisie had prospered and their future influences in politics was to be more pronounced, notably during the government of Marquis de Pombal. Politically, the State was by then imbued with the philosophy of absolutism current at the period. Its external politics were guided by a wish to avoid involvement in international disputes and to enhance the prestige of the House of Bragança.
Culturally, the first half of the eighteenth century was characterized by conservatism, but also a growing interest in the scientific and literary activity then proliferating throughtout Europe.
Material evidence of the gold boom may be seen in the extravagantly gilded woodwork of the numerous baroque churches and in the erection of the gigantic convent-palace at Mafra, a monument only to the temporal power and ostentation of the Church. João V spent enormous sums on construction, the chief example of which was the luxurious palace, monastery, and library of Mafra, north of Lisbon. This pinnacle of Portuguese baroque architecture was constructed at great cost between 1715 and 1735.As a result, it has the longest corridor of any palace in Europe, including Versailles. The monks collected an outstanding library of classical manuscrits, and their chapel, with six organs, was renowed as a center for liturgical music. The Braganças largesse extended to Vatican. The Archbishop of Lisbon was named by the Pope, and still remains, Patriarch, one of the only three Catholic bishops throughout the world to hold the title.
Domenic Scarlatti, Director of Music at St. Peter´s in Rome, was recruited to Lisbon to take over the royal chapel, together with his finest soloists and choroisters. A great new opera house was built, then the magnificent aqueduct of Alcantara. The Chapel of São João Baptista, was made from lapis –lazuli in Italy, assembled there, blessed by the Pope, disassembled, and brought to Lisbon.
The crown also spent sums to beautify Lisbon, built a new library for Coimbra, founded a Royal Academy of History and an Academy of Portugal for artists. Hospitals and medical studies were supported and encouraged, and Lisbon enjoyed the finest opera in Europe outside Italy. The reign brought the flowering of the Portuguese baroqueThis reign coincided with half a century of relative prosperity for the economy as a whole. The rate of emigration to Portuguese America increased.
In administration and government, the crown continued the centralizing policy of the Portuguese state. In Portugal, as in Spain, the district military commands set up during the Succession War were made the framework of regional administration. During the middle years of the reign an effort was made to reform and improve some of the central organs of government.

Excerpts:
Gafnney, J.Dividing the spoils: Portugal and Spain in South America.
Payne, G. History of Spain and Portugal
Saraiva, J. H. Portugal a Companion Guide
Page, M. The First Global Village
Boxer, C.R.[/I] A Idade de Ouro do Brasil.

[Ludicus]

Portugal, South America Wars,1700-1820

1710 : Rio de Janeiro invasion by a French squadron under Jean François Duclerc. In the resulting battle half of the 1000 or so French troops landed were killed, and those who surrendered were imprisoned and brutally treated. The following year the French again attacked and this time took control of the city, forcing the Portuguese authorities to pay a large ransom crusados, 500 cases of sugar and provisions for their return voyage to France. After the failure of the French assault on Rio de Janeiro the Portuguese were unchallenged masters of Brazil.

1809 : In retaliation for the French invasion of Portugal, Prince regent Dom João commanded the invasion of French Guiana, whose capital, Cayenne, was captured on the 14th of January 1809,and Portuguese possession until 1817 (redefinition of borders, Paris Treaty,1815)

Between 1680 and 1777, contesting Spanish ownership of the region of Uruguay, Portuguese colonists in Brazil established several settlements, such as the Novo Colonia del Sacramento, along the Río de la Plata opposite Buenos Aires. However, the Spanish made no attempt to dislodge the Portuguese until 1723, when the latter began fortifying the heights around the Bay of Montevideo. A Spanish expedition from Buenos Aires forced the Portuguese to abandon the site, and there the Spanish founded the city of Montevideo in 1726. Spanish-Portuguese rivalry continued in the 18th century, ending in 1777 with the establishment of Spanish rule in the territory under the jurisdiction of the viceroyalty of La Plata.

1680-1757 Portuguese - Guarani wars

1801, Wars with Spain in the West and South borders.

In 1816 the Portuguese in Brazil—perceiving that the newly emancipated territory, known as the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (Eastern Shore of Uruguay), was weak after its struggle with Spain—invaded the territory. The Portuguese conquest was completed in 1821, when the Banda Oriental was annexed to Brazil.

1534 Tordesillas 1573 two states 1709





1709: 1789 1821,before Independence.

[Ludicus]

Portugal, Indian wars,1700-1800

The Novas Conquistas (the new conquests)

In 1741, the Marathas invaded Bardez and Salsete and threatened the city of Goa itself. Fortunately for the Portuguese, a new viceroy, the Marquis of Lourical arrived with substantial reinforcements and defeated the Marathas in Bardez. But the valuable Portuguese territory of Bassein further up the coast was lost to the Marathas. During this period, the Portuguese got involved in several frontier wars which enabled them to extend their control over Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem, Canacona, Pernem, Bicholim and Satari. Hence, although Portugal lost a large number of its asian territories, Goa itself expanded.

This second (and final) phase of Portuguese expansion was rather different from their initial conquests. By the time these territories were added, the zeal for religious conversions had died down. In fact, the Portuguese mistrusting the Jesuits whom they viewed as being puppets of the pope in Rome, banned the order in 1759. By 1835, all religious orders were banned, while the hindu majority were "granted" the freedom to practice their religion. As a result, the "New Conquests" retained their hindu identity, a characteristic that persists until today.


During the first half of XVIII, Goa is still obtaining gold and ivory from east Africa and still is important commerce center diamonds, perhaps more important than Madrasta.
By the year 1725, the economic center of the Empire is shifted to S.Salvador, Brazil.

1707,Mughal map from India:
Diu, Daman, Bassein (Baçaim), Chaul and Goa, in the west coast of India, from North to South:





The city of Diu,1746



The city of Goa,1750




The New Conquests, around Goa ; Diu, Daman,circa 1750, and Dadra / Nagar Haveli

[Agent Provocateur]

Very interesting, thread. It will be interesting to see hwo they represent Protugal in the game. I have to admit that I know (knew) little about Portuguese history in the 18th cent. I knew Portugal was our oldest ally, 1386 and the Treaty of Windsor apparently - though the details escape me
Being English all I really knew about this era tended to concentrate heavily on the end, or beginning of the next century via British involvement in the Peninsular War. Certainly if the Napoleonic wars come out as an expansion I can't wait to see the Cacadores in action http://www.napoleon-series.org/milit...cacadores.html

[numerosdecimus]

The portuguese military specialties at that time were light infantry, some light ranged cavalry, and the one specialization that never ceased to exist which was fortifications.

Even today civil engeneering is one of the best specialization in Portugal, for instance even MIT asked for some construction software we had in some universities.

During the 15th/16th there were intense preparations for fortifications, forts were pre built in Portugal, every stone was numbered, then the fort could be rebuild in just 4 to 8 days.

[Ludicus]

The portuguese military specialties at that time were light infantry, some light ranged cavalry, and the one specialization that never ceased to exist which was fortifications.

Even today civil engeneering is one of the best specialization in Portugal, for instance even MIT asked for some construction software we had in some universities.

During the 15th/16th there were intense preparations for fortifications, forts were pre built in Portugal, every stone was numbered, then the fort could be rebuild in just 4 to 8 days.

Well,that´s true.

For instance,they showed the Japonese how to build in stone,and it was because of that the damage inflicted on Nagasaki by the A-bomb in 1945,though appaling,was not much more so :




An example,S. Jorge da Mina or Elmina Castle was the first pre-cast building to have been planned and executed in sub - Saharan Africa.
King João II decided to build a fort on the coast in order to ensure the protection of this trade, which was once again held as a royal monopoly. King John sent all materials needed to build this fort from Portugal to the Gold Coast on ten caravels and two transport ships. The supplies, which included everything from heavy foundation stones to roof tiles, were sent in ready-made form along with provisions for six hundred men.
The Mozambique fort, the square fort at the northern extremity of the island of Mozambuique was built in 1510 entirely of ballast stone brought from Portugal.

[Ludicus]

Very interesting, thread. It will be interesting to see hwo they represent Protugal in the game. I have to admit that I know (knew) little about Portuguese history in the 18th cent. I knew Portugal was our oldest ally, 1386 and the Treaty of Windsor apparently - though the details escape me
Being English all I really knew about this era tended to concentrate heavily on the end, or beginning of the next century via British involvement in the Peninsular War. Certainly if the Napoleonic wars come out as an expansion I can't wait to see the Cacadores in action http://www.napoleon-series.org/milit...cacadores.html

Thank you, Agent Provocateur . You are right, the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force.
So, it´ s time to talk about

a ) political economy, c.1670-1703

b ) Methuen Treaty (1703), Portugal and the European Wars. (War of Spanish Succession)

…………………………………………………………………..

a) Political economy. c.1670-1703


Whilst the English were busied for centuries in raising the structure of their national prosperity upon the most solid foundations, the Spaniards and the Portuguese made a fortune rapidly by means of their discoveries and attained to great wealth in a very short space of time. But it was only the wealth of a spendthrift who had won the first prize in a lottery, whereas the wealth of the English may be likened to the fortune accumulated by the diligent and saving head of a family.
The discovery of America and of the route round the Cape only increased the wealth of both kingdoms after a specious and ephemeral fashion—indeed, by these events a death-blow was first given to their national industry and to their power. For then, instead of exchanging the produce of the East and West Indies against home manufactures, as the Dutch and the English subsequently did, the Spaniards and Portuguese purchased manufactured goods from foreign nations with the gold and the silver which they had wrung from their colonies.
Thus they promoted the industry, the trade, and the maritime power of the Dutch and English, in whom they raised up rivals who soon grew strong enough to destroy their fleets and rob them of the sources of their wealth.

Portugal, however, did make an attempt to develop her manufacturing industry, the first results of which strike us with astonishment.
Portugal, like Spain, had possessed from time immemorial fine flocks of sheep. Strabo tells us that a fine breed of sheep had been introduced into Portugal from Asia, the cost of which amounted to one talent per head.
When the Count of Ericeira became minister in 1681, he conceived the design of establishing cloth manufactories, and of thus working up the native raw material in order to supply the mother country and the colonies with home-manufactured goods. With that view cloth workers were invited from England, and so speedily did the native cloth manufactories flourish in consequence of the protection secured to them, that three years later (in 1684) it became practicable to prohibit the importation of foreign cloths.

From that period Portugal supplied herself and her colonies with native goods manufactured of home-grown raw material, and prospered exceedingly in so doing for a period of nineteen years, as attested by the evidence of English writers themselves.


It is true that even in those days the English gave proof of that ability which at subsequent times they have managed to bring to perfection. In order to evade the tariff restrictions of Portugal, they manufactured woollen fabrics, which slightly differed from cloth though serving the same purpose, and imported these into Portugal under the designation of woollen serges and woollen druggets. This trick of trade was, however, soon detected and rendered innocuous by a decree prohibiting the importation of such goods.

List, Friedrich, The National System of Political Economy

Edit: Later,Pombal's economic policies (1750-1777) were inspired by the protectionist doctrines of Colbert, which gave royal companies monopolies in certain fields. Following the initiatives in this regard established by the count of Ericeira, Pombal prohibited the export of gold and silver. In order to increase cereal cultivation, he prohibited the growing of grape vines in certain areas of the country. He protected the winemaking industry by founding, in 1756, a company with a monopoly on exporting port wine. Pombal created other companies with exclusive rights to commercial activities in various regions of Brazil, as well as a fishing and processing company for sardines and tuna in Portuguese waters. He transformed the silk industry into a textile industry.



Tomorrow:

b ) Methuen Treaty (1703), Portugal and the European Wars. (War of Spanish Succession)

[Ludicus]

Portugal and The treaty of Methuen

There were in all three treaties of 1703 that acquired the name "Methuen". Two “political treaties” were signed in May 1703; and one commercial treaty in December of the same year.

The first two collectively as the "political treaties" and individually as the "offensive" and “defensive”.

The first was the establishment of the war aims of the Grand Alliance(defensive)

Secondly the agreement meant that Spain would become a new theatre of war (ofensive)

The treaty also established the number of the troops the various countries would provide to fight the campaign in Spain.

Finally, it regulated the establishment of trade relations, especially between Britain and Portugal (trade)

Understandably in time of war, the almost forgotten political treaties of May 1703, which also bear Methuen's name, received much more attention.
Joining Portugal and its important safe harbours to the Grand Alliance, bringing Holland and England to Portugal's defence, and pledging on behalf of all the allies to install Archduke Charles instead of Philip of Anjou (Louis XIV's grandson and candidate) on the Spanish throne, the political treaties were of enormous immediate significance.

In 1713, when in the course of Anglo-French (rather than Anglo-Portuguese) negotiations around the Treaty of Utrecht, the English government casually sought to abandon the commercial treaty that Methuen had signed.
There were high-minded reasons for such a switch. Perennial enemies, England and France had continually wasted lives and money in fighting each other to a standstill. St. John in particular
believed that closer relations, particularly commercial relations, could end this:
The most certain way of preventing [enmity], is certainly an open and advantageous commerce between the two kingdoms. Nothing unites like “ interest".
In principle, an alliance with France could cut the Netherlands off from French markets and leave England well positioned to dominate international trade. With eyes on the main prize, the Tory's implicitly dismissed the significance of the Portugal trade, and that was a serious mistake

There believed that closer relations with France, particularly commercial relations, could end this:"......The most certain way of preventing [enemity], is certainly an open and advantageous commerce between the two kingdoms.Nothing unites like “ interest".
In principle, an alliance with France could cut the Netherlands off from French markets and leave England well positioned to dominate international trade.
With eyes on the main prize, the Tory's implicitly dismissed the significance of the Portugal trade, and that was a serious mistake.

The job went to Matthew Prior and Arthur Moore, who is credited (or blamed) for creating the commercial articles offered to France in the peace negotiations. ( In 1710,Moore´s had replaced Locke on the Commission of trade, the body overseeing British commerce whose founding members included John Locke and John Methuen )

Adept of the free trade, Moore's articles favoured the volume of trade over the balance of trade.That is, where the economics of the day had focused almost obsessively on the balance of trade between two countries, with a positive balance signalling a healthy economy and a negative balance malaise, Moore swept this issue aside inherently assuming that the volume of trade overrode concerns about the imbalance such trade might produce.
It was not until David Hume and Adam Smith transformed the field of economics some sixty years later that such a view became acceptable.
At the time being,any attempt to move towards free trade would have to confront the deep fear of returning to imbalance and a languishing economy; in general trade figures showed that England historically ran a deficit when it traded with France.

According The “British Merchant”, breaking with Methuen, in sum, would be from the point of view of the wool interest not only a mistake, but an irreversible mistake. Further, the paper argued, the loss of Portuguese outlets for wool would lead to a loss of the inflow of Portuguese gold, currency that circulated in and sustained many English wool towns. All of this would tip the balance of trade with Portugal from its healthy surplus to the dreaded deficit with its attendant evils of unemployment, loss of rents, and stagnation.”

For their part, the Portuguese faced unenviable choices both in 1703 when the Methuen commercial treaty was made and in 1713 when it was nearly abandoned.
Equally, they could protect their nascent textile industry, and lose their footing in Europe's greatest wine-importing market once a peace opened that market to French wines.
Or they could ensure privileged access to this market for wine, but in so doing surrender their future as a textile producer.
In 1713, they could support the Methuen, or they could support the Treaty of Utrecht, and see the French push them out of the English market.

Negotiations opened in Utrecht at the end of January 1711/12. England sent Matthew Prior.With numerous representatives from all parties, multilateral and bilateral negotiations lasted until the spring of 1712/13, at which point a treaty of peace along with a "Treaty of Navigation and Commerce" between England and France, following the lines set out by Moore two years before, went to London for ratification.

In public at least, the Tory Government was confident that the Treaty of Utrecht would be signed with all the commercial agreements intact, the allies (Portugal) set adrift, and lucrative trade with France opened.
Signs of trouble first arose when the new treaties were laid before the Queen's council in April.

One issue here turned out to be the Methuen commercial treaty, which the government's strategy had almost entirely overlooked.

The choice that the ministry wished to place before people's minds was the peace treaty with France or continued war.
The choice they found themselves unexpectedly wrestling with was articles VIII and IX of the commercial treaty (with France) or the continuation of the Methuen treaty (with Portugal):

VIII: Both sides [i.e. England and France] to have the same Favour in Trade as any foreign Nation the most favoured.
IX: Goods from France to pay no more Duty than the like Goods from any other part of Europe.

With these articles included, ratification of the treaty with France of 1713 would inevitably entail abrogation of the treaty with Portugal of 1703, for the preferential favours promised in the latter were incompatible with equality promised in the former.

The Portuguese government asked the Portuguese official envoy to England, José Brochado, to send a memorandum to Lord Dartmouth and Bolingbroke in early May pointing out the connection between the suspension of the “pragmatics” in Portugal and the preferential duties that Portuguese wines received under the Methuen treaty.
By reminding the English of the relationship between wool and wine this memorandum comes as close to a threat, however, as most diplomatic language ever comes.

Moreover, a number of almost contemporary English historians suggest not only that Brochado was making a threat, however diplomatically couched, but that it was an effective threat,not because it changed the minds of the ministry, but because it roused the English wool interest, making them see that an obscure bill adjusting wine duties for two months was a threat to their livelihood.
Slowly, the English wool interests--from weavers, and clothiers, and stockingers, to the great manufacturers who provided employment for them and the great landowners who maintained sheep to supply them--roused themselves to fight for their lucrative markets in Portugal.

Even so,on the 18th of June, a parliamentary bill to approve the eighth and ninth articles of the treaty commerce with France was given its final reading.

At the debate's end, by a margin of 185 to 194 the vote went against them.
"By so small a majority," Bishop Burnett wrote, "was a bill of such great importance lost".

The Methuen treaty was a little-known commercial pact that the ministers themselves, either by accident or design, ignored.

When they suffered their defeat in 1713, Methuen had been transformed into an unavoidable Ur-text of England diplomacy. Methuen himself had become a near sacred icon of these causes--a man who, as Charles King wrote, when he republished the British Merchant in 1721, "deserves to have his Statue erected in every Trading Town in Great Britain".
If the treaty can be said to have held a distinct and privileged place in the English imagination during most of the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth century, it was elevated to that position not in 1703, when the treaty was made, but in 1713 when it was saved from extinction.
St. John was probably right when he argued that if a free-trade treaty was to be successfully concluded, they would have to work, "More in the character of Statesmen, than of Merchants". But as we have seen, the statesmen were unable to overcome the power of the merchants and their allies.

In the case of the Methuen treaty, it seems that the material actions of merchants, manafacturers, clothiers, weavers, and perhaps the Portuguese,were important to the victory for the Methuen commercial Treaty in 1703.

----------

Some historians have different views of how long this treaty ran. And many disagree over what its effects (if any) were :
Among the pioneers who studied the impact of international relations are Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations and David Ricardo in The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.

Adam Smith thought it was bad (for the British)
Adam Smith argued that industry and the wealth of nations relied on free trade and international competition.

David Ricardo suggests it was essentially good for both the British and the Portuguese.
Ricardo developed Adam Smith’s analysis of absolute advantage by exploring the concept of comparative advantage.According to him, even if one country is better at producing everything than another,there are still benefits from trade. Ricardo used Britain and Portugal to show that the overall wealth of the two nations increases if they specialize in those industries in which each has comparative advantage, such as textiles in the case of Britain and wine in the case of Portugal.

Those, like Sideri, without a British bias tend more readily to assume it was good for the British and disastrous for the Portuguese.

Francis is one of several authors who believe that the treaty did not have did not have much affect at all.

Excerpts:
Institutions, Leadership and Long-Term Survival
Teresa da Silva Lopes,Queen Mary, University of London.
The Making of Methuen:The commercial Treaty in the English Imagination
Paul Duguid,University of California,Berkely.

[Ludicus]

Portugal and the War of Spanish Succession

For Portugal, the Succession War began in 1704/05, with the landing of Archduke Karl and strong allied forces in both Valencia and Barcelona. The Habsburg effort was backed by the powerful English fleet, sizable contingents of German professional troops, the armed forces of Portugal, and Catalan and Valencian volunteers.
Truly important was the emotional, patriotic commitment of most Castilian people to the cause of Felipe V, which they identified with Castilian legitimacy and tradition. They were also motivated by a sense of rivalry with the Aragonese and Portuguese, and reacted to the presence of foreign Protestant troops, as well as Portuguese and Catalan soldiers, on Castilian soil.

Military operations on the Portuguese –Spanish frontier, starting in 1704, dragged on for eight years.With British assistance, Portugal withstood a Bourbon offensive in 1704, then participated in successful campaigns by the allies in Spain between 1705 and 1706.

In 1706 a Portuguese army, lead by Marquês de Minas, entered Madrid, where the Habsburg pretender, the Archduke Charles III, one of the Leopold ´s son was acclaimed king.
Charles III, however, was prevented from entering Madrid, by the excessive time he lost whilst receiving homage from those towns under Aragon which supported him, and was soon after defeated at Almansa, one of the most decisive engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Frederick the Great would affirm that Almansa was as "the most scientific battle of our century".

The Battle:

1)Allied Army (Portuguese army : 14700 men: Anglo - Dutch army 4.200) lead by Marquês de Minas Dom António Luís de Sousa.
Commanders for the Allied side:Capitão General António Luiz de Sousa, Marquês da Minas / Tenente General Henry De Ruvigny, Count of de Galway

The army was a mainly Anglo-Portuguese force 18,000, with Dutch, German, and French Huguenot elements.
Portuguese army: 31 brigades/ 28 squadrons
Anglo-Dutch-German- Huguenot army: 11 brigades/ 32 squadrons

The left wing was made up of English and Dutch cavalry, plus a few squadrons of Portuguese; amongst these were placed some battalions of English infantry.
The centre was exclusively composed of infantry, English, Dutch, Portuguese and Huguenot elements
The right wing was formed of both infantry and cavalry and was exclusively Portuguese
Commander for the Borbonic: Berwick.
The Bourbon army of about 24,000 was composed of French and Spanish and Irish troops, with great cavalry superiority.
Despite of the initial success of the Allied left wing, the battle was decided by a skilfull maneuver that destroyed the Allied right wing and routed the entire Allied army.Thus, with Colonel Couto’s account showing no reproaches towards his cavalry, but rather, an understanding that they had to retreat to avoid being massacred.Only the Portuguese infantry holds, attacked by the three sides, and tries to retire fighting, and began an heroic withdrawal, trying to maintain its grouping. Only the resistence to the last man of a Portuguese Terço (Regiment) mitigated a bit the disaster andallowed some 5000 Allied survivors to retreat towards Catalonia. Count Dohna, a Portuguese general and Shrimpton with 2,000 were cut off in the mountains, in a nearby height (called since then Cerro de los Prisioneros or “Prisoner Ridge), withstood all assaults for two days but had to surrender on terms on the third day.

Within a few days after the end of the battle, all of the Kingdom of Valencia was lost for the Allied cause and the Duke of Anjou (the future Philip V of Spain) was firmly consolidated in the Spanish throne.
After 1707 the Portuguese front in western Spain lapsed into stalemate.
Portugal's anti-Bourbon allies failed to provide all the assistance promised, and peace (Treaty of Utrecht) was made in 1713.

This brought some advantages to Portugal, notably in Brazil where, in the north, Portuguese rights to both banks of the Amazon were recognized. (French claims being withdrawn), while in the south the frontier was extended to the River Plate Spanish claims to the colony of Sacramento being retired.
The Portuguese army of some 20,000 was transformed from the old proto-Spanish tercio organization of the seventeenth century into the more modern French regimental system, but altogether it was a very costly war.

De la Cerva, Ricardo; Historia Militar deEspaña”
Voltes,Pedro; La Guerra de Sucesión
Saraiva,J.H., “Portugal, a companion book”, ”History of Portugal”

[Ludicus]

Portuguese Navy 1700-1800

The period 1775-1805 was also the last era of prosperity in the Portuguese eastern trade. Between 1600 and 1775, there had been an annual average of scarcely more than two ships trading between Lisbon and Asia. From 1775 to 1805, the average ranged between ten and twenty, particularly after the French revolutionary wars of the 1790s restricted Dutch-Asian commerce.

Portuguese Atlantic trade routes c. 1760





Portugal began to rebuild its naval fleet between 1750 and 1800.This period marked, since the 16th century, the apogee of the revitalized navy.

Each eleven months were built three new warships

A new dry dock was constructed in Lisbon in order to repair the warships, a new Arsenal was founded in Baia, (Brazil) and the Arsenal of Goa (India) was reconstructed.

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, wrote about the Portuguese warships which were lying in the Tejo River in Set 1807: "These ships, in general, were said to be in good repair; and as to construction, equal, if not superior to the British".


European ships of the line - 1795: (in the beginning of the European conflict)

Britain 115
France 80
Spain 60
Holland 50 *
Portugal 23 **
Russia 22
Denmark 12
Sweden 11

* The Dutch, although with a well- trained crew, were often handicapped by the smaller size of their ships relative the vessels of other nations, particularly England. This was due to the shallow home waters of the Netherlands.

** The Portuguese fleet had an optimal ratio between ships of line / frigates or corvettes : 1 / 3
(Better ratio = better ranking).
In other Navies: the habitual ratio was 1 / 1, 5

Portugal, size of fleet in 1800: 66 ships of war, 800 officers, 20,000 men.
Portugal, Spain and Denmark largely stopped building first –class and second - class ships of line during this time, under duress from the British, with the end of the sailing battleship's heyday in the 1830s. Eventually around half of Britain's ships of the line were 74s (third class) By the end of the 18th century, the rating system had mostly fallen out of common use, ships of the line usually being characterized directly by their number of guns, the numbers even being used as the name of the type, as in "a squadron of three 74s".

Excerpts:
Pereira, J., Campanhas Navais 1793-1807 Volume I - A Marinha Portuguesa na Época de Napoleão.
Nautical Chronical., Vol. 18 (1807), pp 229-330, The Maritime History Virtual Archives
Boxer, Charles R., O Império Marítimo Português 1415-1825
Pemsel H., A History of War at Sea: An Atlas and Chronology of Conflict at Sea from Earliest Times to the present

[Ludicus]

Ships and Fleets



The Portuguese Navy, Atlantic /Mediterranean Theatre of Operations, XVIII century




Feb 1797: The Portuguese frigate Tritão saves from the destruction Nelson´s ship HMS Captain in the Battle Cape of St.Vincent. Quote: “ A Tritão, após sofrer duas bordadas sucessivas que lhe partiram a verga do mastaréu do joanete da proa…...procurou a proa da Captain e consegue dar-lhe reboque, e safá-la da rascada, não obstante o muito fogo dos combatentes por entre os quais passou com uma decisão e audácia de espantar ”. The battle of St. Vincent made both Jervis and Nelson's names.Jervis was made Earl of St Vincent and Nelson was knighted for his initiative.





Marquês de Nisa´s fleet ; Malta blockade (1798-1800 )
Lord Nelson´s letter to Marquês de Niza: “ Palermo, 24 de Novembro de 1799: ……este momento deu-me esperanças que esperará a minha resposta antes de deixar Malta, o que aliviou a minha ansiosa mente da mais profunda aflição em que a sua carta do dia 19 me tinha mergulhado. Logo que eu obtenha navios poderei aliviá-lo: mas, pela sua salvação não retire neste momento crítico, um único homem da Ilha. Não permita, meu caro Marquês, que nenhum homem interfira no seu excelente julgamento em fazer o que é bom para os nossos respectivos Reis; no entanto uma vez mais, dez vezes mais, dirijo-me a vós, suplico-vos, que não abandoneis Malta. Ficai até que os Russos ou as tropas Inglesas cheguem……seu sempre fiel amigo, Nelson.”
Another letter. Dezember, 18: ”……Vós haveis permanecido em Malta o que só muito vos honrou e não há nada que queirais, que eu não faça para testemunhar a minha aprovação. As suas ordens, as quais não poderiam ser desobedecidas por muito tempo, forçam-me, com desgosto, a separar-me de vós….seu muito agradecido…. Nelson”
By 1799, they were good friends.Nelson´s letter to “Ministério da Marinha” “…quando falo do meu irmão e amigo Niza…..”

Combined Channel Fleet, 20th May1799
Order of Battle Dan Sailing: 2 points order of Sail:
- Starboard: six ships (Culladen, Sealous, Alexander, Vanguard, Swiftsure, Afonso de Albuquerque) Rear Admiral Lord Nelson
- Larboard: six ships (Principe Real, São Sebastião, Goliath, Lion, Audacious, Minotaur) Rear Admiral Marquês de Minas






Portuguese Fleet, Napoles blockade ; Príncipe da Beira, 74 –gun ship; crew of 670






80 -gun ship Vasco da Gama,crew of 700, Admiral ship of the Portuguese Channel Fleet, 1794.




90-gun Admiral ship Príncipe Real, crew of 904.Constructed in 1771



Nossa Senhora da Conceição , Ship of 80 pieces, crew of 700, Admiral ship of the Portuguese Fleet in the campaign of Corfu (1716) and in the Naval Battle of the Cape Matapan (1717) There the Senhora single-handedly wrecked the flag-ship of the Turkish fleet und decided the battle



Rainha de Portugal, 74-gun ship, crew of 633;Marquês de Niza first Admiral ship.




64-gun ship S. Sebastião,“ A Serpente", crew of 465 .It was the first ship of the line constructed in Brazil,1767, Rio de Janeiro.

Portuguese Fleets

1- Rousillon Campaign, 1793 : one 74´s,three 64´s, one Frigate, five Charruas, and 9 lesser ships transporting 5.500 men (six regiments), 22 cannons (one artillery brigade)

2- Channel Fleet 1793 - one 90´ , four 74´s, two Frigates, 2 Bergantins; 1794 - one 80´s, three 74´s, one 64´s ,2 Bergantins.
4- Baia (Brazil) Fleet: 1796[/B] : one 90´s, three 74,s one 64´s,six Frigates ( average:. 44´s) ; two Bergantins (22´s)
5- Ocean Fleet : 1798-1800: one 94´s, one 74´s, two 64´s, one Frigate, one Bergantim

6- Indian Fleet : 2 ships of line. (74´s??)
7- Carreira da Índia :3 ships of line (74´s?)

The period 1775-1805 was also the last era of prosperity in the Portuguese eastern trade. Between 1600 and 1775, there had been an annual average of scarcely more than two ships trading between Lisbon and Asia. From 1775 to 1805, the average ranged between ten and twenty, particularly after the French revolutionary wars of the 1790s restricted Dutch-Asian commerce.
8- "Private" escort fleets working for the Portuguese Crown, namely in Brazil and India:

9- Azores Fleet, undetermined number of ships designed for merchant convoy protection.
10- Coast – Guard Fleet ; smaller ships designed to fight pirates/corsairs.

11- Companhia do Comércio do Brasil , around 26 convoy escort warships.
(highlight : Convoy with 122 (!) merchant ships / 15 escort ships arrived at Lisbon on Set 1798 )
Between 1649 and 1740, this fleet was a major blow to the Dutch East Company.After the fourth war between the United Provinces and Britain (1780-1784) the VOC got into financial trouble, and in 1800 company was dissolved.

[Ludicus]

Portugal and the Peninsular War 1807-14

After victories at Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau, Friedland, and the conclusion of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) with Russia, Napoleon was supreme on the Continent. All markets were to be closed to that “nation of shopkeepers”. He hoped to destroy his longstanding enemy commercially, with his economic blockade the “Continental System”. Portugal defied the Decrees.Threats have failed, Napoleon decided on invasion to close this leak in his “Continental system”.
An “Army of Observation” under Junot prepared for “an armed parade, not a war”. The Spanish were supportive (French allies since 1795).

Junot duly arrived in Lisbon in 1807- in time to catch the distant prospect of the king, court and Portuguese fleet (much needed after Trafalgar) sailing for Brazil.The escape on November, 29 of the Portuguese Queen Maria I and Prince Regent John together with the Administration and the Court (around 10,000 people and 9,000 sailors aboard 23 portuguese war ships and 31 merchant ships), enabled João VI to continue to rule over his overseas possessions, including Brazil. This was a major setback for Napoleon, who wrote: C'est ça qui m'a perdu ( This was what defeated me.)
Having reached Brazil, the Prince Regent gave instructions that Brazilian ports should allow the ships of all friendly (Britain) nations to enter, and embargoes on imported goods were lifted.
The Peninsular War had important repercussions for the rest of Europe, increasing the willingness of European countries to stand up to Napoleon´s blandishments. As French troops were withdrawn from other European theatres in order to serve in Peninsula, the war parties in Berlin, Vienna, and Moscow, smarting under the humiliating terms Napoleon had pressed upon them at Tilsit, were correspondingly emboldened.

Junot´s army had moved rapidly ; it could do so because it was unhindered by any baggage train, living instead off the country. However, in Portugal the French encountered for the first time a fully effective scorched earth policy. A French officer wrote: ´We found not a single peasant in his hut. Many men met their deaths through sheer misery-or at the hands of the peasantry. ´We received rations when we reached Lisbon´. Of 25,000 men that crossed the border only, 2,000 reached Lisbon.

However, whereas British actions were those of an expeditionary army,the Portuguese contribution its war of national liberation was multi-layered, in ways which cannot mapped and which therefore require other reference.( note: in the first months of 1808 the Portuguese army was small and ill prepared for battle)

Wellington’s Army in the Peninsular War was really an integrated Anglo‑Portuguese force, and the Portuguese element was more important than in sometimes realised – between one-third and one-half of the hole at any one time; though crowned with laurels of glory, has largely escaped the attention of historians as a primary subject of study.

Portuguese recruitment system:

1 -Through popular involvement :
- scorched earth (see above); guerrilla attacks on flanks and lines of communication; constant flow of intelligence to Allied armies. Some highlights(1807):
- Coimbra students and some peasants seized the Fort at Mondego Bay thereby enabling the British under Wellington to land unopposed; the Bishop of Porto raised 5,000 horses and mules for Wellington´s army;- (1809) Wellington moved north rapidly to attack Soult in Porto. Local people had concealed four barges in the reeds; with these, Wellington´s vanguard crossed the Douro. Outflanked, the French withdrew behind the city walls, whereupon the populace flocked to the riverside to bring the main British and Portuguese forces across in every sort of small boat.

Massena was forced to lift his siege of Lisbon by scorched earth starvation.

2-Through the militia: every peasant, having destroyed his farm, was required to serve in militia. This fulfilled many of the reserve and protective functions for which the French had to use regular troops, thereby releasing trained soldiers for the front line (1810)
Thirty thousand men, mostly Portuguese militia, manned the Lines of Torres Vedras, with redoubts of artillery with Portuguese artillerymen, commanded by major-general José Rosa, and specialized to fire into preset zones, where the enemy attack was expected; Both lines had more than 80 km. The first line had 534 artillery pieces.The four lines had forts strategically placed in the top of hills, controlling the roads to Lisbon and using the natural obstacles of the land; The work began in the Autumn of 1809 and the first line was finished one year later.





Wellington was able to hold his combined British-Portuguese force of almost 60,000 regulars behind the Lines, ready to move to the point of any breakthrough.




Years later, speaking of his success at Torres Vedras, Wellington told Lord Salisbury:Once a conqueror like Napoleon is stopped, it is all over with him: he is like a snow-ball,he melts away
For all the pretentiousness of that remark- it was the snows of Russia in 1812 which destroyed Napoleon´s power, not the Lines of Torres Vedras in 1810 – that was arguably the turning point of the war.

3-Through trained soldiers:

Portugal field an regular army of 42,619 in the end of 1808.

1809 – 47,958
1810 – 51,841
1811 – 54,558
1812 – 56,808
1813 – 51,431

Britain: At no time in the Napoleonic War did Britain - relying on volunteers - field an army of more than 40,000 soldiers (plus 130,000 sailors commanding the seas).

French -relying on the levée en masse – committed 365,000 to the Peninsula alone (1811)


In 1809 Wellington commanded 20,000 British, 30,000 Portuguese and (and 40,000 Portuguese militia).
In 1812 Wellington commanded 90,000, more than half Portuguese.

The allied army with which he crossed into France in 1813 numbered 36,000 British, 28,000 Portuguese and 4,000 Spanish ( figures at the battle of Nivelle ) with many thousands more Portuguese securing the army ´s lines of supply and communication.

The French invasions had serious repercussions. It has been estimated that over 100,000 Portuguese - even more civilian than soldiers – lost their lives in the struggle.



Wellington´s contempt was to spawn a near-consensus among British Victorian historians that the Spanish had been almost incidental in the liberation of their own country. He wrote (Madrid, August 1812), to the Secretary of War 3rd Earl Bathurst:
“I do not expect much….of the Spaniards….they are, in general, the most incapable…the most vain…and at the same time, the most ignorant, particularly of military affairs”.

The modern view is quite different. The Spanish captured twice the number of French eagles as the British, they killed many more French troops and, despite several defeats of their regular army in the field of battle, they never surrendered. It was the first guerrilla war in modern history. It was a long, vicious but heroic movement of national resistence.
Wellington treated his subordinates harshly during the Peninsular war, ruthlessness being an integral part of his character. After the retreat from Burgos in 1812, which had been forced upon him after he failed to capture the city, Wellington wrote a 1,200-word memorandum condemning his officers – largely unfair – for the reverse.
“They really are heroes when I am on spot to direct them” he said of his Peninsular army, “but when I am obliged to quit them they are children”.

Of the Portuguese army, after their disciplined effectiveness in the victory at Buçaco (1810) Wellington, judging them “worth of contending in the same ranks as British troops” fully integrated the Portuguese and British armies-one, sometimes two, Portuguese brigades in each division-in a genuinely allied army (a degree of co-ordination not remotely paralleled elsewhere in Europe in the armies of the five successive, quarrelsome, coalitions)

Of the Portuguese, Wellington wrote in July 1813 ´”No troops could behave better; nothing could equal their forwardness now, and their ready willing temper”.
Beresford wrote ( after the battle of Fuente de Canos, November 1811 ) , “Raríssimas vezes acontece haver na Guerra uma conduta mais brilhante ( it rarely happens in a war such a brilliant behaviour).
Before Waterloo, Wellington urgently sent for 14,000 of his “trusty Portuguese” but the speed of Napoleon ´s advance overtook response.

Excerpts:
1.Chartrand, R; Younghusband, B. ; The Portuguese Army of the Napoleonic War
2. Saraiva, J., History of Portugal
3.Oman, Charles; 4.Napoleon; Mémorial de Saint -Hélène
5.Pires, Nunes; Um estudo sobre o exército anglo-Português Revista Militar,October,15,2006.
6.Roberts, A; Napoleon and Wellington

[numerosdecimus]

Wellington’s Army in the Peninsular War was really an integrated Anglo‑Portuguese force, and the Portuguese element was more important than in sometimes realised – between one-third and one-half of the hole at any one time; though crowned with laurels of glory, has largely escaped the attention of historians as a primary subject of study.

Indeed, unfortunately the credit given to portuguese troops is very little when compared with what really happened, more unfortunate even is that this reflects a generalized tendency concerning how Portuguese history in general seen through out the world. Ignorance leads to the lack of deserved credit and respect.

Nice job Ludicus, there were even some things there I wasn't aware of, you indeed know your sources well.

And lets not forget the several battalions of light portuguese infantry, the "Caçadores", they were some of the very best light infantry regiments in Europe and the world at that time, many of those regiments were implemented in Wellington's armies, not only light infantry, but our artillery regiment were quite distinguished