O NORTE
Tradionally, the North is the country of small land-owning farmers, as opposed to the South, where the social and economic system is characterised by a small elite of landowners and a large mass of seasonal labourers.The ownership of his land made the northener what he is today: a tireless toiler, always slaving away with bricks, ploughing his land, harvesting his crops and generally plodding all over the place. The general attitude is rather conservative, and is characterised by a spirit of liberty (or a certain obstinacy, which may well be the same thing). Portugal's independence started in this region in the 1140's, and was bitterly defended through the centuries against Moors, Spaniards and other intruders. Royalism left its traces. The third royal dynasty (the House of Bragança, 1640-1910) originated form Bragança, capital of northernmost province Trás-os-Montes. Some considerable time after the 1910 revolution, during which King Manuel II was ousted and the Republic was established, some lunatic proclaimed the Monarchy of the North after a failed coup d'etat, and it was no coincidence that his supporters were mainly found in the North. Equally, it was no coincidence that after the 1974 revolution communist party offices were frequently set ablaze, whereas in the South it was the landowners who suffered: they were kicked out, preferably covered in pitch and rotten eggs.
In the sixties, it didn't take the northern toiler long to find out there was a place where you could earn a better living for less toiling: abroad. This is why it was especially the north that took the brunt of a mass emigration to France and Germany. The dictatorial regime of Salazar never believed in industrialization (for industry you need industrial labour, and industrial workers are communists) and so did nothing to develop the country. The only solution: emigration. During the nineteen sixties almost a million Portuguese left their country in search of a better existence. Portugal's population at the time: about nine and a half million. Luckily, almost a million colonists returned from former Portuguese Africa in 1974 and 1975, which sort of filled the gap.
In the villages consequences were far reaching: those staying behind envied the emigrants when they left, and envied them even more upon their return. Poverty wasn't shared any more, suddenly João was much wealthier than José, and wasn't afraid to show it. Nowadays things have quieted down, but is wasn't unusual for communities to be divided into two opposing camps because one side couldn't get over the other side's sudden wealth. There are no points to be won, by the way, for correctly identifying nouveau riche dwellings: whenever you spot something with a lot of stairways, statues, little balconies and other assorted fancy frills among the traditional granite, you've hit upon an emigrant's homestead.
The North is the country of the small-time entrepreneur: not just small farmers, but also small industrialists, with tiny companies based in a garage or a barn. Industrialization started out in the North, and currently textile and footwear remain important economic activities. The North is a country of contrasts: the greater Oporto area, with its busy traffic, enormous shopping centres filled with shiny goods and all things to make us happy is one of Portugal's richest zones. The very North-East, the Trás-os-Montes region (literally: Behind the Mountains) is even to the average Portuguese a no go area full of poverty, backwardness and abandonment.
For the purpose of this page, the North was divided into two categories:
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Provinces general introduction | Provinces: North | Provinces: South
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