Nation Examination: Portugal

 This week we are starting a trip around Europe from the comfort of our own home! We will learn - eat and craft to create experiences that will help us learn about the amazing diversity of our world!

First up is Portugal - that little bitty county on the tip of the Iberian Peninsula!


The circle is showing the Iberian Peninsula and the arrow shows the country we are focused on: Portugal.

Although Portugal is a country and Spain is a country - they share a lot of history because of their location - on a peninsula, separated from the rest of Europe by the imposing Pyrenees Mountains.

Check this out for some cool views of the Pyrenees mountains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCX1A2lkq-o



The pre-history of Portugal begins with the Homo heidelbergensis:

And it continues with the neanderthals: 
And then the homo sapiens arrived!

They carved petroglyphs
 and built stone circles: 

For thousands of years, they lived as tribes of people; some even developing a language. 

Then the Romans arrived around 200BC and they kept coming and conquering for the next 200 years!

But the Romans brought some great things to the present-day Portugal: Bridges! Aqueducts! Temples! and more - these Romans may have been the conquerors but they brought their ideas with them.


Next up were the Visigoths....uh...who? 

The Visigoth were a Germanic tribe that were part of the Goths. The Goths had 2 branches - the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. These two tribes of Germanic "barbarians" had originated from Scandinavia (Sweden/Norway/Denmark) and pushed their way around Europe eventually conquering a large amount of what was the Roman Empire. They were characterized by their round shields and short swords.



And then the Moors came....

The Moors were the Islamic people that arrived from North Africa to expel the Visigoths and take over Portugal and Spain. They ruled for many years leaving behind many elements of architecture that still exist today! 

They introduced the horseshoe arch:



They built castles with two sets of walls high on the hilltops:

This is the Castle of the Moors near Lisbon.

But the Moors were then kicked out by the Reconquista!  This was a series of campaigns by Christians to retake the Iberian Peninsula. This eventually lead to the creation of Portugal the country. By the 1400s, Portugal had not only established themselves as a country - but they started to be imperialistic and take over the world! Check out their worldly conquests (red are their "discoveries" and green are their conquests: 
But highs and lows occur and kings die without heirs. Then Spain "united" with Portugal about 1580 but fought for their independence ending about 1668. 

Life was full of war and peace until in 1808 Brazil became the capital of Portugal! Things stayed that way until 1926 when a coup resulted in a military dictatorship - oh my! It was Salazar (Slytherin?) who took over - this guy:

The themes for the Salazar years were "isolation" and "nationalism". This kept Portugal out of World War I and World War II. But in 1975, his reign ended with the Carnation Revolution and democratic elections were held.  

Today, Portugal has a legislative branch, an executive branch, and a judicial branch with a President as essentially a figurehead with some responsibilities. The person with the real power is the Prime Minister who presides over the Parliament. Citizens elect a President and they elect a party (not a person) for Parliament.  Each party has a list of people that are placed in government according to their order on the list. The President typically appoints the Prime Minister from the majority party.

Culture: 
The culture of Portugal surrounds the sea.

The music of Portugal is Fado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFjeMZomano

Art
The art of Portugal reflects the history of Portugal and their influences. During the Renaissance, religious painting, portraits and marble statues increased in popularity.

The famous Panels of St Vincent by Nuno Gonçalves is perhaps Portugal's most famous painting.

Portugal is also home to the azulejo which are ceramic tiles. These were brought to Portugal by the Moors and they added their own spin to these Arabic creations.

Celebrations!
The Portuguese celebrate Carnival which is celebrated forty days before Easter. It means to "remove meat" because Catholics typically abstain from meat during Lent. Carnival celebrated the day before Lent would begin and people would put on costumes and hold a large feast to eat up all the meat before Lent. Carnival is very popular in Brazil but it is interesting to note that it was Portugal who exported it to Brazil! And the dance they are doing is the Samba - check it out here.

Video of the celebrations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zfYTGxuqHw

On Fat Tuesday they eat malassada which is fried dough - yum! https://leitesculinaria.com/7777/recipes-portuguese-malassadas-azorean-doughnuts.html

Activities!

Doing activities helps us cement a few things about Portugal in our minds. This time we are doing a craft to create the ships that the explorers and merchants would have sailed on and we are building a bridge out of popsicle sticks for some STEM! Check out our projects:

Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haCB4Eij2RQ

legend of the rooster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHBxguG3nXY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mq6L8CnNJXc&feature=youtu.be

Lapbook: