Is Galicia a part of Portugal or is it Portugal a part of Spain?

[Endovelicus]

Is Galicia a part of Portugal or is it Portugal a part of Spain?

Food for thoughts. Go ahead and be 'audaz'

[Agrippa]

The question is somehow complicated because of the different historical developments, though the common ground of both states is obvious to me, but me and most others would judge from distance, it might be different from those directly involved.
But of course this two nations should go together if possible, but I dont think this question can be answered that easily so I voted neither though I tend to say they should go together.

[Perun]

Galicia is part of Ukraine

[Endovelicus]

And Ukraine is part of Patagonia

[Perun]

Well believe me, I was actually suprised when I first learned that there is more than one Galicia in Europe. Apparently it has something to do with how Celts migrated from the Carpathian Mountains(where Ukrainian Galicia is located) to Spain(where the Galicia in question is located).

[Endovelicus]

I didn't know that: but the subtelty is quite interesting...

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Agrippa

The question is somehow complicated because of the different historical developments

There is a straight answer to it, though it is complex, yes.

But of course this two nations should go together if possible

They are actually two nation-states. I wouldn't call one a nation without the other.

but I dont think this question can be answered that easily so I voted neither though I tend to say they should go together.

Well, it can be answered and reasoned. It is an absolute concept... which much relativity around it.

I'll answer and I'll reason my answer. But first, I'd like to know Endovelicus' opinion on the matter since he brought it up.


P.S. By the way, there are two things to answer there. One is if Galicia is a part of Portugal, and the other if Portugal is a part of Spain. Both are complex per se.

[Freedom]

I was actually suprised when I first learned that there is more than one Galicia in Europe. Apparently it has something to do with how Celts migrated from the Carpathian Mountains(where Ukrainian Galicia is located) to Spain(where the Galicia in question is located).

Also Galatia in Asia Minor.

I voted: Galicia should be independent mainly because I disagree with today's bulky nation-states. Galicia can be recognised as a different community.

[Carnyx]

Well, if I'm not dumb Galicia is nowadays a part of Spain. I'm not Spanish nor Portuguese and I might be wrong, but I would tend to say that Galicia is somewhat Portuguese, of not to doubt.

Linguistically speaking, Galician is more connected to Portuguese than to Spanish language. Galicians can understand Portuguese and vice versa.
Culturally speaking, I believe Galicia is a bit different from Spain. There is these Celtic roots (even if the language is not celtic), more present than everywhere else in Spain. Galicia is even a member of the celtic nations (Lorient interceltic festival).
Ethnicaly speaking, I would say that Galicians are close both to Spanish and Portugueses, so it's not the better way to make an opinion.

Over all, I believe it's important to take into account the will of the galician people. Make a poll.

Honestly, isn't this secondary issue a bit late of several decades.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Freedom

I voted: Galicia should be independent mainly because I disagree with today's bulky nation-states. Galicia can be recognised as a different community.

LOL. We'll take your opinion into account.

By the way.. next time the Turks are harassing the shores of your island-state, should SPAIN be around to help or should we just sit and discuss how to partition our nation according to your opinion?

[Faísca]

Originally Posted by Freedom

I voted: Galicia should be independent mainly because I disagree with today's bulky nation-states. Galicia can be recognised as a different community.

The vast majority of Galicians who want independence are either extreme leftists or communists. Now imagine the awesome government we would have.

By the way, it is recognised as a different community, that's why it is an autonomous community.

[Freedom]

By the way.. next time the Turks are harassing the shores of your island-state, should SPAIN be around to help or should we just sit and discuss how to partition our nation according to your opinion?

The galicians, castillians, catalans, basques, etc.. will be around to help.

The vast majority of Galicians who want independence are either extreme leftists or communists. Now imagine the awesome government we would have.

Of course it has to be someone 'radical' to actually demand something.

[Theobald]

Originally Posted by Freedom

I voted: Galicia should be independent mainly because I disagree with today's bulky nation-states. Galicia can be recognised as a different community.

I've always found this idea of an "Europe of the 100 flags" very stupid and naive (especially when it aims to divide my Nation into 8 or 9 states ). It can only lead to a weaker Europe. Germany, Spain, France, Italy, ... : we need strong Nations, not tiny and ridiculous States such as Galicia, Brittany, Sicily, Liechtenstein, St-Marin ...
Iberian Peninsula has a cultural and ethnic homogeneity, so Portugal should probably be a part of Spain.

[Gil]

Portugal and Galicia are one and the same as much as Portugal and Spain are one and the same. Hence all the Iberian nations should be united under an Iberian Union yet remain autonomous nation states.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Freedom

The galicians, castillians, catalans, basques, etc.. will be around to help.

Under your scheme, we will be too busy fighting each other.

Of course it has to be someone 'radical' to actually demand something.

Radical as in freak.

The key question is to define Spain. Before any other consideration, it must be recalled that España is how the name Hispania came to be pronounced by her peoples in the Middle ages. As a state, it is what you now know officially as Spain. As a nation, that state-nation called Spain is much incomplete. The problem arises when people confuse "Spain" with "Castille". Castille is not but one part of Spain, one of the Spains.

One cannot make up a patron that serves for all nations. Nations are individual and unique entities, and what defines a nation does not forcibly define another nation.

The Romans identified one region as Callaecia, which extended from north of the river Dorum (Douro in Portuguese and Duero un Castillian) up to the northern coasts of modern Galicia. Its administrative capital was established in Braccara Augusta, modern Braga (northern Portugal).

Now, if I recall it correctly, the Callaecian tribes proper were spread through modern northern Portugal and modern southern Galicia, whereas the tribes in the north of modern Galicia were given a different identification.

Northern Portugal is distinctive from central and southern Portugal, whereas areas in Leon and Asturias are easily confused with Galicia.

Thus, in northern Portugal they are Galaicans (not Galicians), but they are Portuguese. Probably the people who live in the region of El Bierzo are Galaicans too, but they are Leonese. It is precisely the fact that northern Portuguese are Galaicans and Portuguese that identifies their distinctiveness.

One must take into account both the ethno-cultural facts as well as the historico-political facts. Without the second we become mere tribalists, just like Hutus and Tutsis.

Now, every old kingdom and territory in Hispania has a right to claim the name Hispania for itself, from Lisbon to Valencia, from Santiago to Barcelona, from Biarritz to Sevilla. Up and including the Balearic, Açores, Madeira, and Canary islands.

The trouble has been the historical fight for the hegemony in the Peninsula in old times, and the jacobine, foreign and centralist state imposed in more modern times.

Portugal, as a Spain, should reunite with the other Spains. But this should never be realized without first establishing a system based in the old Hispanic laws, traditions, and liberties. A mother nation which protects all of her sons with their particularities, not a stepmother which suffocates them and tries to turn them all into a homogeneized, indistinguishable mass.


The union failed in the past because it was dinastic interests what were being implemented, instead of Hispanic interests. The present is a reflection of a flawed past.

[Endovelicus]

Originally Posted by Manji

Portugal and Galicia are one and the same as much as Portugal and Spain are one and the same. Hence all the Iberian nations should be united under an Iberian Union yet remain autonomous nation states.

Manji is a nationalist that has no problem giving away his country's sovereignty to Spain.

But on the other extreme, I have seen lately that there are plenty of nationalists who seem to prefer cohabiting with Turks and Morrocans rather than thinking that a Unity in Europe is something too risky, too farfetched, too damaging to their prides.

No matter what they say, their actions just mean "Africans are OK, but Eastern Europeans taking jobs, no way".

Everybody keeps thinking that anti-liberalism can subsist within one country and actually be heard. No it cannot. And if this site should prove itself useful, than its worth should rely on the fact that a Unity in Europe is possible, as long as the people that proclaim traditional views and doctrines should get to know those views and doctrine instead of watching MTV.

The polls I have posted had actually a consequent meaning: to verify the coherence of some of the opinions stated in this site.

Here are some of the conclusions:

1.Do you believe in the formation of an European Army?

Majority voted no: If some force happens to menace Europe, are we going to call 911 and the Americans? Another Marshall Plan, is that the future you want for your children?

2. Is God the Church? I posed this question because the Church itself adopted OEcumenia, a gathering of all Christianity: in this site I see Catholics picking on Protestants and vice-versa. Ran out of arguments against Islam?

3.What is opinion about the E.U.? Majority answered unfavourably. I will assume most did so because of the pro-americanism, neo-liberalism it has come to represent. If you people cannot discover the traditions that are uniquely and exclusively European, then there is no future for Europe and we will continue just being a bunch of American Provinces, England is already known as the Fifty First State: go and dispute who gets the honour of being the Fifty Second and so on.

4. Finally, this poll Is Galicia a part of Portugal or is it Portugal a part of Spain? was an experiment to confirm what has already been professed: If the Europeans see their borders as something shrinking we will be stepping backwards. Again I revert to Manji: refusing to be a full citizen of Europe and, nevertheless, feeling very "Spaniard".

So, I guess I should be running another poll soon, something in the lines of :
Do you prefer to support EU or do you rather pay tax, toll, blood, soul,tears to the Ol' U.S of A.?