This informative, concise, and engagingly written work provides the most up-to-date history of Portugal, current through 1999, and gives a full picture of the political, social, cultural, and economic influences that shaped the history of Portugal. Covering the period from Portugal's early conception as a nation through its long history, with emphasis on the dramatic period of the last several decades, this volume culminates with the demise of the Salazar dictatorship and the independence of its colonies. Complete with a timeline for easy reference to events, brief biographies of important...

The life of persecuted minorities, as well as that of the wealthy and the ordinary people of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, comes alive in this illuminating account. For three and a half centuries, the Inquisition permeated every aspect of daily life in early modern Spain. This history depicts in graphic terms the dangers faced by Jews and Muslims and their suffering at the hands of the Inquisitors, as well as the struggle for survival of the lower classes and the ostentatious display of wealth of the high nobility. Set against the political, religious, social, economic, and...

On the morning of July 18, 1936, the Western World awoke to a new and threatening development in European affairs. A cabal of generals in Spain had rebelled against the legitimate and democratically elected Republican government. While the conflict had its own unique Spanish causes, this was not just another military uprising. The Spanish Civil War served as the opening act of World War II. The Spanish insurgents received immediate military aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Soviet Russia supported The Republic, but the democratic countries of Europe and the United States opted for...