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As part of my reread the Sharpe books in internal order project, I've reached Sharpe's Eagle again. What is interesting me is the huge difference between the mostly positive portrayal of the Portuguese as a fierce, brave, and mostly honorable people in this and previous books, vs. the negative portrayal of the Spanish. I think it's jumping out at me so much because of the speed with which one book is following the other for me just now. It's not my period. That is, I've got a solid general knowledge of the period, but I know a lot more about the Revolution, period military tactics in general (Things like Prussian vs. French style military philosophy with it's tactical and social implications), and the social and political side of the Napoleonic Wars than I do about individual battles or the specifics of the individual campaigns. I almost never know the specifics of military campaigns unless there's a good reason for me to know (I know quite a bit about the Battle of Hastings for obvious reasons, I grew up around Philly so I have some key Revolutionary War stuff in detail, and I've picked up a lot of random civil war stuff from teaching it so often, for example). I'm guessing a lot of the attitudes in the books come out of the research. I'm betting the dispatches, etc. did not show the Spanish military in a good light, while I can see the obvious period propaganda value of playing up Portuguese partisans back home. still, it fascinates me. Over here in the states, there isn't much distinction made between Spain and Portugal in grade school teaching and even most college history courses unless you are specifically studying something like Spanish history or Brazil. We colour the countries different colours on the maps of Europe as kids and make the usual comments about Portugal looking like a face on the head of Spain. We are, if we get geography at all, taught the languages are different, but similar. The focus is all on Spain, though, because of the way our history and Spain's intersect. We simply ignore Portugal, we learn to overlook it. Most of what I know of Portuguese history is from my study of brazil and from having some random Brazilian acquaintances over the years. (There are apparently a lot of in jokes about Portuguese government incompetence). I am far from uneducated, and yet I know hardly anything between the end of the reconquista to the flight of the royal family to Brazil. I know at some point they gained independence and divided up the world with Spain in a treaty, but nothing else. It's weird when I encounter unexpected holes in my knowledge like this, because I'm usually aware of where the random holes in my knowledge are. I'm going to have to look up Portuguese history now, aren't I. *facepalm*
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