ABSTRACT
Portugal and Spain are two countries that share the same peninsular space in the west corner of Europe. Though different in size and population (Spain occupies two thirds of the territory of the peninsula and it has at the present moment 45 million inhabitants, as contrasted with 10 million inhabitants of Portugal), the political, social and economic histories of both nations offer more similarities than differences. A complicated and convulsed transition from the Ancien Régime to modernity and a slow process of economic change prevented raising the standard of living of the population until de second part of the twentieth century. In 1913 the two countries were part of the group formed by the less-developed areas of Europe: the Spanish GDP was half of the average of the combined GDP of Britain, France and Germany, while the Portuguese GDP was a mere 30 per cent.
