ABSTRACT
Except for the brief and distant period of union of Portugal with the Spanish Crown in 1581-1640, the peoples and rulers of the two countries of the Iberian peninsula have followed a long tradition of ignoring each other. After the loss of the greater part of their colonial empires, and during a large part of contemporary history, Spain and Portugal endured authoritarian regimes and remained cut off from the outside world. Even in their comparatively few commercial, cultural and media external relations, Spain was more in touch with other countries of continental Europe, and Portugal with Great Britain, than the two countries with each other.
