European History

[j.sabourn]

Out of all our so called allies today in Europe, only one sticks out as Britains oldest ally and that is Portugal. Germany France Italy Spain, all been at war with in different periods of time, except the last one where all were in one way or another at odds with the UK, and this included Vichy France. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Have been reading the history of our merchant navy and Portugal was our biggest foe at sea well before Spain, the Portugese adventurers had ventured further afield 100 years before the British (or English as it was then!), and British merchantmen always tried to capture Portugese ships to get hold of their Pilots (as navigators were known then) or their charts and logbooks, as the Portugese had drawn charts of West and East coast of Africa, India and China 100 years before even one chart had been drawn by one British seafarer

[j.sabourn]

Ahhhh Ivan they shook hands and that was when cricket was invented. The portugee didn't have a clue so we always won. Anyway with a name like Vasgo de Gama stands to reason one is going to be famous. Cheers JS

[John Pruden]

I think it was only a couple of years ago when the war ended between England and Holland I could be wrong the Dutch were the only fleet to come up the river Thames and attacked London? jp

[happy daze john in oz]

The Portugese were a sea faring nation just like Great Britain and sailed many oceans discovering a number of countries. Not so bad for a small nation as it is.