Portugal

The earthquake of 1755 almost completely decimated Lisbon which had a major impact on their economy

Lisbon has a wonderful airport. Makes any in the USA look punk.

R1 has it. That earthquake was the first major European earthquake to have such far-reaching impact. It destroyed a lot of Lisbon, it was reported all over the world, and it basically shut down the thriving Portuguese Empire for so long that by the time Portugal started to recover – well into the 19th century – it was left way behind the other empires of the time.

Portugal's empire building had been severely hamstrung by the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, but the 1755 earthquake sealed its fate as a failed empire.

Karma; they started the transatlantic slave trade.

Two points: Portugal is hardly 'tiny'. The low countries are much smaller and they too were imperial powers. Also, I disagree about the sound of Portuguese (though you don't distinguish between Brazilian and Continental). It has a significant degree of mutual intelligility with Spanish. I've studied the major Romance languages except Romanian, and it's always seemed to me that French is the truest outlier in its spoken form.

Do Portuguese speak English? How is it like to be an English-speaker living in Lisbon? Are they generally fluent in English like Scandinavians or not at all like French and Italians?

[quote]How is it like to be an English-speaker living in Lisbon?

Asking for a friend?

There are only two things you need to know about Portugal: the food is fucking awful and the men have big "caralhos".

Hardly a tiny empire.

Pay attention, Brexit Britain.

Portugal: home of very hairy men.

Catholicism

[quote]And why does their language sound so different from other Romance languages?

You think [bold]their[/bold] language is different?

I've been a couple of times, Portugal is beautiful, men are hot. Not crazy about the food but that's me, not into fish and they eat lots of it.

R13 Well it makes sense that Romanian sounds different because it's located in the East, far away from other Romance-speaking nations. But I'm still looking for an explanation as to why the Portuguese sounds the way it sounds.

They were invaded by Napoleon.

[quote] Portugal: home of very hairy men.

If you think they're hairy you've obviously never seen a shirtless Armenian. Those guys are serving some Planet of the Apes realness underneath their clothes.

I can’t speak to the rural areas, but in Lisbon and Porto it seemed almost everyone spoke English

I've heard GREAT things about Praia da Luz!

Almost e everyone speaks English in Portugal, even more so with the recent emigration. In the last few years it has become a much more international city. Not always a good thing. But you should visit here, Madonna is not in residence any more.

I love r19.