why did Spain fail at annexing Portugal?

>inb4 memesters blame the hapsburgs

Spain had some gr8 years under them.

Spain was led by a literal inbred retard who probably had no idea what Portugal even was.

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Portugal had a few allies

>>2680481
Real life isn't an EU 4 game. You couldn't just annex a country because you felt like it.

>>2680598

Portugal was under a dynastic union with Spain for 60 years. That worked with Aragon, which was itself administratively and linguistically different, so what made Portugal exceptional?

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>>2680610
Aragon didn't have trading posts across half of the world. The Dutch directly competed with the Portuguese despite still being under the same monarch de jure.

It was a mess, and its decline was inevitable.

>>2680610
The Portuguese didn't want to be under Spanish rule. Phillip the Second overstepped his bounds and the Portuguese reinstalled a king. Important to note that Portugal was an Empire in it's own right. And Portugal and Castile don't have as much in common as Castile and Aragon did. The first union was more of a fair compromise between two similarly powerful countries, made before colonial Empires really became a thing. Portugal and Spain wasn't so equal. So the Portuguese didn't put up with it.

the *nglo kept them divided

They did try quite a few times, but got mosty BTFO.
In pic related the biggest cause was the commander, a portuguese superman who used very good tactics.

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>>2680707
Oops forgot pic

Portugal started as a county that seceded in the early XII century from the kingdom of León (which eventually 'became' Castile) taking advantage of a weakened monarchy and the coming of a new dynasty in the medieval Iberian Christian idiosyncrasy (the French house of Burgundy). Military skill and a political alliance with the kingdom of England –which crystallised in military aid that would turn out to be crucial in battle– helped against the occasional Castilian attempt to bring Portugal back to the fold, an endeavour that was approached mainly through interdynastic marriages. Right after Castile got together with Navarre and Aragon by the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and the first Spanish Habsburgs, Portugal was again dragged into their intricate system of alliances-through-marriages and Philip II of Spain did not hesitate to take his chance to grab the Portuguese throne after the reigning Portuguese house of Avis became extinct in the late XVI century. Six decades later some Portuguese noblemen and clergymen colluded and decided to oust the Habsburg governor and install a local nobleman; Spain was by then engaged in the Thirty Years Wars as well as a crisis at home in Catalonia and couldn't avoid the secession of Portugal, that has remained independent ever since.

As for language and culture: Portuguese is intimately related to Galician, but the political split produced more than 800 years ago as well as the 'Castilianisation' of Galician have made those two languages diverge. Portuguese people are a proud folk and most of them would rather not be associated with Spain. Touristic guides in Lisboa will tell you how Portugal was the very first country to establish a global empire and to pioneer certain trade maritime routes. In fact, the degree of similarity between the bordering Portuguese and Spanish regions goes down as you go southward, peaking in Galicia/northermost Portugal and barely being noticeable in Algarve/Huelva.

>>2680531
the later half of the 17th century is not the only period in Spanish history

>>2680598
Sounds like you are the one thinking of real life as an EU4 game. You don't need a caucus belli in real live and very well could annex a country because you felt like it.

People never bring up the culture in these sort of threads, but Portugal was hyper-nationalistic for most of it's history, still sort of that way. I have to imagine that played a role.

Even today in Portugal, waiters and shop owners will be offended if you try and speak Spanish or any "outside" language (English excepted).

Good wine, shit food, nice people, would visit again

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Another battle from the 1383–1385 period

>>2680743
Europe at the time was a pretty complex web of royal houses. You couldn't just bump off a noble and take his land because you felt like it. At least without serious repercussions. I can't really think of a time a Kingdom just took over another Kingdom without using marriage or blood relations as a tool. I could be wrong.

>>2680786
Yeah, these battles that I posted all occurred when the portuguese king died with no heir, so there was no "official" king, recognized by the other kingdoms.

>>2680794
Yeah but Castile could only start that war because it had a legitimate claim to the Portuguese throne. They didn't come in just because they "felt like it."

>>2680751
>Shit food.
>Brotugal.
Also anyone would be offended than some random blob come to your country and talks to you in the language of your neighbor. And it comes from an Spaniard.

About the topic, we didn't blanda up because Portugal won the battles vs us than had to win. Also civil war between us and the portuguse was stupid having the moors still in the south.

>>2680647
I think you're half right. It's true that Portugal and Castille weren't as similar as Castille and Aragon, but Portugal and León were indeed pretty alike, for the original Kingdom of Portugal was part of the Kingdom of León during the Reconquista. In 1143 they became independent the first time. And then, in 1640, the second time.
But similarity is there, and as a Spaniard I am, I feel very close to Portuguese people. It's a shame the "Pérfida Albión" (as we used to call England) had to stick her nose in our Iberian bussinesses.