Refuting Arthur Kemp
March of the Titans, Chapter 22, Part II (b)
Lessons in Decline� - Spain and Portugal
Portugal
Arthur Kemp writes
A Nordic Portuguese king, killed by the Nonwhite Moor invaders. King Sebastian bravely led his countrymen against the invading Moors, but was killed in battle with them in 1578.
Left: an image of the Portuguese king D. Sebasti�o (used by Arthur Kemp in "March of the Titans")
Left, Above: two paintings of King D. Sebasti�o. Not a typical Nordic by any means. Most likely, the king was an Alpine/Mediterranean like some of his own countrymen. He was 24 when he died.
The truth
More important than his racial stock were the actual facts surrounding his death. Contrary to what Arthur Kemp says, there were no invading Moors. In fact, since 1415 the Portuguese were on the offensive having already captured several North African cities. King D. Sebasti�o decided to continue with the North African military campaigns against the Moors, abandoned or at least neglected since the discovery of the sea routes to India. Portugal was a small country, and all its resources were being devoted to secure a strong position in Asia�to keep the spice trade monopoly, and since 1530 on the colonisation of Brazil itself.
In fact, when D. Sebasti�o decided to advance with his reckless military campaign, the country was almost broke and there were no spare troops. This forced him to ask for loans (that indebted the country even further)� and to recruit large amounts of peasants to serve under his command. The people with enough money could afford to buy off the conscripters, some wives even sacrificed their honour in hopes of saving their husbands' lives. Despite all the suffering, this unwilling army was finally raised and it was completed with experienced German and Italian mercenaries.
The campaign wasn't planned. The Portuguese weren't used to fight on open ground (they were excellent in assaulting cities thanks to their experience from the wars in India), and everything that could went wrong just did. The stupidity of the king included getting into the inland (explicitly against the advice of the duke of Alba) where much larger Moroccan armies eventually surrounded the Europeans. The Moroccans assembled about 70.000 men (41.000 horsemen) while the Portuguese army was reduced to some 12.000 (2.000 horsemen). The epitomy of the king's arrogance and insanity was immortalised by Manoel de Oliveira's film "Non ou a v� gl�ria de mandar": the king kneeled and prayed for several minutes on the battlefield while his troops were under the North African artillery fire. Only after the king was done with his prayers, did he give the much waited order to attack.

Despite the extreme bravery of the Portuguese, the battle was lost with about 8.000 casualties for each side. The Portuguese king was amongst the casualties as well as most of the Portuguese nobility. Not only was the country broke, but now it needed to scrape whatever money it could assemble to pay the ransom necessary to rescue the survivors (a total of about 11.000, including some 7.000 women and children that travelled with the army). Just 2 years later after this disaster, Portugal lost its independence to Spain. All thanks to Arthur Kemp's "Nordic" king.

Actually, if Arthur Kemp knew anything about Portuguese History, D. Sebasti�o would be the last king to be chosen as a good example of a "Nordic": not only was he the worst king in Portuguese History, he was also a homosexual psychopath that found it necessary to start a war to prove his unexistent virility. The sickly Moroccan king Mulei Abd Almeliq was actually willing to sign a peace treaty - prior to any confrontation - that was extremely rewarding to Portugal. The Portuguese king refused all peace proposals. It should be mentioned that the king had no heirs nor was he married. Then again, most homosexuals weren't.
Arthur Kemp writes
In 1580, Spain annexed Portugal after the Portuguese king died heirless, and only regained its independence in 1680 once Spain itself had also gone into decline for precisely the same reasons - although the admixture of Black slaves into Spain was never as far reaching as it was in Portugal.
The truth
Actually Portugal regained its independance because it rebelled against Spain at the same time as Catalunya (and the Portuguese rebellion started in the 1st of December of 1640 - Arthur Kemp is once again wrong about dates). While the Spanish armies destroyed the rebellions in Spain itself, the Portuguese managed to build a new army from scratch. Anyway, according to mr. Kemp's racial agenda, Portugal was more mixed then Spain, so we would never be able to defend ourselves from a "whitier" country. Those are the contradictions of Kempian revisionism.
Arthur Kemp writes
After 1600, Portuguese domination of trade with the East Indies was lost to the Dutch and the English.
The truth
This is actually true. During the second half of the XVI century, the "unmixed" English and Dutch pirates attacked "mixed" Portuguese merchant ships. Since the Portuguese navy was continuously engaged in keeping the Turk at bay, the arrival of two extra competitors proved too much for a country as small as Portugal.
Arthur Kemp writes
In 1807, when Napoleon Bonaparte of France threatened Portugal, the royal family transferred the government to Brazil, returning only in 1820 after Napoleon's final defeat.
Thereafter Portugal went into a long period of social, political and economic chaos, with a king being assassinated in 1908 and a republic being declared. Portugal became embroiled in the First World War on the side of the Allies, rumbling through intermittent periods of disturbance until the republic was overthrown in a military coup in 1926.
Again maintaining its neutrality during the Second World War, the military dictatorship established in 1926 lasted until 1974, when another coup saw a left wing socialist government installed, which duly arranged democratic elections in Portugal.
The truth
In 1755 Portugal endured the worst earthquake in its history. Lisbon was completely destroyed and tens of thousands of people were killed. When the country was finally getting back on its feet, Napoleon decided to invade Portugal since the Lusitanian kingdom was the last ally Great Britain had left (and the only country willing to break the Continental blockade). The Portuguese were invaded three times between 1807 and 1811. With English support, the Anglo-Portuguese armies (payed with English money) defeated Napoleon - first in Portugal, then in Spain and in 1814 in France itself. Overall the Anglo-Portuguese army (that comprised mostly Portuguese conscripts) defeated about 100.000 men in Portugal and another 200.000 in Spain and France. A great contribution to the war effort, and a contribution recognised by the duke of Wellington himself and by the british general Beresford on countless occasions.
After the French Invasions that ruined the country, the British started turning Portugal into an English colony (and that continued up to 1926). From 1828 to 1834, Portugal suffered a terrible civil war - a late consequence of the French Invasions -, that destroyed whatever had been spared by the French invaders.
In 1908, the king D. Carlos I and his heir D. Luis Filipe were murdered, and the surviving son became the last Portuguese king: D. Manuel II. In 1910, a republican revolution forced the king into exile. In 1916 Portugal became involved in WWI to prevent the English (allies of Portugal since 1385) from taking the Portuguese colonies in Africa. The experience of 1890 was still fresh in the memories of the Portuguese people.
Arthur Kemp said
It would be untrue to say that all Portuguese are of mixed descent. A large number are not, as is evidenced by these three portraits of the King of Portugal in 1908, Dom Carlos, (center) and his two sons - all fine Nordic racial types. However, it is equally true to say that a large number of present day inhabitants of Portugal are indeed of mixed racial descent - either part Black - from the huge Black African slave trade into that country - or part Moorish, dating from the nearly 700 year of Moorish occupation.
The truth
Queen D Maria II married the German Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her son, D. Luis I married D. Maria Pia of Savoy and these two monarchs fathered D. Carlos I. He was 25% German and 50% Italian, therefore he is not the best example of what a Portuguese should look like. D. Carlos married D. Amelie d'Orl�ans, therefore his two sons were 50% French, 25% Italian, and 12,5% German. Monarchs are not a good example of the racial profile of a country.
Even more ridiculous than this is the fact Arthur Kemp "forgot" that the Moors had been in Portugal when he mentioned the Golden Century of Portuguese History (1450-1550). Back then they were "Goths", but now they are mixed. Mr. Kemp should keep in mind that the Moors arrived in 711 and they were thrown out of Portugal in 1249. That makes 538 years. For accuracy's sake.
Arthur Kemp writes
COLONIAL WARS
Although Portugal declined quickly as a world force, she managed to hang on to scattered colonies in Asia and Africa.
However, most of the Portuguese colonies in Asia were lost, never to be regained, during the Second World War when the Japanese overran most of the region.
The only remaining Portuguese possessions in Asia, Goa and Macau, were handed over to India in 1961 and China in 1987 respectively. In 1976, Portuguese Timor was occupied by Indonesian forces.
The truth
The Portuguese colonies in Asia were the indian territories of Goa, Daman, and D�u, the Chinese territory of Macao and East-Timor. Only East-Timor and Macao were occupied by the Japanese and after the war the Portuguese regained the control of their colonies. Quoting Kemp himself, "In 1976, Portuguese Timor was occupied by Indonesian forces". East Timor only became independent in 1975. And last but not least, Macao was returned to China in 1999 (two years after Hong Kong). Arthur Kemp might have seen the cerimony on CNN. If he didn't, he should have. The negotiations between Portugal and China happened in 1987 - for someone who is such a "purist", Arthur Kemp keeps mixing things up.
Arthur Kemp writes
In Africa the primary colonies were Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Refusing to bow to the post World War two decolonization process, Portugal found itself embroiled in a vicious insurgency war with Black African nationalists in both Angola and Mozambique, despite a massive degree of mixing with the local population taking pace, as was the Portuguese colonial norm.
In addition to the actual physical integration, as early as 1961, Portugal extended Portuguese citizenship to Africans in all these territories, giving them the right to enter and reside in Portugal - an offer which hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million, took up. The parallel with the granting of citizenship to all free persons in the Roman Empire in 212 AD, cannot be missed.
Finally the Portuguese withdrew from all their colonies, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, the Cape Verde Islands, Sao Tome and Principe, and Angola, without warning directly after the 1974 coup. The immediate effect for Portugal was an another huge influx of several hundred thousand colonial ex-pats, a vast number of whom brought their Black wives and mixed race children with them away from the chaos of the colonies.
The truth
There was actually some mixing going on in Africa between Portuguese settlers and black Africans, unlike what happenned in Portugal itself. However, most of the white Portuguese settlers married white Portuguese women simply because they were there. Unlike what had happened in the earlier stages of the African colonisation, since the late XIX century that Portugal was sending full families (husband, wife and children) to settle in Africa. Despite that, some fortune hunters that travelled alone eventually settled with African wives.
In 1961 the war broke out in Angola with the massacre of 6000 white settlers and their black servants by the UPA terrorists. After that event, the rebellion extended to Mozambique and to Guinea-Bissau as well. The Portuguese army fought with extreme bravery, especially considering that the rebels received equipment and money from the USA and from the USSR. In 1974 a military coup in Lisbon ended the Colonial War in Africa.
There was no extension of Portuguese citizenship to the black Africans. In fact, there was discrimination against the white Portuguese that were born in Africa: they were frequently seen as second rate Portuguese by the Portuguese state, which is quite surprising in a colonial empire fighting to keep itself in one piece. Therefore, there was obviously no migration of 1 million black Africans to Portugal. In 2002, the black African population in Portugal (including those that were born in Portugal after 1974) was estimated in ~100.000, which is ~1% of the total Portuguese population. In fact, many of the black Africans that fought on Portugal's side and that were loyal to the Empire weren't even granted citizenship by the leftwing pro-communist government. In Guinea-Bissau, hundreds, if not thousands of loyal Africans were massacred by the so-called "freedom-fighters" immediately after independence, in what remains as one of the darkest chapters of Portuguese History.
From 1974 to 1976 some 600.000-800.000 Portuguese from the colonies returned to Portugal, and some brought black wives. Most didn't.
Arthur Kemp writes
THE LESSON OF PORTUGAL
Portugal's dramatic and extremely quick decline from the most powerful and richest country in Western Europe to the most backward and poor country in that region, contains an extremely significant lesson. It only required an influx and absorption of just over ten per cent of Nonwhite blood into mainstream Portuguese society to cause a significant shift in population make-up of that country. This shift in make-up immediately affected Portugal's position and status in the world, with its decline being clearly linked to the absorption process.
The truth
Corruption, royal monopoly of the trade in India (there wasn't a rich merchant class; whenever a ship was sunk, the crown took the losses), competition (particularly the English, French and Dutch pirates), continuous fighting against much larger armies, and a population shortage were the main responsables for the Portuguese downfall. It had nothing to do with race mixing. In fact, if the Empire lasted for so long in Asia it was in great part thanks to the mixed communities. Goa, for instance, represented an extension of Portugal itself. The mixed Goese elite, culturally Portuguese, was the best investment in assuring the stability of the Portuguese Indian territories.
Arthur Kemp writes
The first extract, below, is from the 1911, 11th edition, of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and deals very bluntly with the fact of the importation - and absorption - of Black slaves into Portugal. It describes the Portuguese population as being "composed of many racial elements"
The second extract, below, is from the 1998, 15th edition, of the Encyclopedia Britannica - in the new version, the Black racial influence has been completely written out, and the article goes on to state that the Portuguese population is one of the "most homogeneous in Europe" - a blatant falsehood.
The truth
In the end of the XIX and in the beginning of the XX centuries, Great Britain had every interest in showing the Portuguese before their own population as a decadent mixed people, unworthy of owning colonies in Africa. In 1998, there were no colonies nor was any need for biased descriptions of the Portuguese people. Mr. Kemp might not know this, but usually the more recent an edition is, the more accurate it gets.
Chapter 22, Part II (a)

Refuting Kemp
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