Maria I of Portugal forced Portugal to cede Olivença and other border towns to Spain. (This cession is not recognized by the present Portuguese government, and the country officially considers those territories still to be Portuguese possessions.) On September 29, 1801 John VI signed the Treaty of Madrid (1801), ceding half of Guyana to France, which became French Guiana. The refusal of the Portuguese government to join the French-sponsored Continental Blockade against Britain culminated in the late 1807 Franco-Spanish invasion of Portugal led by General Junot. The ultimate Napoleonic plan for Portugal was to split it into three sections. The northern parts of Portugal,
Border Country (novel) Border Country (novel) Border Country is a novel by Raymond Williams. The book was re-published in December 2005 as one of the first group of titles in the "Library of Wales" series, having been out of print for several years. Written in English, the novel was first published in 1960. It is set in rural South Wales, close to the border with England, as demarcated by Offa's Dyke. An academic visits his sick father, who was a railway signalman. There are lengthy flashbacks to the 1920s and 1930s, including the 1926 United Kingdom General Strike and the Great Depression in