T Y B A K E R !
The symbols of the countries move passions and even polemics between people, especially in the Old Continent, where a long history makes it possible to have different sensitivities towards them. The flag and the coat of arms are very well known, but to these are added the national motto and day.
In relatively modern countries, such as the United States, they are better known: the motto is In God we trust , which appears on their dollar bills, and their national day is July 4, the day of their independence. Great Britain in that day of the year 1776.
In Europe and especially in Spain the question is different. While there are countries like France with very popular and internationally recognized slogans, such as Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité (Freedom, Equality, Fraternity), coined in the French Revolution; in others, such as Spain or the United Kingdom, the motto appears on the national coat of arms but is not widely known by the population or used by state institutions.
As an additional fact, it should be noted that national slogans, curiously, are often not in the official language of each country, but in Latin (Spanish case) or even in a foreign language (the motto of the United Kingdom is Dieu et mon droit , God and my right in French).
Plus Ultra
Focusing now on the Spanish case, we spoke recently of the controversy over the National Day or of Hispanidad . In the case of the motto, there is no such controversy due to its antiquity since it has practically not changed since the Habsburg era.
If one observes the shield of Spain (which, incidentally, has much to teach about our history) you can see that on the columns of Hercules, located on both sides, there is a crimson ribbon with the motto Plus Ultra (Plus in the left column and Ultra on the right). It means Beyond, which does not tell us anything if we do not know the interesting story it collects.
According to studies, the motto in its current conception dates from the time of King Charles I of Spain, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Charles V. His reign was characterized by expanding the horizons of the Spanish Empire in America, with the conquests of huge areas in the current Mexico and Peru after defeating the Aztec and Inca empires. (1/2)
However, before those events had been their maternal grandparents, the Catholic Monarchs, who promoted the famous trips of Christopher Columbus to what turned out to be a new continent and unexplored by the Europeans. Until that moment, the usual motto was Non Terrae Plus Ultra , that is, there is no earth beyond. The popular belief since Antiquity was that beyond the Columns of Hercules, that is, the Strait of Gibraltar, there was no more land and, in fact, it was believed at the time that the Earth was flat and that continuing navigation towards the West was a sure death as it would end up falling over the edge. Little by little this conception was abandoned in favor of the belief in the Earth as a spherical body, but the fear of navigating beyond the Strait (or Cape Finisterre, whose name also refers to that belief) continued to be unknown what could be and how many days of navigation could it take to get to land.
With the arrival of Columbus in America in 1492, it was shown that there was more land beyond the Strait, so the slogan Non Terrae Plus Ultra was obsolete and was replaced by Plus Ultra in the time of Charles V (as a curiosity, the motto Non Plus Ultra remains in the coat of arms of the autonomous city of Melilla). It seems that he was an advisor to the emperor, the humanist Luigi Marliano, who recommended in 1516 the then young Carlos use this Latin theme as an incentive to forget the old ancient warning that there was no land beyond and to encourage navigators and explorers Spaniards to continue in the companies started with Columbus. In addition, it can be considered that the motto is also a principle of Carlos's reign: there were no limits and you could always work on achieving something Beyond.
Since then, the motto Plus Ultra has been considered the one of Spain and assumed in the national shields. When the modern version of the shield was created in 1869, the traditional Columns of Hercules were included with the motto on them as it is currently available. The major modifications of the shield since then were those introduced by the Franco regime, which included the San Juan eagle (influence of the Catholic Monarchs) and another motto that would make the Plus Ultra: Una, Grande y Libre, competition in reference to the unity of Spain, its imperialist pretensions (especially in Africa) and its no influence from abroad. After the Transition to
Democracy, this Francoist motto was rejected and the shield modified in today's version, where the Plus Ultra is maintained as a national motto.
Other uses of the Plus Ultra
However, the national motto has also been used in other contexts. It is also the motto of the Colombian Navy and as such it appears on its shield. It has also given name to a Spanish ship operating until 1977, a radio program of the sixties (Operation Plus Ultra) and with it to a movie, and also to the lower categories of the Real Madrid Football Club (Sport Group Plus Ultra) until they changed to its current name: Real Madrid Castilla. And the most interesting, was the name of a seaplane that made for the first time a flight between Spain and America in 1926, between Palos de la Frontera and Buenos Aires (as a curious fact, the commander of the expedition was Ramón Franco, brother of the dictator ).
https:// translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmagacin.com%2Fel-origen-del-lema-plus-ultra%2F
http:// www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/03/29/big-tech-companies-offer-gilded-safe-space-for-obama-officials.html
lol norms
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