evidence: To have that discussion, Spain should return a territory it has held illegally for 211 years: the town of Olivença (Olivenza in Spanish). This border town was Portuguese from 1297 to 1801, when the Spanish army, along with French troops, invaded. The Treaty of Vienna of 1815 returned the town to Portugal, but Spanish forces never left. They outlawed the Portuguese language and prevented a bridge linking it to Portugal to be rebuilt. Despite Spain’s refusal to return the town of 290 square miles and 11,000 people, the two nations have been able to coexist peacefully since 1815, and Portugal has resisted political rhetoric that could have led to war.