Portugal's history since 1974

2010

The notion of Portuguese exceptionalism resonated with the European political and economic elite for some two hundred years: there was a widespread belief that Portuguese society and government existed outside of European understandings of society, politics and authority relations. In the thirty-five years since the 25 April 1974 Carnation Revolution, the Portuguese political system has developed new mechanisms for debate, elections and policy adoption. Portugal is currently completely integrated into Europe as a member of the European Union, with a democratic government and a developing economy. Portugal's return to the overall pattern of European democratic institutions in the years following the 25 April 1974 revolution can be understood as a much needed corrective of both Portuguese authoritarianism and its associated notions of lusotropicalism: that is, democracy and Europe have replaced corporatism and the Portuguese overseas empire as two of the key defining elements of contemporary Portuguese identity. It was certainly a long historical struggle from monarchy to democracy: the contemporary Portuguese political system is currently dynamic, democratic, durable and European. Napoleon is said to have once quipped that 'Africa Begins at the Pyrenees' or 'Europe

Journal of Contemporary History, 2008

The Portuguese military coup of 25 April 1974 was the beginning of the 'third wave' of democratic transitions in Southern Europe. Unshackled by international pro-democratizing forces and occurring in the midst of the Cold War, the coup led to a severe crisis of the state that was aggravated by the simultaneous processes of transition to democracy and de-colonization of what was the last European colonial empire. This article analyses how Portugal's political élite and society struggled with two aspects of the authoritarian legacies of the 'Estado Novo' during the transition: the élite and the institutions associated with the dictatorship. The nature of the Portuguese transition and the consequent state crises created a 'window of opportunity' in which the 'reaction to the past' was much stronger in Portugal than in the other Southern European transitions. In fact, the transition's powerful dynamic in itself served to constitute a legacy for th...

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, 2020

Summary Portugal’s resistance to decolonization lasted from the mid-1950s until the fall of the regime in April 1974, and it helps to explain why Portugal fought thirteen years of war in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea. Contrary to other colonial powers, the Portuguese rulers were not willing to accept the winds of change nor to meet the demands for the self-determination of its overseas territories that had swept Africa and Asia from the early 1950s. Several factors can explain the inflexibility of Lisbon to accept them, ranging from the ideological nature of the New State; from the strategic context of the Cold War due to the importance of the Azores islands for the United States and NATO; or from Portugal’s alliance with Great Britain. When the war broke out in Angola, and the Indian Union seized the “Portuguese India” territories in 1961, prime-minister Salazar did not receive the political support he expected from Washington and London as traditional allies. In early 1962, Salazar decided to strengthen relations with South Africa and Rhodesia in an attempt to maintain white rule in its overseas territories amidst a drive for independence by African nationalists, so-called “white redoubt,” that was the terminology used by the Kennedy administration to refer to the set of African countries and territories dominated by white minority governments: Angola, Mozambique, Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Strengthened ties would aid his strategy to keep the war effort in Africa by taking advantage of the importance of Angola and Mozambique to the security of South Africa. In 1964, Salazar encouraged Ian Smith to unilaterally declare independence from Great Britain to link Angola and Mozambique to the Southern Africa Security Complex led by South Africa, despite widespread criticism of the apartheid in the United Nations (UN). Concurrently, Lisbon tried to seduce Hastings Banda and Kenneth Kaunda in expelling the liberation movements from Malawi and Zambia in exchange for granting transit facilities to ease the international pressure with regards to its colonial policy. Following several years of military collaboration, in October 1970, Portugal, South Africa, and Rhodesia established a military alliance codenamed “Exercise ALCORA,” which aimed to coordinate the global efforts against the insurgency in Southern Africa. Portugal used the ALCORA to obtain substantial aid in the form of military equipment and financial support, which Portugal needed to keep the war effort in the three African territories. In early 1974, Caetano channeled the South African loan to prevent a significant setback in Guinea, because if it were lost, Mozambique and Angola would follow, and consequently the regime.

Contemporary European History, 1999

This chapter examines the singularities of Portuguese decolonization by contrasting Salazarist ideas of 'lusotropicalism' and 'pluricontinentalism' with the widespread turn to insurgent violence that heralded the rebellions of the early 1960s that ultimately tore the empire apart. If the term 'decolonization' is taken to imply a policy actively pursued by the colonial power, its use in relation to Portugal in 1974-75 may be problematic. Portugal's loss of empire was an unplanned, largely unmanaged, yet utterly irresistible consequence of a military coup in Lisbon in April 1974. It was a process in which a series of weak and unstable provisional governments in Portugal could exercise little agency and were often reduced to hapless observers.

The Portuguese military coup of 25 April 1974 was the beginning of the ‘third wave’ of democratic transitions in Southern Europe. Unshackled by international pro-democratising forces and occurring in the midst of the Cold War, the coup led to a severe crisis of the state that was aggravated by the simultaneous processes of transition to democracy and de-colonisation of what was the last European colonial empire. This article analyses how Portugal’s political elite and society struggled with two aspects of the authoritarian legacy during the transition: the elite and the institutions associated with the Dictatorship. The nature of the Portuguese transition and the consequent state crises created a ‘window of opportunity’ in which the ‘reaction to the past’ was much stronger in Portugal than in the other Southern European transitions. In fact, the transition’s powerful dynamic in itself served to constitute a legacy for the consolidation of democracy.

The 40th anniversary of the Portuguese revolution took place in 2014 in a context of deep social and economic crisis. In common with Greek, Spanish, and to an extent, Italian citizens, the Portuguese had suffered, in the previous three years, from the imposition of drastic austerity measures of fiscal contraction. These measures, aside from worsening the economic situation and increasing unemployment, have deeply undermined what in the country are considered the “conquests” of the 25 April 1974 revolution that ushered in Portugal’s democracy – a set of social rights in terms of labour law, healthcare and access to education. As in other countries, these conditions have not gone unchallenged by civil society, and there has been an intensification of protest. If the “conquests of April” seem to be targeted in particular by the austerity measures, references to the revolution have returned to be a constant element in the contestation of the “troika’s” impositions.

2022

and 1975. The country finally joined in the wave of decolonisation that began in the wake of the Second World War and that the Salazar 3 regime had insisted on resisting, at the cost of thousands of lives sacrificed on both sides of the conflict. The Portuguese Empire, which had been the first maritime European Empire, was now the last of those empires to be dissolved. As a consequence of a rapid decolonisation process, it is estimated that around 1 million residents of the former Portuguese colonies left these territories. Not everyone of European origin left; some chose to go on with their lives in the newly independent countries. But the great majority did leave, either fleeing the outbreak of civil wars in the newly founded countries, or because they rejected the one-party rule of the new black majority governments imposed there. Some went directly to neighbouring territories such as Rhodesia and South Africa, ruled by white minority governments. Others preferred to follow the well-trodden paths of Portuguese emigration to countries such as the United States, Canada, and Brazil. Most of them, though, an estimated 500,000 to 800,000 people, travelled to Portugal. The number of people involved, especially given the fact that in 1975 the Portuguese metropolitan population was

2017

This article will address the key political features in the post-war years of the Portuguese First Republic (1919-1926). Although the strategy of participation in the First World War opened a significant political crisis that extended its consequences into the last years of the republican regime, in this period, alongside political questions inherit from the pre-war times, there were new agents in play and new political dynamics at work. This period brought different solutions and new approaches to economic, social, and cultural problems in the new world partly forged by war.