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In-Depth Information
the Portuguese monarchy with the over-
throw of M
ANUEL
II. The disturbed political
climate of the new republic led to the sei-
zure of power by General Manuel de
Oliveira Gomes da Costa in 1926. Carmona
was appointed foreign minister but soon
ousted Gomes da Costa and headed a pro-
visional government until assuming the
presidency for himself in 1928. He was
reelected to this office in 1935, 1942, and
1949. Incapable of managing Portugal's dis-
ordered finances, the regime turned to the
economist A
NTÓNIO
DE
O
LIVEIRA
S
ALAZAR
,
who demanded and received unrestricted
power to restructure all aspects of the Por-
tuguese state. What was in external appear-
ance a military dictatorship under Carmona
thus became in reality a civilian dictator-
ship under Salazar, who outlived President
Carmona and, as prime minister, reduced
the latter to a mere figurehead.
D
IU
. But the great mass of land and people
that made up the bulk of Portugal's colonial
realm would not be yielded without a stiff
fight. Prime Minister S
ALAZAR
regarded the
African colonies as the essential source of
his plan for economic development and
national renewal. Moreover A
NGOLA
and
M
OZAMBIQUE
, P
ORTUGUESE
G
UINEA
, and the
West African archipelagoes of S
ÃO
T
OMÉ
AND
P
RÍNCIPE
and the C
APE
V
ERDE
I
SLANDS
were equally important as assertions of his
nation's historical achievements and its
right to be accorded respect in the future.
He flatly rejected international opinion and
pressure from the United Nations, as though
a parliamentary declaration that these colo-
nies were now “overseas provinces” would
be taken seriously. These territories were
not merely jewels in the crown; they were,
in his estimate, essential to the survival of
Portugal herself.
Between 1964 and 1968 Salazar mobi-
lized the resources of Portugal to hold the
mainland African colonies (while the off-
shore islands simmered in potential revolt).
More than 200,000 Portuguese men were
called into military service and dispatched
to the battlefronts. One man in every four
was in uniform, and almost the entire Por-
tuguese labor force was subjected to a civil-
ian mobilization to support the combat
forces. When the dictator suffered an inca-
pacitating stroke in 1968, the war to pre-
serve the empire continued unabated.
When he died in 1970, he was entombed in
the Pantheon that commemorated the
explorers and conquerors—and the war
went on.
Marcelo Caetano, a longtime associate of
Salazar, assumed the premiership after his
colleague's death, having been the acting
prime minister since the dictator's stroke.
Carnation Revolution
(1974)
Although mild enough to be given the
name of a flower, the revolution that
brought an end to dictatorship in Portugal
actually began in violence and bloodshed.
Between 1961 and 1964 outposts of Portu-
gal's still far-flung empire (from Dahomey
to G
OA
) were lost to the rising tide of
nationalism that swept across the globe
after World War II. The old European colo-
nial realms collapsed one after the other,
sometimes after a struggle, sometimes with
a handshake and polite exchange of “good
luck” and “thank you.” The Dutch, the Bel-
gians, the French departed, and Britain, the
greatest empire of all, had led the way by
giving independence to India. Indeed,
newly sovereign India lost no time in expel-
ling Portugal from Goa and D
AMÃO
AND
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