HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 171

E

Eanes, António dos Santos
Ramalho (1935- )
Portuguese military leader and statesman
Son of a middle-class family, Eanes gradu-
ated from the military academy in 1956
and pursued a military career almost exclu-
sively spent in colonial outposts of Portu-
gal's vast but steadily shrinking empire. He
served in G OA from 1958 to 1960, during
the years when that first outpost of Portu-
gal's expansion was yielding to the demands
of Indian nationalism. In 1962 he was reas-
signed to M ACAO , yet another fragment of
the Asian realm. Moving to Portuguese
Africa he spent some months in 1964 and
from 1966 to 1968 in M OZAMBIQUE , where
new anticolonial forces were rising. Eanes
went on to lead the fight against other reb-
els in P ORTUGUESE G UINEA from 1968 to
1973 under the governorship of General
S PINOLA . Eanes led another campaign in
A NGOLA during 1973 and 1974, where the
African rebels were supported by foreign
intervention. During this period Eanes
became convinced that Portugal's struggle
against the tides of history was hopeless.
Profoundly disillusioned with the poli-
cies of the Caetano regime, Eanes joined
the conspiracy of younger officers who
brought down the government in April
1974 (see C ARNATION R EVOLUTION ) . As
director of the nation's television system

under the provisional government estab-
lished by the revolutionary officers, Eanes
played a major role in communicating the
ideas and ideals of the new era. During the
unstable period that saw abortive coups
launched by both the Right and the Left,
Eanes sustained a moderate commitment to
democratic principles and was rewarded for
his opposition to the radical revolt of
November 1975 by promotion to the high-
est rank in the army and designation as
chief of staff. Recognized as a champion of
democratic socialism, Eanes became Portu-
gal's first popularly elected president in
1976 and continued to hold that office until
1986, playing an essential part in the transi-
tion to full parliamentary stability during
the postrevolutionary era.

East Timor (Portuguese Timor)
This Portuguese colony was originally part
of the vast empire established in the Far
East during the 16th century. Timor, one of
the South Sunda Islands, became Portugal's
last outpost when all the remaining terri-
tory of what is now Indonesia was lost to
the Dutch. In 1618 it was agreed that Por-
tugal would retain only the eastern half of
the island. After various boundary adjust-
ments in the late 19th century, Portuguese
Timor consisted of an area of 5,763 square

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