António de Oliveira Salazar
Encyclopedia
António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE
, GCSE (ɐ̃ˈtɔniu ðɨ oliˈvɐjɾɐ sɐlɐˈzaɾ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) served as the Prime Minister
of Portugal
from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic
briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo (New State), the authoritarian
, right-wing
government that presided over and controlled Portugal from 1932 to 1974. Life Magazine called Salazar "the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator".
Opposed to communism
, socialism
, anarchism
and liberalism
, Salazar's regime was corporatist
, conservative, and nationalistic
. Its policy envisaged the perpetuation of Portugal as a pluricontinental empire
under the doctrine of lusotropicalism
, with Angola
and Mozambique as main colonies (as well as Portuguese provinces after 1951), and a source of civilization and stability to the overseas societies in the African and Asian possessions
.
Possession of Goa
, Daman and Diu was lost following Operation Vijay in 1961, prompting the international community to turn in opposition to Salazar's colonial affairs as well as initiating a lengthy struggle for the control of the colonies
, involving hundreds of thousand Portuguese soldiers which ended only in 1975.
At home, Salazar's regime and its secret police PIDE
repressed civil liberties
and political freedoms in order to remain in control of Portugal, including the murder of Humberto Delgado
, declared winner by the opposition in the 1958 presidential election
. The political suppression, although claiming far fewer deaths than neighboring Francoist Spain, resulted in widespread migration, border control and isolation, although the regime co-founded the United Nations
and NATO as well as other international organizations. Also in opposition to the Francoist regime, control of economy, citizens as well as colonial policy was only cosmetically relaxed before the Carnation Revolution
in 1974, which led to the restoration of democracy.
(Viseu District
), to a family of modest income. His father, a small landowner, had started as an agricultural labourer and became the manager
of a distinguished family of rural landowners of the region of Santa Comba Dão, the Perestrelos, who possessed lands and other assets scattered between Viseu
and Coimbra
. He had four older sisters, and was the only male child of two fifth cousins, António de Oliveira (17 January 1839 to 28 September 1932) and wife Maria do Resgate Salazar (23 October 1845 to 17 November 1926), whose paternal grandfather was a landowner and a nobleman. Despite the knowledge of his ancestry, Salazar always preferred to claim humble origins. His older sisters were Maria do Resgate Salazar de Oliveira, an elementary school
teacher
; Elisa Salazar de Oliveira; Maria Leopoldina Salazar de Oliveira; and Laura Salazar de Oliveira, who in 1887 married Abel Pais de Sousa, whose brother Mário Pais de Sousa was Salazar's Interior Minister
, sons of a family of Santa Comba Dão.
Seminary
from 1900 to 1908 and considered becoming a priest
, but changed his mind. He went to Coimbra
in 1910 in order to study law
at the University of Coimbra, during the first years of the republican government
. During his student years in Coimbra he developed a particular interest for finance
. Although becoming a law graduate with distinction and specializing in finance and economic policy at the Law School, Salazar was not an economist (economics
in its modern sense was a relatively new academic discipline
in Portugal and was not thought at the time as an independent field in the University of Coimbra (the first pure Portuguese university degree in economics was created in 1949 by the modern-day ISEG/UTL
; the University of Coimbra founded its own autonomous School of Economics (FEUC) just in 1972). In 1914, he graduated with a 19 mark out of 20, and in the meanwhile became an assistant professor of economic policy
at the Law School. In 1917, he became the regent of economic policy and finance by appointment of the professor José Alberto dos Reis
. In the following year Salazar was awarded his doctorate
.
. Writing in Catholic newspapers and fighting in the streets for the rights and interests of the Church and its followers were his first forays into public life.
During Sidónio Pais
's brief dictatorship from 1917 to 1918, Salazar was invited to become a minister, but declined. He formally entered politics in the following years, joining the conservative Catholic Centre Party. He was elected to Parliament in 1921 but left it after one session. He continued to teach political economy at the University of Coimbra.
After the 28th May 1926 coup d'état
, he briefly joined José Mendes Cabeçadas
's government as the 71st Minister of Finance on 3 June 1926, but quickly resigned, explaining that since disputes and social disorder existed in the government, he could not do his work properly. Later again, he became the 81st Finance Minister
on 26 April 1928, after the Ditadura Nacional
was consolidated, paving the way for him to be appointed the 101st Prime Minister in 1932. He remained Finance Minister until 1940, when World War II
consumed his time.
His rise to power is due to the image he was able to build as an honest and effective Finance Minister, President Carmona's strong support, and political positioning. The authoritarian government consisted of a right-wing coalition, and Salazar was able to co-opt the moderates of each political current while fighting the extremists, using censorship and repression. The conservative Catholics were his earliest and most loyal supporters. The conservative republicans who could not be co-opted became his most dangerous opponents during the early period. They attempted several coups, but never presented a united front, so these coups were easily repressed. Never a true monarchist, Salazar nevertheless gained most of the monarchists' support, as the exiled deposed king
was given a state funeral at the time of his death. The National Syndicalists
were torn between supporting the regime and denouncing it as bourgeois. They were given enough symbolic concessions to win over the moderates, and the rest were repressed by the political police. They were to be silenced shortly after 1933, as Salazar attempted to prevent the rise of National Socialism in Portugal. Salazar also supported Francisco Franco
and the Nationalists in their fight against the left-wing groups of the Spanish Republic. The Nationalists lacked ports early on, and Salazar's Portugal helped receive armaments shipments from abroad - including ammunition early on when certain Nationalist forces were virtually out. Because of this, "the Nationalists referred to Lisbon as 'the port of Castile.'"
The prevailing view, at the time, of political parties as elements of division and parliamentarism as being in crisis led to general support, or at least tolerance, of an authoritarian regime.
In 1933, Salazar introduced a new constitution which gave him wide powers, establishing an anti-parliamentarian and authoritarian government that would last four decades.
Salazar developed the "Estado Novo" (literally, New State). The basis of his regime was a platform of stability. Salazar's early reforms allowed financial stability and therefore economic growth. This was then known as "A Lição de Salazar" - Salazar's Lesson.
Although Portugal had a high level of illiteracy, Salazar regime didn't consider education a high priority and for many years didn't spend much on it, beyond granting basic education to all citizens. However, in the final years of Salazar's rule and the six years from his incapacity to the fall of the Estado Novo regime in 1974, educational development was prioritized
and there was substantial investment in educational infrastructure. At this stage, secondary, vocational/technical and university education reached record high enrollments. Many of the schools created by Salazar were still in operation many decades after the end of the regime in 1974.
Salazar's regime was rigidly authoritarian. He based his political philosophy around a close interpretation of Catholic social doctrine, much like the contemporary regime of Engelbert Dollfuß in Austria. The economic system, known as corporatism
, was based on a similar interpretation of the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum
(Leo XIII, 1891) and Quadragesimo Anno
(Pius XI, 1931), which was supposed to prevent class struggle and supremacy of economics. Salazar himself banned Portugal's National Syndicalists, a more true Fascist party. Salazar's own party, the National Union
, was formed as a subservient umbrella organisation to support the regime itself, and was therefore lacking in any ideology independent of the regime. At the time many European countries feared the destructive potential of communism
. Salazar not only forbade Marxist
parties, but also revolutionary fascist-syndicalist parties.
Salazar relied on the secret police
, first the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado - "State Defence and Surveillance Police") set up in 1933 and modeled on the Gestapo
and later the PIDE
(Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado) established in 1945 and lasting till 1969 (until 1974, under Marcelo Caetano
, the Estado Novo's police would be called DGS - Direcção Geral de Segurança, "General Security Directorate"). The job of the secret police was not just to protect national security in a typical modern sense but also to suppress the regime's political opponents, especially those related to the international communist movement or the USSR
which was seen by the regime as a menace to Portugal. The PIDE was efficient, however, it was less overtly brutal than its predecessor and the foreign polices that were the model for its creation. A number of prisons were set up by Salazar's right-wing authoritarian regime after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
(1936), where opponents of Estado Novo were sent. The Tarrafal
in Cape Verde
archipelago was one of them. Anarchists
, communists
, African independence movements
guerrillas and other opponents of Salazar's regime died or were made prisoners for many years in those prisons.
Salazar was able to stay in power because the political structure was heavily rigged in favour of regime candidates.
, Salazar steered Portugal down a middle path, but nevertheless provided aid to the Allies: naval bases on Portuguese territory were granted to Britain, in keeping with the traditional Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
, and the United States, letting them use Terceira Island
in the Azores
as a military base; although he only agreed to this after the alternative of an American takeover by force of the islands was made clear to him by the British. Portugal, particularly Lisbon, was one of the last European exit points to the U.S., and a huge number of refugees found shelter in Portugal, many of them with the help from the Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes
, who issued visas against Salazar's orders. Siding with the Axis
would have meant that Portugal would have been at war with Britain
, which would have threatened Portuguese colonies, while siding with the Allies might prove to be a threat to Portugal itself. Portugal continued to export tungsten
and other goods to both the Axis (partly via Switzerland) and Allied countries.
Large numbers of Jews and political dissidents, including Abwehr
personnel after the 20 July plot of 1944, sought refuge in Portugal, although until late 1942 immigration was very restricted.
The colonies were in disarray after the war. In 1945, Portugal had an extensive colonial Empire, including Cape Verde
Islands, São Tomé e Principe
, Angola
(including Cabinda
), Portuguese Guinea
, and Mozambique in Africa; Goa, Damão (including Dadra and Nagar Haveli), and Diu in India (the Portuguese India
); Macau
in China; and Portuguese Timor
in Southeast Asia
. Salazar, a fierce integralist, was determined to retain control of Portugal's colonies.
The overseas provinces were a continual source of trouble and wealth for Portugal, especially during the Portuguese Colonial War
. Portugal became increasingly isolated on the world stage as other European nations with African colonies gradually granted them independence.
Salazar wanted Portugal to be relevant internationally, and the country's overseas colonies made this possible, while Salazar himself refused to be overawed by the Americans. Portugal was the only non-democracy among the founding members of NATO in 1949, which reflected Portugal's role as an ally against communism
during the Cold War
. Portugal was offered help from the Marshall Plan
because of the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of World War II; aid it initially refused but eventually accepted.
Throughout the 1950s, Salazar maintained the same import substitution
approach to economic policy that had ensured Portugal's neutral status during World War II. The rise of the "new technocrats" in the early 1960s, however, led to a new period of economic opening up, with Portugal as an attractive country for international investment. Industrial development and economic growth would continue all throughout the 1960s. During Salazar's tenure, Portugal also participated in the founding of OECD and EFTA
.
The Indian possessions were the first to be lost in 1961. After India
gained independence on August 15, 1947, the British
and the French
vacated their colonial possessions in India
. Indian nationalists in Goa
launched a struggle for Portugal to leave, involving a series of strikes and civil disobedience
movements by Indians against the Portuguese administration, which were ruthlessly suppressed by Portugal. India made numerous offers to negotiate for the return of the colonies, but Salazar repeatedly rejected the offers. With an Indian military operation imminent, Salazar ordered Governor General Manuel António Vassalo e Silva
to fight till the last man, and adopt a scorched earth policy. Eventually, India launched Operation Vijay in Dec 1961 to evict Portugal from Goa
, Daman and Diu. 31 Portuguese soldiers were killed in action and a Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Afonso de Albuquerque
was destroyed, before General Vassalo e Silva surrendered. Salazar forced the General into exile for disobeying his order to fight to the last man and surrendering to the Indian Army
.
In the 1960s, armed revolutionary movements and scattered guerrilla activity had reached Mozambique, Angola, and Portuguese Guinea. Except in Portuguese Guinea, the Portuguese army and naval forces were able to effectively suppress most of these insurgencies through a well-planned counter-insurgency campaign using light infantry, militia, and special operations forces. Most of the world ostracized the Portuguese government because of its colonial policy, especially the newly-independent African nations.
At home, Salazar's regime remained unmistakably authoritarian. He was able to hold onto power with reminders of the instability that had characterized Portuguese political life before 1926. However, these tactics were decreasingly successful, as a new generation emerged which had no collective memory of this instability. In the 1960s, Salazar's opposition to decolonization and gradual freedom of the press
created friction with the Franco dictatorship.
and interventionism
, which were popular in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression
. During his tenure, Portugal was co-founder of OECD and EFTA
. Financial stability was Salazar's highest priority. In order to balance the Portuguese budget and pay off external debts, he instituted numerous taxes. Having adopted a policy of neutrality during World War II, Portugal could simultaneously loan Lajes Air Base
in the Azores to the Allies and export military equipment and metals to the Axis powers. In 1960, at the initiation of Salazar's more outward-looking economic policy, Portugal's per capita GDP was only 38 percent of the European Community (EC-12) average; by the end of the Salazar period, in 1968, it had risen to 48 percent; and in 1973, under the leadership of Marcelo Caetano
, Portugal's per capita GDP had reached 56.4 percent of the EC-12 average. On a long term analysis, after a long period of economic divergence before 1914, and a period of chaos during the Portuguese First Republic
, the Portuguese economy recovered slightly until 1950, entering thereafter on a path of strong economic convergence until the Carnation Revolution
in April 1974. Portuguese economic growth in the period 1950–1973 under the Estado Novo regime (and even with the effects of an expensive war effort in African territories against independence guerrilla groups), created an opportunity for real integration with the developed economies of Western Europe. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and firms changed their patterns of production and consumption, bringing about a structural transformation. Simultaneously, the increasing complexity of a growing economy raised new technical and organizational challenges, stimulating the formation of modern professional and management teams.
His reluctance to travel abroad, his increasing determination not to grant independence to the colonies and to stand against the "winds of change"
announced by the British in their move to liberate their major colonies, and his refusal to grasp the impossibility of his regime outliving him, marked the final years of his tenure. "Proudly alone" was the motto of his final decade. For the Portuguese ruling regime, the overseas empire was a matter of national identity.
In order to support his colonial policies, Salazar adopted Gilberto Freyre
's notion of Lusotropicalism
, maintaining that since Portugal had been a multicultural, multiracial and pluricontinental nation since the 15th century, if the country were to be dismembered by losing its overseas territories, that would spell the end for Portuguese independence. In geopolitical terms, no critical mass would then be available to guarantee self-sufficiency to the Portuguese State. Salazar had strongly resisted Freyre's ideas throughout the 1930s, partly because Freyre claimed the Portuguese were more prone than other European nations to miscegenation, and only adopted Lusotropicalism after sponsoring Freyre on a visit to Portugal and its colonies in 1951-2. Freyre's work "Aventura e Rotina" was a result of this trip.
Salazar was a close friend of Rhodesia
n Prime Minister
Ian Smith
: after Rhodesia
proclaimed its Unilateral Declaration of Independence
from Britain, Portugal - though not officially recognizing the new Rhodesian state - supported Rhodesia economically and militarily through the neighbouring Portuguese colony of Mozambique until 1975, when FRELIMO
took over Mozambique after negotiations with the new Portuguese regime which had taken over after the Carnation Revolution. Ian Smith later wrote in his The Great Betrayal
that had Salazar lasted longer than he did, the Rhodesian government would have survived to the present day, ruled by a moderate black majority government under the name of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'.
in Portugal in 1935. He permitted the Catholic religion to be taught in all schools, not just parochial schools (however, non-Catholic parents who did not wish their children to receive this instruction could have their children removed from these classes); but throughout Portugal, the Catholic education of the youth was greatly favored. Another policy at this time was Salazar's legislation on marriage which read “The Portuguese state recognizes the civil effects of marriages celebrated according to canonical laws.” He then initiated into this legislation articles which frowned upon divorce. Article 24 reads, “In harmony with the essential properties of Catholic marriages, it is understood that by the very fact of the celebration of a canonical marriage, the spouses renounce the legal right to ask for a divorce.” Divorce was only allowed if it has been purely a civil marriage. The effect of this law was that the number of Catholic marriages went up. So that by 1960, nearly 91 percent of all marriages in the country were canonical marriages.
On July 4, 1937, Salazar was on his way to Mass at a private chapel in a friend's house in the Barbosa du Bocage Avenue in Lisbon. As he stepped out of the car, a Buick
, a bomb exploded only 10 feet away (the bomb had been hidden in an iron case). The bomb-blast left Salazar untouched (his chauffeur was rendered deaf). The bishops argued in a collective letter in 1938, that it was an "act of God" that had preserved Salazar's life in this attempted assassination. Emídio Santana was the anarcho-syndicalist, founder of the Metallurgists National Union (Sindicato Nacional dos Metalúrgicos), behind the assassination attempt. The official car was replaced by an armoured Chrysler Imperial
.
On May 13, 1938, when the bishops of Portugal fulfilled their vow and renewed the National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
, Cardinal Cerejeira acknowledged publicly that Our Lady of Fatima
had, "Spared Portugal the scourge of Communism". After Portugal avoided the devastation of both the Spanish Civil War
and the Second World War, Salazar's propaganda machine and the Catholic Church also connected this to a miraculous dimension which made them profit from the Catholic fervor of the masses. The Cristo-Rei
, a Catholic monument in Almada
, was inaugurated on 17 May 1959 by Salazar. Its construction was approved by a Portuguese Episcopate conference, held in Fátima
on 20 April 1940, as a plea to God to prevent Portugal from entering World War II. However, the idea had originated on a visit by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1934, soon after the inauguration of the statue of Christ the Redeemer
in 1931.
The relationship of Salazar with some sectors of the Catholic Church, more in accordance with the social doctrine of the Holy See, worsened after World War II. Some prominent oppositionist priests, like Abel Varzim and Joaquim Alves Correia, openly supported the MUD
in 1945 and the granting of more social rights to the workers. Abel Varzim, who had been a supporter of the regime, had his newspaper closed, while Joaquim Alves Correia was forced into exile in the United States, where he died in 1951. The Democratic Opposition main candidate in the 1958 Presidential Elections, General Humberto Delgado
was a Roman Catholic and a dissident of the regime, who quoted Pope Pius XII
to show how the social policies of the regime were against the social teachings of the Church. The same year, Salazar suffered a severe blow from the bishop of Porto, Dom António Ferreira Gomes
, who wrote a critical letter to the Council President in July 1958 being forced to exile for 10 years. After the Second Vatican Council
, a large number of Catholics became active in the Democratic Opposition.
replaced him with Marcello Caetano. When Salazar unexpectedly recovered lucidity, his intimates did not tell him he had been deposed, instead allowing him to "rule" in privacy until his death in July 1970. Tens of thousands paid their last respects at the funeral and the Requiem Mass that took place at the Jerónimos Monastery
and at the passage of the special train that carried the coffin to his hometown of Vimieiro near Santa Comba Dão, where he was buried according to his wishes in his native soil, in a plain ordinary grave. As a symbolic display of his views of Portugal and the colonial empire, there is well-known footage of several members of the "Mocidade Portuguesa
," of both African and European ethnicity, paying homage at his funeral.
, who co-wrote the Constitution of 1933. Despite tentative overtures towards an opening of the regime, Caetano balked at ending the colonial war, notwithstanding the condemnation of most of the international community. Eventually the Estado Novo fell on April 25, 1974, after the Carnation Revolution
. The retreat from the colonies and the acceptance of its independence terms which would create newly-independent communist states in 1975 (most notably the People's Republic of Angola
and the People's Republic of Mozambique
) prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola
and Mozambique), creating over a million destitute Portuguese refugee
s — the retornados.
The Estado Novo regime has been described by the American socialist author David L. Raby as a far-right leaning regime of para-fascist inspiration, although general labeling of Portugal as fascist declined after the defeat of Nazi Germany
and Fascist Italy
in World War II
, in which Portugal remained strictly neutral. According to some Portuguese far-right leaning or conservative scholars like Jaime Nogueira Pinto
and Rui Ramos, his early reforms and policies allowed political and financial stability and therefore social order
and economic growth
, after the politically unstable and financially chaotic years of the Portuguese First Republic
(1910–1926). Other historians like far-left politician Fernando Rosas
, point out that Salazar's policies from the 1930s to the 1950s, led to economic and social stagnation and rampant emigration, turning Portugal into one of the poorest countries in Europe, that was also thwarted by scoring lower on literacy than its peers of the Northern Hemisphere
.
Order of the Tower and Sword
The Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit is a Portuguese order of knighthood and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459....
, GCSE (ɐ̃ˈtɔniu ðɨ oliˈvɐjɾɐ sɐlɐˈzaɾ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) served as the Prime Minister
President of the Council of Ministers
The official title President of the Council of Ministers, or Chairman of the Council of Ministers is used to describe the head of government of the states of Italy and Poland, and formerly in the Soviet Union, Portugal, France , Spain , Brazil , and Luxembourg...
of Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
from 1932 to 1968. He also served as acting President of the Republic
President of Portugal
Portugal has been a republic since 1910, and since that time the head of state has been the president, whose official title is President of the Portuguese Republic ....
briefly in 1951. He founded and led the Estado Novo (New State), the authoritarian
Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy...
, right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
government that presided over and controlled Portugal from 1932 to 1974. Life Magazine called Salazar "the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator".
Opposed to communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, anarchism
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
and liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, Salazar's regime was corporatist
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
, conservative, and nationalistic
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
. Its policy envisaged the perpetuation of Portugal as a pluricontinental empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
under the doctrine of lusotropicalism
Lusotropicalism
Lusotropicalism or Luso-Tropicalism was first coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre,to describe the distinctive character of the Portuguese imperialism in several lectures, and is a belief and movement especially strong during the António de Oliveira Salazar dictatorship in Portugal ,...
, with Angola
Angola (Portugal)
Angola is the common name by which the Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa was known across different periods of time...
and Mozambique as main colonies (as well as Portuguese provinces after 1951), and a source of civilization and stability to the overseas societies in the African and Asian possessions
Civilizing mission
is a rationale for intervention or colonisation, proposing to contribute to the spread of civilization, mostly amounting to the Westernization of indigenous peoples....
.
Possession of Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, Daman and Diu was lost following Operation Vijay in 1961, prompting the international community to turn in opposition to Salazar's colonial affairs as well as initiating a lengthy struggle for the control of the colonies
Portuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
, involving hundreds of thousand Portuguese soldiers which ended only in 1975.
At home, Salazar's regime and its secret police PIDE
PIDE
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
repressed civil liberties
Civil liberties
Civil liberties are rights and freedoms that provide an individual specific rights such as the freedom from slavery and forced labour, freedom from torture and death, the right to liberty and security, right to a fair trial, the right to defend one's self, the right to own and bear arms, the right...
and political freedoms in order to remain in control of Portugal, including the murder of Humberto Delgado
Humberto Delgado
Humberto da Silva Delgado, GCL was a General of the Portuguese Air Force and politician.Delgado was born in Brogueira, Torres Novas. He was the son of Joaquim Delgado and wife Maria do Ó Pereira and had three younger sisters, Deolinda, Aida and Lídia....
, declared winner by the opposition in the 1958 presidential election
Portuguese presidential election, 1958
Presidential elections were held in Portugal on June 8, 1958, during the authoritarian Estado Novo regime led by Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar....
. The political suppression, although claiming far fewer deaths than neighboring Francoist Spain, resulted in widespread migration, border control and isolation, although the regime co-founded the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and NATO as well as other international organizations. Also in opposition to the Francoist regime, control of economy, citizens as well as colonial policy was only cosmetically relaxed before the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
in 1974, which led to the restoration of democracy.
Background
Salazar was born in Vimieiro, near Santa Comba DãoSanta Comba Dão
Santa Comba Dão is a city and a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 112.0 km² and a total municipal population of 12,393 inhabitants...
(Viseu District
Viseu (district)
The District of Viseu is located in the Central Inland of Portugal, the District Capital is the city of Viseu.-Municipalities:The district is composed by 24 municipalities:-Summary of votes and seats won 1976-2011:...
), to a family of modest income. His father, a small landowner, had started as an agricultural labourer and became the manager
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
of a distinguished family of rural landowners of the region of Santa Comba Dão, the Perestrelos, who possessed lands and other assets scattered between Viseu
Viseu
Viseu is both a city and a municipality in the Dão-Lafões Subregion of Centro Region, Portugal. The municipality, with an area of 507.1 km², has a population of 99,593 , and the city proper has 47,250...
and Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
. He had four older sisters, and was the only male child of two fifth cousins, António de Oliveira (17 January 1839 to 28 September 1932) and wife Maria do Resgate Salazar (23 October 1845 to 17 November 1926), whose paternal grandfather was a landowner and a nobleman. Despite the knowledge of his ancestry, Salazar always preferred to claim humble origins. His older sisters were Maria do Resgate Salazar de Oliveira, an elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
; Elisa Salazar de Oliveira; Maria Leopoldina Salazar de Oliveira; and Laura Salazar de Oliveira, who in 1887 married Abel Pais de Sousa, whose brother Mário Pais de Sousa was Salazar's Interior Minister
Interior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
, sons of a family of Santa Comba Dão.
Education
Salazar studied at the ViseuViseu
Viseu is both a city and a municipality in the Dão-Lafões Subregion of Centro Region, Portugal. The municipality, with an area of 507.1 km², has a population of 99,593 , and the city proper has 47,250...
Seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
from 1900 to 1908 and considered becoming a priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, but changed his mind. He went to Coimbra
Coimbra
Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...
in 1910 in order to study law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...
at the University of Coimbra, during the first years of the republican government
Portuguese First Republic
The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...
. During his student years in Coimbra he developed a particular interest for finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
. Although becoming a law graduate with distinction and specializing in finance and economic policy at the Law School, Salazar was not an economist (economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
in its modern sense was a relatively new academic discipline
Academic discipline
An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined , and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to...
in Portugal and was not thought at the time as an independent field in the University of Coimbra (the first pure Portuguese university degree in economics was created in 1949 by the modern-day ISEG/UTL
Technical University of Lisbon
The Technical University of Lisbon is a Portuguese public university. It was created in 1930 in Lisbon, as a confederation of older schools, and comprises, nowadays, the faculties and institutes of veterinary medicine; agricultural sciences; economics and business administration; engineering,...
; the University of Coimbra founded its own autonomous School of Economics (FEUC) just in 1972). In 1914, he graduated with a 19 mark out of 20, and in the meanwhile became an assistant professor of economic policy
Economic policy
Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
at the Law School. In 1917, he became the regent of economic policy and finance by appointment of the professor José Alberto dos Reis
José Alberto dos Reis
José Alberto dos Reis was a Portuguese jurist and the leading Portuguese authority on legal procedure in the 20th century.A law professor in Coimbra, dos Reis held several academic and public offices, including that of member of the Assembleia Nacional in 1934-45. He was the leading redactor and...
. In the following year Salazar was awarded his doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
.
Rise to power
As a young man, his involvement in politics stemmed from his Catholic views, which were aroused by the new anti-clerical Portuguese First RepublicPortuguese First Republic
The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...
. Writing in Catholic newspapers and fighting in the streets for the rights and interests of the Church and its followers were his first forays into public life.
During Sidónio Pais
Sidónio Pais
Sidónio Bernardino Cardoso da Silva Pais was a Portuguese politician and diplomat, the fourth President in 1918. He was known as the President-King.-Family:...
's brief dictatorship from 1917 to 1918, Salazar was invited to become a minister, but declined. He formally entered politics in the following years, joining the conservative Catholic Centre Party. He was elected to Parliament in 1921 but left it after one session. He continued to teach political economy at the University of Coimbra.
After the 28th May 1926 coup d'état
28th May 1926 coup d'état
The 28 May 1926 coup d'état, sometimes called 28 May Revolution or, during the period of Estado Novo , National Revolution , was a military action that put an end to the unstable Portuguese First Republic and initiated the Ditadura Nacional , later, renamed the Estado Novo, an authoritarian...
, he briefly joined José Mendes Cabeçadas
José Mendes Cabeçadas
José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior, OTE, ComA , commonly known as Mendes Cabeçadas , was a Portuguese Marine officer, free mason and republican, having a major role in the preparation of the revolutionary movements that created and ended the Portuguese First Republic: the 5 October revolution in 1910 and...
's government as the 71st Minister of Finance on 3 June 1926, but quickly resigned, explaining that since disputes and social disorder existed in the government, he could not do his work properly. Later again, he became the 81st Finance Minister
Finance minister
The finance minister is a cabinet position in a government.A minister of finance has many different jobs in a government. He or she helps form the government budget, stimulate the economy, and control finances...
on 26 April 1928, after the Ditadura Nacional
Ditadura Nacional
The Ditadura Nacional was the name of the Portuguese regime initiated by the election of President Óscar Carmona in 1928 that lasted until the adoption of the new constitution in 1933, when the régime changed its name to Estado Novo...
was consolidated, paving the way for him to be appointed the 101st Prime Minister in 1932. He remained Finance Minister until 1940, when World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
consumed his time.
His rise to power is due to the image he was able to build as an honest and effective Finance Minister, President Carmona's strong support, and political positioning. The authoritarian government consisted of a right-wing coalition, and Salazar was able to co-opt the moderates of each political current while fighting the extremists, using censorship and repression. The conservative Catholics were his earliest and most loyal supporters. The conservative republicans who could not be co-opted became his most dangerous opponents during the early period. They attempted several coups, but never presented a united front, so these coups were easily repressed. Never a true monarchist, Salazar nevertheless gained most of the monarchists' support, as the exiled deposed king
Manuel II of Portugal
Manuel II , named Manuel Maria Filipe Carlos Amélio Luís Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Francisco de Assis Eugénio de Bragança Orleães Sabóia e Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha — , was the last King of Portugal from 1908 to 1910, ascending the throne after the assassination of his father and elder brother Manuel...
was given a state funeral at the time of his death. The National Syndicalists
National Syndicalists (Portugal)
The National Syndicalists were a political movement that briefly flourished in Portugal in the 1930s, and an influence on the Spanish Falange....
were torn between supporting the regime and denouncing it as bourgeois. They were given enough symbolic concessions to win over the moderates, and the rest were repressed by the political police. They were to be silenced shortly after 1933, as Salazar attempted to prevent the rise of National Socialism in Portugal. Salazar also supported Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
and the Nationalists in their fight against the left-wing groups of the Spanish Republic. The Nationalists lacked ports early on, and Salazar's Portugal helped receive armaments shipments from abroad - including ammunition early on when certain Nationalist forces were virtually out. Because of this, "the Nationalists referred to Lisbon as 'the port of Castile.'"
The prevailing view, at the time, of political parties as elements of division and parliamentarism as being in crisis led to general support, or at least tolerance, of an authoritarian regime.
In 1933, Salazar introduced a new constitution which gave him wide powers, establishing an anti-parliamentarian and authoritarian government that would last four decades.
Estado Novo
Although Portugal had a high level of illiteracy, Salazar regime didn't consider education a high priority and for many years didn't spend much on it, beyond granting basic education to all citizens. However, in the final years of Salazar's rule and the six years from his incapacity to the fall of the Estado Novo regime in 1974, educational development was prioritized
Education in Portugal
Education in Portugal is regulated by the State through two ministries - the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education. There are a system of public education and also many private schools at all levels of education...
and there was substantial investment in educational infrastructure. At this stage, secondary, vocational/technical and university education reached record high enrollments. Many of the schools created by Salazar were still in operation many decades after the end of the regime in 1974.
Salazar's regime was rigidly authoritarian. He based his political philosophy around a close interpretation of Catholic social doctrine, much like the contemporary regime of Engelbert Dollfuß in Austria. The economic system, known as corporatism
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
, was based on a similar interpretation of the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum
Rerum Novarum is an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on May 15, 1891. It was an open letter, passed to all Catholic bishops, that addressed the condition of the working classes. The encyclical is entitled: “Rights and Duties of Capital and Labour”...
(Leo XIII, 1891) and Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno
Quadragesimo Anno is an encyclical written by Pope Pius XI, issued 15 May 1931, 40 years after Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum. Unlike Leo XIII, who addressed the condition of workers, Pius XI discusses the ethical implications of the social and economic order...
(Pius XI, 1931), which was supposed to prevent class struggle and supremacy of economics. Salazar himself banned Portugal's National Syndicalists, a more true Fascist party. Salazar's own party, the National Union
National Union (Portugal)
The National Union was the only legal political party in Portugal for most of the period of the Estado Novo, a right-wing dictatorship dominated by António de Oliveira Salazar....
, was formed as a subservient umbrella organisation to support the regime itself, and was therefore lacking in any ideology independent of the regime. At the time many European countries feared the destructive potential of communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. Salazar not only forbade Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
parties, but also revolutionary fascist-syndicalist parties.
Salazar relied on the secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
, first the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado - "State Defence and Surveillance Police") set up in 1933 and modeled on the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
and later the PIDE
PIDE
In 1969, Marcello Caetano changed the name PIDE to DGS . The death of Salazar and the subsequent ascension of Caetano brought some attempts at democratization, in order to avoid popular insurgency against censorship, the ongoing colonial war and the general restriction of civil rights...
(Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado) established in 1945 and lasting till 1969 (until 1974, under Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano, GCTE, GCC, also spelled Marcello Caetano , was a Portuguese politician and scholar, who was the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime, from 1968 until his overthrow in the Carnation Revolution of 1974....
, the Estado Novo's police would be called DGS - Direcção Geral de Segurança, "General Security Directorate"). The job of the secret police was not just to protect national security in a typical modern sense but also to suppress the regime's political opponents, especially those related to the international communist movement or the USSR
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
which was seen by the regime as a menace to Portugal. The PIDE was efficient, however, it was less overtly brutal than its predecessor and the foreign polices that were the model for its creation. A number of prisons were set up by Salazar's right-wing authoritarian regime after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
(1936), where opponents of Estado Novo were sent. The Tarrafal
Tarrafal camp
Tarrafal was a prison camp in Cape Verde, then a Portuguese colony, set up by the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War , where opponents of his right-wing authoritarian regime were sent...
in Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
archipelago was one of them. Anarchists
Anarchy
Anarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
, communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, African independence movements
African independence movements
The African Independence Movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed....
guerrillas and other opponents of Salazar's regime died or were made prisoners for many years in those prisons.
Salazar was able to stay in power because the political structure was heavily rigged in favour of regime candidates.
Neutrality during World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Salazar steered Portugal down a middle path, but nevertheless provided aid to the Allies: naval bases on Portuguese territory were granted to Britain, in keeping with the traditional Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
Anglo-Portuguese Alliance
The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, ratified at the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, between England and Portugal is claimed to be the oldest alliance in the world which is still in force — with the earliest treaty dating back to the Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373.This alliance, which goes back to the...
, and the United States, letting them use Terceira Island
Terceira Island
Referred to as the “Ilha Lilás” , Terceira is an island in the Azores archipelago, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the larger islands of the archipelago, with a population of 56,000 inhabitants in an area of approximately 396.75 km²...
in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
as a military base; although he only agreed to this after the alternative of an American takeover by force of the islands was made clear to him by the British. Portugal, particularly Lisbon, was one of the last European exit points to the U.S., and a huge number of refugees found shelter in Portugal, many of them with the help from the Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes
Aristides de Sousa Mendes
Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches, GCC, OL was a Portuguese diplomat. He ignored and defied the orders of his own government for the safety of war refugees fleeing from invading German military forces in the early years of World War II...
, who issued visas against Salazar's orders. Siding with the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
would have meant that Portugal would have been at war with Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, which would have threatened Portuguese colonies, while siding with the Allies might prove to be a threat to Portugal itself. Portugal continued to export tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
and other goods to both the Axis (partly via Switzerland) and Allied countries.
Large numbers of Jews and political dissidents, including Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...
personnel after the 20 July plot of 1944, sought refuge in Portugal, although until late 1942 immigration was very restricted.
Post-war Portugal
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
Islands, São Tomé e Principe
São Tomé
-Transport:São Tomé is served by São Tomé International Airport with regular flights to Europe and other African Countries.-Climate:São Tomé features a tropical wet and dry climate with a relatively lengthy wet season and a short dry season. The wet season runs from October through May while the...
, Angola
Angola (Portugal)
Angola is the common name by which the Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa was known across different periods of time...
(including Cabinda
Cabinda (province)
Cabinda is an exclave and province of Angola, a status that has been disputed by many political organizations in the territory. The capital city is also called Cabinda. The province is divided into four municipalities - Belize, Buco Zau, Cabinda and Cacongo.Modern Cabinda is the result of a fusion...
), Portuguese Guinea
Portuguese Guinea
Portuguese Guinea was the name for what is today Guinea-Bissau from 1446 to September 10, 1974.-History:...
, and Mozambique in Africa; Goa, Damão (including Dadra and Nagar Haveli), and Diu in India (the Portuguese India
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
); Macau
Macau
Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...
in China; and Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor was the name of East Timor when it was under Portuguese control. During this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Netherlands East Indies, and later with Indonesia....
in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
. Salazar, a fierce integralist, was determined to retain control of Portugal's colonies.
The overseas provinces were a continual source of trouble and wealth for Portugal, especially during the Portuguese Colonial War
Portuguese Colonial War
The Portuguese Colonial War , also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of liberation , was fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974, when the Portuguese regime was...
. Portugal became increasingly isolated on the world stage as other European nations with African colonies gradually granted them independence.
Salazar wanted Portugal to be relevant internationally, and the country's overseas colonies made this possible, while Salazar himself refused to be overawed by the Americans. Portugal was the only non-democracy among the founding members of NATO in 1949, which reflected Portugal's role as an ally against communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Portugal was offered help from the Marshall Plan
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...
because of the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of World War II; aid it initially refused but eventually accepted.
Throughout the 1950s, Salazar maintained the same import substitution
Import substitution
Import substitution industrialization or "Import-substituting Industrialization" is a trade and economic policy that advocates replacing imports with domestic production. It is based on the premise that a country should attempt to reduce its foreign dependency through the local production of...
approach to economic policy that had ensured Portugal's neutral status during World War II. The rise of the "new technocrats" in the early 1960s, however, led to a new period of economic opening up, with Portugal as an attractive country for international investment. Industrial development and economic growth would continue all throughout the 1960s. During Salazar's tenure, Portugal also participated in the founding of OECD and EFTA
EFTA
EFTA may refer to:* European Family Therapy Association, an NGO.* European Fair Trade Association, an association of eleven Fair Trade importers in nine European countries....
.
The Indian possessions were the first to be lost in 1961. After India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
gained independence on August 15, 1947, the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
vacated their colonial possessions in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. Indian nationalists in Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
launched a struggle for Portugal to leave, involving a series of strikes and civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
movements by Indians against the Portuguese administration, which were ruthlessly suppressed by Portugal. India made numerous offers to negotiate for the return of the colonies, but Salazar repeatedly rejected the offers. With an Indian military operation imminent, Salazar ordered Governor General Manuel António Vassalo e Silva
Manuel António Vassalo e Silva
Manuel António Vassalo e Silva , was the 128th and last Governor-General of Portuguese India.-Background:...
to fight till the last man, and adopt a scorched earth policy. Eventually, India launched Operation Vijay in Dec 1961 to evict Portugal from Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, Daman and Diu. 31 Portuguese soldiers were killed in action and a Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Afonso de Albuquerque
NRP Afonso de Albuquerque
The NRP Afonso de Albuquerque was a warship of the Portuguese Navy, named after the 16th century Portuguese navigator Afonso de Albuquerque. She was destroyed in combat on 18 December 1961, defending Goa against the Indian Armed Forces invasion....
was destroyed, before General Vassalo e Silva surrendered. Salazar forced the General into exile for disobeying his order to fight to the last man and surrendering to the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
.
In the 1960s, armed revolutionary movements and scattered guerrilla activity had reached Mozambique, Angola, and Portuguese Guinea. Except in Portuguese Guinea, the Portuguese army and naval forces were able to effectively suppress most of these insurgencies through a well-planned counter-insurgency campaign using light infantry, militia, and special operations forces. Most of the world ostracized the Portuguese government because of its colonial policy, especially the newly-independent African nations.
At home, Salazar's regime remained unmistakably authoritarian. He was able to hold onto power with reminders of the instability that had characterized Portuguese political life before 1926. However, these tactics were decreasingly successful, as a new generation emerged which had no collective memory of this instability. In the 1960s, Salazar's opposition to decolonization and gradual freedom of the press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...
created friction with the Franco dictatorship.
Economic policies
Economically, the Salazar years were marked by immensely increased growth. From 1950 until Salazar's death, Portugal saw its GDP per capita rise at an average rate of 5.66% per year. The Salazar era was marked by an economic program based on the policies of autarkyAutarky
Autarky is the quality of being self-sufficient. Usually the term is applied to political states or their economic policies. Autarky exists whenever an entity can survive or continue its activities without external assistance. Autarky is not necessarily economic. For example, a military autarky...
and interventionism
Economic interventionism
Economic interventionism is an action taken by a government in a market economy or market-oriented mixed economy, beyond the basic regulation of fraud and enforcement of contracts, in an effort to affect its own economy...
, which were popular in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. During his tenure, Portugal was co-founder of OECD and EFTA
EFTA
EFTA may refer to:* European Family Therapy Association, an NGO.* European Fair Trade Association, an association of eleven Fair Trade importers in nine European countries....
. Financial stability was Salazar's highest priority. In order to balance the Portuguese budget and pay off external debts, he instituted numerous taxes. Having adopted a policy of neutrality during World War II, Portugal could simultaneously loan Lajes Air Base
Lajes Field
Lajes Field or Lajes Air Base , officially designated Air Base No. 4 , is a multi-use air field, home to the Portuguese Air Force Base Aérea Nº4 and Azores Air Zone Command , a United States Air Force detachment , and a regional air passenger terminal located near Lajes...
in the Azores to the Allies and export military equipment and metals to the Axis powers. In 1960, at the initiation of Salazar's more outward-looking economic policy, Portugal's per capita GDP was only 38 percent of the European Community (EC-12) average; by the end of the Salazar period, in 1968, it had risen to 48 percent; and in 1973, under the leadership of Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo Caetano
Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano, GCTE, GCC, also spelled Marcello Caetano , was a Portuguese politician and scholar, who was the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime, from 1968 until his overthrow in the Carnation Revolution of 1974....
, Portugal's per capita GDP had reached 56.4 percent of the EC-12 average. On a long term analysis, after a long period of economic divergence before 1914, and a period of chaos during the Portuguese First Republic
Portuguese First Republic
The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...
, the Portuguese economy recovered slightly until 1950, entering thereafter on a path of strong economic convergence until the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
in April 1974. Portuguese economic growth in the period 1950–1973 under the Estado Novo regime (and even with the effects of an expensive war effort in African territories against independence guerrilla groups), created an opportunity for real integration with the developed economies of Western Europe. Through emigration, trade, tourism and foreign investment, individuals and firms changed their patterns of production and consumption, bringing about a structural transformation. Simultaneously, the increasing complexity of a growing economy raised new technical and organizational challenges, stimulating the formation of modern professional and management teams.
Colonialist ideology
Wind of Change (speech)
The Wind of Change speech was a historically important address made by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan to the Parliament of South Africa, on 3 February 1960 in Cape Town. He had spent a month in Africa visiting a number of British colonies, as they were at the time...
announced by the British in their move to liberate their major colonies, and his refusal to grasp the impossibility of his regime outliving him, marked the final years of his tenure. "Proudly alone" was the motto of his final decade. For the Portuguese ruling regime, the overseas empire was a matter of national identity.
In order to support his colonial policies, Salazar adopted Gilberto Freyre
Gilberto Freyre
Gilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter and congressman. His best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala...
's notion of Lusotropicalism
Lusotropicalism
Lusotropicalism or Luso-Tropicalism was first coined by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre,to describe the distinctive character of the Portuguese imperialism in several lectures, and is a belief and movement especially strong during the António de Oliveira Salazar dictatorship in Portugal ,...
, maintaining that since Portugal had been a multicultural, multiracial and pluricontinental nation since the 15th century, if the country were to be dismembered by losing its overseas territories, that would spell the end for Portuguese independence. In geopolitical terms, no critical mass would then be available to guarantee self-sufficiency to the Portuguese State. Salazar had strongly resisted Freyre's ideas throughout the 1930s, partly because Freyre claimed the Portuguese were more prone than other European nations to miscegenation, and only adopted Lusotropicalism after sponsoring Freyre on a visit to Portugal and its colonies in 1951-2. Freyre's work "Aventura e Rotina" was a result of this trip.
Salazar was a close friend of Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
n Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Rhodesia
The Prime Minister of Rhodesia was the head of government in the colony of Rhodesia. Rhodesia's political system was modelled on the Westminster system and the Prime Minister's role was similar to that of the same position in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New...
Ian Smith
Ian Smith
Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...
: after Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
proclaimed its Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)
The Unilateral Declaration of Independence of Rhodesia from the United Kingdom was signed on November 11, 1965, by the administration of Ian Smith, whose Rhodesian Front party opposed black majority rule in the then British colony. Although it declared independence from the United Kingdom it...
from Britain, Portugal - though not officially recognizing the new Rhodesian state - supported Rhodesia economically and militarily through the neighbouring Portuguese colony of Mozambique until 1975, when FRELIMO
Mozambican Liberation Front
The Liberation Front of Mozambique, , from the Portuguese Frente de Libertação de Moçambique, was a liberation movement which was founded in 1962 to fight for the independence of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique...
took over Mozambique after negotiations with the new Portuguese regime which had taken over after the Carnation Revolution. Ian Smith later wrote in his The Great Betrayal
The Great Betrayal
The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith is a 1997 autobiography written by Ian Smith covering his time as Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia and Prime Minister of Rhodesia...
that had Salazar lasted longer than he did, the Rhodesian government would have survived to the present day, ruled by a moderate black majority government under the name of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'.
Salazar and the Catholic Church
Salazar's goal was to establish a Catholic Social Order even in a nominally secular state. In this process, Salazar dissolved FreemasonryFreemasonry in Portugal
The first known Portuguese Freemasons were John Coustos and two other members of his lodge, who were arrested by the Inquisition and questioned under torture in the 1740s. Coustos wrote a book detailing his sufferings under the inquisition...
in Portugal in 1935. He permitted the Catholic religion to be taught in all schools, not just parochial schools (however, non-Catholic parents who did not wish their children to receive this instruction could have their children removed from these classes); but throughout Portugal, the Catholic education of the youth was greatly favored. Another policy at this time was Salazar's legislation on marriage which read “The Portuguese state recognizes the civil effects of marriages celebrated according to canonical laws.” He then initiated into this legislation articles which frowned upon divorce. Article 24 reads, “In harmony with the essential properties of Catholic marriages, it is understood that by the very fact of the celebration of a canonical marriage, the spouses renounce the legal right to ask for a divorce.” Divorce was only allowed if it has been purely a civil marriage. The effect of this law was that the number of Catholic marriages went up. So that by 1960, nearly 91 percent of all marriages in the country were canonical marriages.
On July 4, 1937, Salazar was on his way to Mass at a private chapel in a friend's house in the Barbosa du Bocage Avenue in Lisbon. As he stepped out of the car, a Buick
Buick
Buick is a premium brand of General Motors . Buick models are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, Taiwan, and Israel, with China being its largest market. Buick holds the distinction as the oldest active American make...
, a bomb exploded only 10 feet away (the bomb had been hidden in an iron case). The bomb-blast left Salazar untouched (his chauffeur was rendered deaf). The bishops argued in a collective letter in 1938, that it was an "act of God" that had preserved Salazar's life in this attempted assassination. Emídio Santana was the anarcho-syndicalist, founder of the Metallurgists National Union (Sindicato Nacional dos Metalúrgicos), behind the assassination attempt. The official car was replaced by an armoured Chrysler Imperial
Chrysler Imperial
The Chrysler Imperial, introduced in 1926, was the company's top of the range vehicle for much of its history. Models were produced with the Chrysler name until 1954, and again from 1990 to 1993. The company tried to position the cars as a prestige marque that would rival Cadillac and Lincoln...
.
On May 13, 1938, when the bishops of Portugal fulfilled their vow and renewed the National Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Immaculate Heart of Mary
The Immaculate Heart of Mary originally The Sacred Heart of Mary is a devotional name used to refer to the interior life of Mary, her joys and sorrows, her virtues and hidden perfections, and, above all, her virginal love for God, her maternal love for her Son, Jesus, and her compassionate love for...
, Cardinal Cerejeira acknowledged publicly that Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fatima
Our Lady of Fátima is a famous title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she appeared in apparitions reported by three shepherd children at Fátima in Portugal. These occurred on the 13th day of six consecutive months in 1917, starting on May 13...
had, "Spared Portugal the scourge of Communism". After Portugal avoided the devastation of both the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
and the Second World War, Salazar's propaganda machine and the Catholic Church also connected this to a miraculous dimension which made them profit from the Catholic fervor of the masses. The Cristo-Rei
Cristo-Rei
The Sanctuary of Christ the King is a Catholic monument and shrine dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ overlooking the city of Lisbon, Portugal. It was inspired by the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and inaugurated on 17 May 1959...
, a Catholic monument in Almada
Almada
Almada is a municipality in Portugal, covering an area of 70.2 km² located on the southern margin of the Tagus River. Its municipal population in 2008 was 164,844 inhabitants; the urbanized center had a population of 102,357.The seat is the city of Almada....
, was inaugurated on 17 May 1959 by Salazar. Its construction was approved by a Portuguese Episcopate conference, held in Fátima
Fatima
-People:* Fatima , a female given name of Arabic origin* Fatima bint Muhammad, daughter of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad* Fatima Jinnah, the younger sister of Muhammad Ali Jinnah...
on 20 April 1940, as a plea to God to prevent Portugal from entering World War II. However, the idea had originated on a visit by the Cardinal Patriarch of Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro in 1934, soon after the inauguration of the statue of Christ the Redeemer
Christ the Redeemer (statue)
Christ the Redeemer is a statue of Jesus Christ in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; considered the largest Art Deco statue in the world and the 5th largest statue of Jesus in the world. It is tall, including its pedestal, and wide. It weighs 635 tonnes , and is located at the peak of the Corcovado...
in 1931.
The relationship of Salazar with some sectors of the Catholic Church, more in accordance with the social doctrine of the Holy See, worsened after World War II. Some prominent oppositionist priests, like Abel Varzim and Joaquim Alves Correia, openly supported the MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
in 1945 and the granting of more social rights to the workers. Abel Varzim, who had been a supporter of the regime, had his newspaper closed, while Joaquim Alves Correia was forced into exile in the United States, where he died in 1951. The Democratic Opposition main candidate in the 1958 Presidential Elections, General Humberto Delgado
Humberto Delgado
Humberto da Silva Delgado, GCL was a General of the Portuguese Air Force and politician.Delgado was born in Brogueira, Torres Novas. He was the son of Joaquim Delgado and wife Maria do Ó Pereira and had three younger sisters, Deolinda, Aida and Lídia....
was a Roman Catholic and a dissident of the regime, who quoted Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
to show how the social policies of the regime were against the social teachings of the Church. The same year, Salazar suffered a severe blow from the bishop of Porto, Dom António Ferreira Gomes
António Ferreira Gomes
Dom António Ferreira Gomes was a Portuguese Roman Catholic bishop. He was one of the most notable figures of the Portuguese Catholic hierarchy of the 20th century, being forced to a 10 years exile outside Portugal due to his opposition to the fascist regimen.He was first appointed by Pope Pius XII...
, who wrote a critical letter to the Council President in July 1958 being forced to exile for 10 years. After the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, a large number of Catholics became active in the Democratic Opposition.
Death
In 1968, Salazar suffered a brain haemorrhage. Most sources maintain that it occurred when he fell from a chair in his summer house. In February 2009 though, there were anonymous witnesses who confessed, after some research about Salazar's best-kept secrets, that he had fallen in a bathtub instead of from a chair. Despite the injury, Salazar lived for a further two years; as he was expected to die shortly after his fall, President Américo ThomazAmérico Thomaz
Américo de Deus Rodrigues Tomás, GCC, GOA, GOSE , archaic spelling: Américo Thomaz, was a Portuguese admiral and politician.-Career:Tomás became minister of the Navy in 1944...
replaced him with Marcello Caetano. When Salazar unexpectedly recovered lucidity, his intimates did not tell him he had been deposed, instead allowing him to "rule" in privacy until his death in July 1970. Tens of thousands paid their last respects at the funeral and the Requiem Mass that took place at the Jerónimos Monastery
Jerónimos Monastery
The Hieronymites Monastery is located near the shore of the parish of Belém, in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal...
and at the passage of the special train that carried the coffin to his hometown of Vimieiro near Santa Comba Dão, where he was buried according to his wishes in his native soil, in a plain ordinary grave. As a symbolic display of his views of Portugal and the colonial empire, there is well-known footage of several members of the "Mocidade Portuguesa
Mocidade Portuguesa
The Mocidade Portuguesa was a Portuguese youth organization under the right-wing regime of the Estado Novo. Membership was compulsory between the ages of 7 and 14, and voluntary until the age of 25....
," of both African and European ethnicity, paying homage at his funeral.
Post-Salazar Portugal and interpretation
After Salazar's death, his Estado Novo regime persisted under the direction of Thomaz as well as his successor and longtime aide, Marcelo CaetanoMarcelo Caetano
Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano, GCTE, GCC, also spelled Marcello Caetano , was a Portuguese politician and scholar, who was the last prime minister of the Estado Novo regime, from 1968 until his overthrow in the Carnation Revolution of 1974....
, who co-wrote the Constitution of 1933. Despite tentative overtures towards an opening of the regime, Caetano balked at ending the colonial war, notwithstanding the condemnation of most of the international community. Eventually the Estado Novo fell on April 25, 1974, after the Carnation Revolution
Carnation Revolution
The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...
. The retreat from the colonies and the acceptance of its independence terms which would create newly-independent communist states in 1975 (most notably the People's Republic of Angola
People's Republic of Angola
The People's Republic of Angola was a self-declared socialist state that was established in 1975 after it was granted independence from Portugal, akin to the situation in Mozambique. The newly-founded nation enjoyed friendly relations with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the People's Republic of...
and the People's Republic of Mozambique
People's Republic of Mozambique
The People's Republic of Mozambique , was a self-declared socialist state that lasted from June 25, 1975 through December 1, 1990, becoming the present day Republic of Mozambique.After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, the People's Republic of Mozambique was established shortly...
) prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola
Angola (Portugal)
Angola is the common name by which the Portuguese colony in southwestern Africa was known across different periods of time...
and Mozambique), creating over a million destitute Portuguese refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s — the retornados.
The Estado Novo regime has been described by the American socialist author David L. Raby as a far-right leaning regime of para-fascist inspiration, although general labeling of Portugal as fascist declined after the defeat of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
and Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy
"Fascist Italy" refers to Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism. The Fascists led two polities:*The Kingdom of Italy , under the National Fascist Party, and,...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, in which Portugal remained strictly neutral. According to some Portuguese far-right leaning or conservative scholars like Jaime Nogueira Pinto
Jaime Nogueira Pinto
Jaime Alexandre Nogueira Pinto is a Portuguese writer and university professor, the illegitimate son of Jaime da Cunha Guimarães by Alda Branca Nogueira Pinto, who died in 2007....
and Rui Ramos, his early reforms and policies allowed political and financial stability and therefore social order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
and economic growth
Economic growth
In economics, economic growth is defined as the increasing capacity of the economy to satisfy the wants of goods and services of the members of society. Economic growth is enabled by increases in productivity, which lowers the inputs for a given amount of output. Lowered costs increase demand...
, after the politically unstable and financially chaotic years of the Portuguese First Republic
Portuguese First Republic
The Portuguese First Republic spans a complex 16 year period in the history of Portugal, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the 5 October 1910 revolution and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926...
(1910–1926). Other historians like far-left politician Fernando Rosas
Fernando Rosas
Fernando José Mendes Rosas is a Portuguese historian and politician.- Early life and education :Rosas was born on the April 18, 1946. He studied at the Pedro Nunes high school, and in 1961, he joined the school's Portuguese Communist Party organization, a party for which he was later a militant.He...
, point out that Salazar's policies from the 1930s to the 1950s, led to economic and social stagnation and rampant emigration, turning Portugal into one of the poorest countries in Europe, that was also thwarted by scoring lower on literacy than its peers of the Northern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
.
See also
- List of Prime Ministers of Portugal
- List of Presidents of Portugal
- Politics of PortugalPolitics of PortugalPolitics in Portugal take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. The President of the Republic is the head of state and has several significant political powers, which he...
Further reading
- Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses, Salazar: A Political Biography (Enigma Books: New York, 2009). ISBN 978-1-929631-90-2
- Antonio Macieira Coelho, Salazar, o fim e a morte, Historia de uma mistificação, Editora D. Quixote, Lisboa. ISBN 972-20-1272-X
- Michael DerrickMichael DerrickJohn Michael Derrick was the son of the artist, illustrator and cartoonist Thomas Derrick, and older brother of the writer Christopher Derrick...
, The Portugal of Salazar, 2nd edition, IHS Press, Norfolk, Virginia, 2009. ISBN 978-1932528589 - Hugh Kay, Salazar and Modern Portugal
- Franco Nogueira, Salazar, 6 vols., Coimbra, 1977-85.
- George WrightGeorge Wright- Politics, law and government :*George Wright , Canadian politician, Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island*George Wright , Australian judge, Old Newingtonian*George Wright , Solicitor General for Ireland...
, The Destruction of a Nation, ISBN 074531029X