The Portuguese Republic was born on the 5th of October 1910, when Republican rebels overthrew King Manuel II, establishing a federal republic type government. The moment was symbolically marked when the leaders of the revolution addressed the people from the balcony of Parliament House in Lisbon.
Many people supported this revolution because they thought that the monarchy was responsible for the terrible economical/social crisis that the country was facing. They thought that the new government would solve all their problems. They were wrong, in fact it made them worse. And worse still, the government involved the country in World War I, causing an even greater crisis.
In this climate, fascism began to grow, like in many European countries at the time, supported by the majority of the people.
Finally, in 1926, General Gomes da Costa marched into the capital and implemented a military dictatorship. This still didn't change much: the economic crisis continued and riots broke out around the country.
But things would change. In 1928, a 39 year old Antonio Oliveira Salazar was invited to be Minister of Finance, by the Government. In one year, he managed to achieve "a miracle", reversing the economic balance through rigorous control of finances. From this act, Salazar gained enormous influence in the government and the people started to worship him, in fact they even called him "O salvador da nação" (The savior of the nation).
Salazar quickly ascended to power, being nominated President of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to the Prime Minister of today) in 1932. And with the new Portuguese constitution of 1933, a fascist regime was now ruling Portugal. The New State (Estado Novo) was born.
Opposed to communism, socialism, liberalism, and anti-colonialism, the pro-Roman Catholic Estado Novo Portugal preserved a vast, centuries-old empire. Fiercely criticised by most of the international community after World War II and decolonization, the regime and its secret police repressed elementary civil liberties and political freedoms in order to remain in power, and to avoid communist influence and the dissolution of its empire. It was one of the longest-surviving right-wing dictatorships in Europe, outliving the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy by three decades.
Portugal joined the United Nations (UN) in 1955, and was a founding member of NATO (1949), OECD (1961), and EFTA (1960). In 1968 Marcelo Caetano was appointed the new head of government. On 25 April 1974, the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, a military coup organized by left-wing Portuguese military officers – the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) –, overthrew the Estado Novo regime and ended 48 years of dictatorship in Portugal.
