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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Portugal: History
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
Background Notes: Portugal
History
</hdr>
<body>
<p> Portugal is one of the oldest states in Europe. It traces
its modern history to A.D. 1140 when, following a 9-year
rebellion against the King of Leon-Castile, Afonso Henriques,
the Count of Portugal, became the country's first king, Afonso
I. Afonso and his successors expanded their territory southward,
capturing Lisbon from the Moors in 1147. The approximate
present-day boundaries were secured in 1249 by Afonso III.
</p>
<p> By 1337, Portuguese explorers had reached the Canary
Islands. Inspired by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460),
explorers such as Vasco da Gama, Bartolomeu Dias, and Pedro
Alvares Cabral made explorations from Brazil to India and Japan.
Portugal eventually became a massive colonial empire with vast
territories in Africa and Latin America (Brazil) and outposts
in the Far East (East Timor, Macau, Goa).
</p>
<p> Dynastic disputes led in 1580 to the succession of Philip II
of Spain to the Portuguese throne. A revolt ended Spanish
hegemony in 1640, and the House of Braganca was established as
Portugal's ruling family, lasting until the establishment of
the Portuguese Republic in 1910.
</p>
<p> During the next 16 years, intense political rivalries and
economic instability undermined newly established democratic
institutions. Responding to pressing economic problems, a
military government, which had taken power in 1926, named a
prominent university economist, Dr. Antonio Salazar finance
minister in 1928, and prime minister in 1932. For the next 42
years, Salazar and his successor, Marcelo Caetano, appointed
prime minister in 1968, ruled Portugal as an authoritarian
"corporate" state. Unlike most other European countries,
Portugal did not play a combatant role in World War II. It was
a charter member of NATO, joining in 1949.
</p>
<p> In the early 1960s, wars with independence movements in
Portugal's African territories began to drain labor and wealth
from Portugal. Professional dissatisfaction within the
military, coupled with a growing sense of the futility of the
African conflicts, led to the formation of the clandestine
"Armed Forces Movement" in 1973.
</p>
<p> The downfall of the Portuguese corporate state came on April
25, 1974, when the Armed Forces Movement seized power in a
nearly bloodless coup and established a provisional military
government.
</p>
<p> Gen. Antonio de Spinola was installed as president after the
coup but resigned in September 1974 to protest the growing
power exercised by communist and leftist forces. He was replaced
by another general, Francisco da Costa Gomes, who retained a
procommunist, Gen. Vasco dos Santos Goncalves, as prime
minister. On March 11, 1975, a rebellion by rightist military
officers failed, and former President Spinola fled the country.
</p>
<p> On April 25 (now Portugal's national day), the first
anniversary of the 1974 coup, Portuguese voters chose a
Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution. The vote gave an
overwhelming majority of 72% to candidates of three democratic
political parties: the Socialists (PS), Popular Democrats
(which later changed its name to Social Democrats--PSD), and
Center Social Democrats (CDS).
</p>
<p> The communists and their allies in the Armed Forces Movement
attempted to play down their relative lack of popular support
(the Communist Party won only 12.5% of the vote) by tightening
their hold on the provisional government and by seeking to
diminish sharply the role of political parties.
</p>
<p> Goncalves resigned under mounting civilian and military
pressure, and a new provisional government (the sixth since
April 1974) took office in September 1975, led by Adm. Jose
Pinheiro de Azevedo.
</p>
<p> The political tug-of-war continued until November 25, when
left-wing military elements seized control of several strategic
military bases, only to surrender peacefully the next day after
a determined show of force by loyal units under the direction
of Lt. Col. Antonio Ramalho Eanes.
</p>
<p> Portugal's new constitution took effect on April 25, 1976,
when elections for a parliamentary Assembly of the Republic
also were held. In June, Eanes was elected president with 62%
of the vote after gaining the support of the three major
democratic parties. He chose Mario Soares, whose Socialist Party
had won a plurality in the parliamentary elections, to serve as
prime minister of Portugal's first democratic government since
the 1920s.
</p>
<p> Soares' minority socialist government fell in December 1977
and was followed by a succession of short-lived coalition and
minority governments. In the July 1987 parliamentary elections,
PSD leader Cavaco Silva led his party to a stunning victory,
resulting in the first absolute majority for a single party.
The PSD received a slight majority (just over 50%) of the
popular vote but won 148 of the then-250 seats in parliament.
Mario Soares, who had been elected president in February 1986,
consequently invited Prime Minister Cavaco Silva to form a
government, the first that appeared likely to complete its
4-year term since the 1974 revolution.
</p>
<p> Since entering office, the Cavaco Silva government has
implemented economic and social reforms intended to put
Portugal on a more competitive footing with its European
partners. The government and the Socialist Party also cooperated
in the assembly to eliminate Marxist rhetoric from the
constitution and to pave the way for full privatization of
public sector enterprises. In the June 18, 1989, European
Parliamentary elections, the ruling Social Democratic Party won
32.5% of the vote (vice 37% in 1987). The socialists increased
their vote to 28.5%. Nearly half of the registered voters stayed
away from the polls.
</p>
<p>Source: U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs,
May 1990.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>