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Portugal The First Republic
In May 1911, the provisional government held elections
for
the Constituent Assembly, which undertook to write a new
constitution. This document, which appeared on August 21,
abolished the monarchy and inaugurated Portugal's first
republican government. The constitution secularized the
state by
disestablishing the church, forbidding religious
instruction in
the public schools, and prohibiting the military from
taking part
in religious observances. It granted workers the right to
strike
and opened the civil service to merit appointments. The
blue and
white flag of the monarchy was replaced with one of red
and
green, embellished with an armillary sphere in gold.
The constitution vested legislative power in a
bicameral
Congress of the Republic. The upper house, called the
Senate, was
indirectly elected from local governments for six-year
terms; the
lower house, or Chamber of Deputies, was directly elected
for
three-year terms. Executive power was vested in a cabinet
and
prime minister responsible to the Congress, which also
chose the
president of the republic, the nominal head of state. The
Constituent Assembly became the first Congress by electing
one-third of its members to the Senate; the remaining
two-thirds
constituted the Chamber of Deputies.
The Portuguese Republican Party (Partido Repúblicano
Português--PRP) was Portugal's first political party in
the
modern sense of the term. Although its base of support was
primarily urban, the PRP had a nationwide organization
that
extended into the rural areas. It did not remain unified,
however. In 1911 moderate and radical republican deputies
divided
over the election by the Constituent Assembly of the new
president of the republic. The candidate of the radical
republicans, led by Afonso Costa, was defeated by the
candidate
of the moderates, led by Manuel Brito Camacho and António
José de
Almeida, who opposed Costa's intransigent republicanism
and
feared that he would gain control of the new government.
The
split widened at the PRP Congress in October 1911 when the
moderates where hooted down and left in disgust. The
moderates
then formed the Republican National Union (União Nacional
Repúblicana--UNR), the directorate consisting of Camacho,
Almeida, and Aresta Branco. The UNR was essentially a
personal
clique of several moderate leaders whose purpose was to
get
through parliament a program that would mitigate the
impact of
the more radical republican government. After this
breakup, the
PRP became known as the Democratic Party (Partido
Democrático--
PD).
In February 1912, the UNR leadership itself split into
two
republican splinter parties. The immediate cause of the
rift was
disagreement over the UNR program and rivalry between
Camacho and
Almeida. The rump, led by Camacho, was renamed the
Republican
Union (União Repúblicana--UR), and its members became
known as
Unionists. The other group, led by Almeida, was called the
Republican Evolutionist Party (Partido Repúblicano
Evolucionista-
-PRE), and its followers became known as Evolutionists.
The
program of the PRE was quite similar to that of the UR,
but it
urged a policy of moderation and conciliation and
advocated
proportional representation and revision of intolerant
laws.
The splintering of the original PRP, personalism, and
petty
squabbles produced acute governmental instability during
the
First Republic. In its fifteen years and eight months of
existence, there were seven elections for the Congress,
eight for
the presidency, and forty-five governments. Instability
was also
encouraged by the government's total dependency upon the
Congress, where no stable majority could be organized.
This
political turmoil led to several periods of military rule
during
the First Republic and eventually to its overthrow.
In January 1915, senior military officers, who were
becoming
increasingly alienated from the republic, imposed a period
of
military rule at President Manuel de Arriaga's request. In
May of
the same year, however, prorepublican junior officers and
sergeants returned the government to civilians and held
new
elections. The PD, led by Afonso Costa, won the day.
In 1916 Prime Minister Costa, who feared that a German
victory in World War I would mean the loss of Portugal's
African
colonies of Mozambique and Angola, sent an expeditionary
force of
40,000 men to fight on the side of the Allies. Poorly
trained and
equipped, the force suffered horrendous casualties in
Flanders.
This debacle, as well as severe food shortages caused by
the war
mobilization, paved the way for a second military
intervention in
December 1917, led by Major Sidónio Pais. Pais, who had
held a
diplomatic post in Prussia some years before, was
sympathetic to
Germany and antiliberal. He was an energetic, charismatic
individual who sought to build a broadly based popular
following.
Gradually, however, he came to rely on upper-class youths,
young
army officers, students, and sons of big landowners, who
were
antiliberal and traditionalist. In December 1918, Pais was
assassinated by a radical republican corporal recently
returned
from the front. Portugal's government was returned to
civilians.
Political instability continued under civilian
government. A
small-scale civil war erupted in northern Portugal as
monarchists
led by Henrique Paiva Couciero attempted to restore the
monarchy.
A wave of violence swept the country, and leading
republican
figures, including the prime minister, were murdered.
Political
instability and violence brought economic life to a
standstill.
The middle class, which had initially supported the
republic,
began to turn toward traditional values as liberal and
republican
ideals were increasingly discredited.
By 1925 the republic had become the butt of ridicule
and
cynicism. It never satisfactorily resolved its dispute
with the
church, against which some of its first legislation had
been
directed. Official anticlericism made it impossible for
many to
accept the republic and stimulated the development of a
politically involved Catholic intelligentsia in opposition
to the
parliamentary regime. The apparitions at Fátima in 1917
occurred
at the height of Prime Minister Costa's anticlerical
campaign.
Those dissatisfied with the republic viewed the
authoritarian
governments established in Italy (in 1922) and Spain (in
1923) as
attractive alternatives.
Many military officers, despite their previous negative
experiences in government, thought that only they could
save
Portugal from disintegration. Their inclination to
intervene once
again was heightened by grievances over low pay and poor
equipment. During the last thirteen months of the
republic, there
were three attempts to overturn the regime. The last of
these was
successful. On May 26, 1926, General Manuel Gomes da
Costa, the
coup d'état's leader selected by the young officers who
had
organized it, announced from Braga his intention to march
on
Lisbon and take power. This announcement was followed by a
massive military uprising that met little resistance. On
May 28,
General Gomes da Costa symbolically entered Lisbon, a
dramatic
gesture emulating Benito Mussolini's march on Rome in
1922. Prime
Minister António Maria da Silva resigned on May 29, and
the First
Republic was ended.
Data as of January 1993
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