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21 Education
In Portugal's early history, education was firmly under the control of the Catholic Church. The earliest schools were located in cathedrals and monasteries and taught a small number of individuals destined for ecclesiastical office. In 1290, a university was established by King Dinis (1261-1325) in Lisbon, but was moved to Coimbra in 1308, where it remained. Coimbra University, Portugal's oldest, and once its most prestigious, was the educational cradle of Portugal's leadership. From 1555 until the 18th century, primary and secondary education was provided by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The Catholic Church's educational monopoly was broken when the Marquis of Pombal expelled the Jesuits in 1759 and created the basis for Portugal's present system of public, secular primary and secondary schools. Pombal introduced vocational training, created hundreds of teaching posts, added departments of mathematics and natural sciences at Coimbra University, and established an education tax to pay for them.During the 19th century, liberals attempted to reform Portugal's educational system, which was highly elitist and emphasized rote memorization and respect for authority, hierarchy, and discipline.Reforms initiated in 1822, 1835, and 1844 were never actualized, however, and education remained unchanged until the early 20th century. After the overthrow of the monarchy on the Fifth of October 1910 by Republican military officers, efforts to reform Portugal's educational system were renewed. New universities were founded in Lisbon and Oporto, a Ministry of Education was established, and efforts were made to increase literacy (illiteracy rates being 80 percent) and to resecularize educational content by introducing more scientific and empirical methods into the curriculum.Such efforts were ended during the military dictatorship (192632), which governed Portugal until the establishment of the Estado Novo (1926-74). Although a new technical university was founded in Lisbon in 1930, little was done during the Estado Novo to modernize education or to reduce illiteracy. Only in 1964 was compulsory primary education made available for children between the ages of 6 and 12.The Revolution of 25 April 1974 disrupted Portugal's educational system. For a period of time after the Revolution, students, faculty, and administrators became highly politicized as socialists, communists, and other groups attempted to gain control of the schools. During the 1980s, as Portuguese politics moderated, the educational system was gradually depoliticized, greater emphasis was placed on learning, and efforts were made to improve the quality of Portuguese schools.Primary education in Portugal consists of four years in the primary (first) cycle and two years in the preparatory, or second, cycle. The preparatory cycle is intended for children going on to secondary education. Secondary education is roughly equivalent to junior and senior high schools in the United States. It consists of three years of a common curriculum and two years of complementary courses (10th and 11th grades). A final year (12th grade) prepares students to take university entrance examinations.Vocational education was introduced in 1983. It consists of a three-year course in a particular skill after the 11th grade of secondary school.Higher education is provided by the four older universities (Lisbon, Coimbra, Oporto, and the Technical University of Lisbon), as well as by six newer universities, one in Lisbon and the others in Minho, Aveiro, Évora, the Algarve, and the Azores. There is also a private Catholic university in Lisbon. Admission to Portuguese universities is highly competitive, and places are limited. About 10 percent of secondary students go on to university education. The average length of study at the university is five years, after which students receive their licentiate. The professoriate has four ranks (professors, associate professors, lecturers, and assistants). Professors have tenure, while the other ranks teach on contract.As Portugal is a unitary state, the educational system is highly centralized. All public primary and secondary schools, universities, and educational institutes are under the purview of the Ministry of Education, and all teachers and professors are included in the civil service and receive pay and pension like other civil servants. The Ministry of Education hires teachers, determines curriculum, sets policy, and pays for the building and upkeep of schools. Local communities have little say in educational matters. -
22 War of Restoration
(1641-68)After the revolution of 1 December 1640, when King João IV of Braganza overthrew Spanish rule and declared Portugal independent, Portugal and Spain fought a war that decided the fate of Portugal. The War of Restoration was fought between Spanish and Portuguese armies, assisted by foreign mercenaries and by Portugal's oldest ally, England. Portugal's 1640 Revolution and the war against Spain to maintain its reclaimed independence were supported as well by France during the 1610-59 period. After 1659, France gave no more assistance to Lisbon and cut off diplomatic relations. Portugal's great friend during this war, which was fought largely near the Luso-Spanish frontier or in Portugal in the flat Alentejo province, with no natural barriers to Spanish invasion, was thus England. This crucial alliance was reestablished in the Anglo-Portuguese treaties of 1642, 1654, and 1661. Various truce and peace treaties, too, were signed with Holland, which was willing to side with Portugal, or at least be neutral, against Spain. Catalonia's prolonged rebellion against Spanish (Castilian) rule during Portugal's struggle played an important role in weakening Spain's effort to recover Portugal. At Ameixial, on 8 June 1663, a decisive battle in the war occurred, resulting in the defeat of the Spanish army and its withdrawal from Portugal. The Luso-Spanish Peace Treaty (1668) concluded the War.See also Peace treaty of 1668. -
23 João VI, king
(1767-1826)The second son of Queen Maria I and King-Consort Dom Pedro III, João was proclaimed heir to the throne in 1788, following the untimely death of his older brother Dom José.Although unprepared for the role, he was destined to rule Portugal during one of the country's most turbulent and difficult eras. His mother went insane in 1792, so Prince João had to assume greater responsibilities of governance. In 1799, he was officially named regent, but he was proclaimed king only upon his mother's death in 1816. By nature amiable and tolerant, he presided over a regime that was supposedly absolutist in an age of revolution. His reign occurred during the French Revolution and its many international consequences: Napoleon's invasion and conquest of Portugal; the flight of the royal family and court of Portugal by sea to Brazil in 1808, where they remained until 1821; civil strife in Portugal between constitutional monarchists and absolutists; and the independence of Brazil in 1822, a great blow against Portugal's overseas empire. When, in 1821, King João was obliged to return to Portugal after residing in Brazil for 13 years, he was forced to accept a constitution, which limited royal powers. A seesaw conflict between constitutionalists and absolutists, the latter faction led by his son, Prince Miguel and his Spanish wife, Carlota Joaquina, and the intervention of the military on behalf of one faction or another marked this turbulent era. When King João died in 1826, Portugal faced an uncertain political future as the country struggled to adjust to the new era of constitutional monarchy and liberal politics, following the nearly catastrophic loss of the richest overseas colony, Brazil. -
24 Costa Gomes, Francisco da
(1914-2001)Career military officer, key personality, and authority in transition from dictatorship to democracy, and president of the republic. Born in the remote, poor, Trás-Os-Montes district, Costa Gomes was trained as an army officer and gained experience and promotions in many postings in Portugal's overseas empire from Macau, China, to Angola and Mozambique. As a lieutenant colonel in the post of undersecretary of the army in April 1961, he was implicated in a military coup plot to overthrow Prime Minister Antônio de Oliveira Salazar. Although he was fired, Costa Gomes rebuilt his bridges, was promoted to brigadier general in 1964, and soon was appointed to important commands in the colonial wars in Portuguese Africa: first in Mozambique (1965-69) and then in Angola (1970-72). In September 1972, he returned to Portugal as head of the joint chiefs of staff, a post he kept until he broke with Prime Minister Marcello Caetano in early 1974.During the last part of Caetano's governance, General Costa Gomes, in tandem with his senior, more famous and charismatic colleague in arms, General Antônio de Spínola, was involved in activities that led to the organization of a successful military coup on 25 April 1974, which overthrew the 48-year-old Estado Novo. Although younger officers did most of the work organizing this action, Costa Gomes played a key role, including authorizing the publication of the sensational book by General Spínola, Portugal e o Futuro, published only two months before the Revolution of Carnations in February 1974. Spinola's book acknowledged that Portugal had to find a political not a military solution to the wars in her African colonies, and the public reception of the work helped prepare the atmosphere for a bloodless coup.After the successful coup by the Armed Forces Movement and the Revolution of 25 April 1974, Costa Gomes was appointed chief of defense staff. When General Spínola resigned in September 1974, Costa Gomes became president, a post he ably filled until June 1976, when General Ramalho Eanes was elected president of the republic. Costa Gomes soon withdrew from the public eye, but in 1981 was promoted to Portugal's highest military rank of marshal.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Costa Gomes, Francisco da
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25 Portuguese Communist Party
(PCP)The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) has evolved from its early anarcho-syndicalist roots at its formation in 1921. This evolution included the undisciplined years of the 1920s, during which bolshevization began and continued into the 1930s, then through the years of clandestine existence during the Estado Novo, the Stalinization of the 1940s, the "anarcho-liberal shift" of the 1950s, the emergence of Maoist and Trotskyist splinter groups of the 1960s, to legalization after the Revolution of 25 April 1974 as the strongest and oldest political party in Portugal. Documents from the Russian archives have shown that the PCP's history is not a purely "domestic" one. While the PCP was born on its own without Soviet assistance, once it joined the Communist International (CI), it lost a significant amount of autonomy as CI officials increasingly meddled in PCP internal politics by dictating policy, manipulating leadership elections, and often financing party activities.Early Portuguese communism was a mix of communist ideological strands accustomed to a spirited internal debate, a lively external debate with its rivals, and a loose organizational structure. The PCP, during its early years, was weak in grassroots membership and was basically a party of "notables." It was predominantly a male organization, with minuscule female participation. It was also primarily an urban party concentrated in Lisbon. The PCP membership declined from 3,000 in 1923 to only 40 in 1928.In 1929, the party was reorganized so that it could survive clandestinely. As its activity progressed in the 1930s, a long period of instability dominated its leadership organs as a result of repression, imprisonments, and disorganization. The CI continued to intervene in party affairs through the 1930s, until the PCP was expelled from the CI in 1938-39, apparently because of its conduct during police arrests.The years of 1939-41 were difficult ones for the party, not only because of increased domestic repression but also because of internal party splits provoked by the Nazi-Soviet pact and other foreign actions. From 1940 to 1941, two Communist parties struggled to attract the support of the CI and accused each other of "revisionism." The CI was disbanded in 1943, and the PCP was not accepted back into the international communist family until its recognition by the Cominform in 1947.The reorganization of 1940-41 finally put the PCP under the firm control of orthodox communists who viewed socialism from a Soviet perspective. Although Soviet support was denied the newly reorganized party at first, the new leaders continued its Stalinization. The enforcement of "democratic centralism" and insistence upon the "dictatorship of the proletariat" became entrenched. The 1940s brought increased growth, as the party reached its membership apex of the clandestine era with 1,200 members in 1943, approximately 4,800 in 1946, and 7,000 in 1947.The party fell on hard times in the 1950s. It developed a bad case of paranoia, which led to a witch hunt for infiltrators, informers, and spies in all ranks of the party. The lower membership figures who followed the united antifascist period were reduced further through expulsions of the "traitors." By 1951, the party had been reduced to only 1,000 members. It became a closed, sectarian, suspicious, and paranoiac organization, with diminished strength in almost every region, except in the Alentejo, where the party, through propaganda and ideology more than organizational strength, was able to mobilize strikes of landless peasants in the early 1950s.On 3 January 1960, Álvaro Cunhal and nine other political prisoners made a spectacular escape from the Peniche prison and fled the country. Soon after this escape, Cunhal was elected secretary-general and, with other top leaders, directed the PCP from exile. Trotskyite and Maoist fractions emerged within the party in the 1960s, strengthened by the ideological developments in the international communist movement, such as in China and Cuba. The PCP would not tolerate dissent or leftism and began purging the extreme left fractions.The PCP intensified its control of the labor movement after the more liberal syndical election regulations under Prime Minister Mar- cello Caetano allowed communists to run for leadership positions in the corporative unions. By 1973, there was general unrest in the labor movement due to deteriorating economic conditions brought on by the colonial wars, as well as by world economic pressures including the Arab oil boycott.After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the PCP enjoyed a unique position: it was the only party to have survived the Estado Novo. It emerged from clandestinity as the best organized political party in Portugal with a leadership hardened by years in jail. Since then, despite the party's stubborn orthodoxy, it has consistently played an important role as a moderating force. As even the Socialist Party (PS) was swept up by the neoliberal tidal wave, albeit a more compassionate variant, increasingly the PCP has played a crucial role in ensuring that interests and perspectives of the traditional Left are aired.One of the most consistent planks of the PCP electoral platform has been opposition to every stage of European integration. The party has regularly resisted Portuguese membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and, following membership beginning in 1986, the party has regularly resisted further integration through the European Union (EU). A major argument has been that EU membership would not resolve Portugal's chronic economic problems but would only increase its dependence on the world. Ever since, the PCP has argued that its opposition to membership was correct and that further involvement with the EU would only result in further economic dependence and a consequent loss of Portuguese national sovereignty. Further, the party maintained that as Portugal's ties with the EU increased, the vulnerable agrarian sector in Portugal would risk further losses.Changes in PCP leadership may or may not alter the party's electoral position and role in the political system. As younger generations forget the uniqueness of the party's resistance to the Estado Novo, public images of PCP leadership will change. As the image of Álvaro Cunhal and other historical communist leaders slowly recedes, and the stature of Carlos Carvalhas (general secretary since 1992) and other moderate leaders is enhanced, the party's survival and legitimacy have strengthened. On 6 March 2001, the PCP celebrated its 80th anniversary.See also Left Bloc.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Portuguese Communist Party
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26 Empire, Portuguese overseas
(1415-1975)Portugal was the first Western European state to establish an early modern overseas empire beyond the Mediterranean and perhaps the last colonial power to decolonize. A vast subject of complexity that is full of myth as well as debatable theories, the history of the Portuguese overseas empire involves the story of more than one empire, the question of imperial motives, the nature of Portuguese rule, and the results and consequences of empire, including the impact on subject peoples as well as on the mother country and its society, Here, only the briefest account of a few such issues can be attempted.There were various empires or phases of empire after the capture of the Moroccan city of Ceuta in 1415. There were at least three Portuguese empires in history: the First empire (1415-1580), the Second empire (1580-1640 and 1640-1822), and the Third empire (1822-1975).With regard to the second empire, the so-called Phillipine period (1580-1640), when Portugal's empire was under Spanish domination, could almost be counted as a separate era. During that period, Portugal lost important parts of its Asian holdings to England and also sections of its colonies of Brazil, Angola, and West Africa to Holland's conquests. These various empires could be characterized by the geography of where Lisbon invested its greatest efforts and resources to develop territories and ward off enemies.The first empire (1415-1580) had two phases. First came the African coastal phase (1415-97), when the Portuguese sought a foothold in various Moroccan cities but then explored the African coast from Morocco to past the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. While colonization and sugar farming were pursued in the Atlantic islands, as well as in the islands in the Gulf of Guinea like São Tomé and Príncipe, for the most part the Portuguese strategy was to avoid commitments to defending or peopling lands on the African continent. Rather, Lisbon sought a seaborne trade empire, in which the Portuguese could profit from exploiting trade and resources (such as gold) along the coasts and continue exploring southward to seek a sea route to Portuguese India. The second phase of the first empire (1498-1580) began with the discovery of the sea route to Asia, thanks to Vasco da Gama's first voyage in 1497-99, and the capture of strong points, ports, and trading posts in order to enforce a trade monopoly between Asia and Europe. This Asian phase produced the greatest revenues of empire Portugal had garnered, yet ended when Spain conquered Portugal and commanded her empire as of 1580.Portugal's second overseas empire began with Spanish domination and ran to 1822, when Brazil won her independence from Portugal. This phase was characterized largely by Brazilian dominance of imperial commitment, wealth in minerals and other raw materials from Brazil, and the loss of a significant portion of her African and Asian coastal empire to Holland and Great Britain. A sketch of Portugal's imperial losses either to native rebellions or to imperial rivals like Britain and Holland follows:• Morocco (North Africa) (sample only)Arzila—Taken in 1471; evacuated in 1550s; lost to Spain in 1580, which returned city to a sultan.Ceuta—Taken in 1415; lost to Spain in 1640 (loss confirmed in 1668 treaty with Spain).• Tangiers—Taken in 15th century; handed over to England in 1661 as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry to King Charles II.• West Africa• Fort/Castle of São Jorge da Mina, Gold Coast (in what is now Ghana)—Taken in 1480s; lost to Holland in 1630s.• Middle EastSocotra-isle—Conquered in 1507; fort abandoned in 1511; used as water resupply stop for India fleet.Muscat—Conquered in 1501; lost to Persians in 1650.Ormuz—Taken, 1505-15 under Albuquerque; lost to England, which gave it to Persia in the 17th century.Aden (entry to Red Sea) — Unsuccessfully attacked by Portugal (1513-30); taken by Turks in 1538.• India• Ceylon (Sri Lanka)—Taken by 1516; lost to Dutch after 1600.• Bombay—Taken in 16th century; given to England in 1661 treaty as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry for Charles II.• East Indies• Moluccas—Taken by 1520; possession confirmed in 1529 Saragossa treaty with Spain; lost to Dutch after 1600; only East Timor remaining.After the restoration of Portuguese independence from Spain in 1640, Portugal proceeded to revive and strengthen the Anglo- Portuguese Alliance, with international aid to fight off further Spanish threats to Portugal and drive the Dutch invaders out of Brazil and Angola. While Portugal lost its foothold in West Africa at Mina to the Dutch, dominion in Angola was consolidated. The most vital part of the imperial economy was a triangular trade: slaves from West Africa and from the coasts of Congo and Angola were shipped to plantations in Brazil; raw materials (sugar, tobacco, gold, diamonds, dyes) were sent to Lisbon; Lisbon shipped Brazil colonists and hardware. Part of Portugal's War of Restoration against Spain (1640-68) and its reclaiming of Brazil and Angola from Dutch intrusions was financed by the New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity after the 1496 Manueline order of expulsion of Jews) who lived in Portugal, Holland and other low countries, France, and Brazil. If the first empire was mainly an African coastal and Asian empire, the second empire was primarily a Brazilian empire.Portugal's third overseas empire began upon the traumatic independence of Brazil, the keystone of the Lusitanian enterprise, in 1822. The loss of Brazil greatly weakened Portugal both as a European power and as an imperial state, for the scattered remainder of largely coastal, poor, and uncolonized territories that stretched from the bulge of West Africa to East Timor in the East Indies and Macau in south China were more of a financial liability than an asset. Only two small territories balanced their budgets occasionally or made profits: the cocoa islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea and tiny Macau, which lost much of its advantage as an entrepot between the West and the East when the British annexed neighboring Hong Kong in 1842. The others were largely burdens on the treasury. The African colonies were strapped by a chronic economic problem: at a time when the slave trade and then slavery were being abolished under pressures from Britain and other Western powers, the economies of Guinea- Bissau, São Tomé/Príncipe, Angola, and Mozambique were totally dependent on revenues from the slave trade and slavery. During the course of the 19th century, Lisbon began a program to reform colonial administration in a newly rejuvenated African empire, where most of the imperial efforts were expended, by means of replacing the slave trade and slavery, with legitimate economic activities.Portugal participated in its own early version of the "Scramble" for Africa's interior during 1850-69, but discovered that the costs of imperial expansion were too high to allow effective occupation of the hinterlands. After 1875, Portugal participated in the international "Scramble for Africa" and consolidated its holdings in west and southern Africa, despite the failure of the contra-costa (to the opposite coast) plan, which sought to link up the interiors of Angola and Mozambique with a corridor in central Africa. Portugal's expansion into what is now Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (eastern section) in 1885-90 was thwarted by its oldest ally, Britain, under pressure from interest groups in South Africa, Scotland, and England. All things considered, Portugal's colonizing resources and energies were overwhelmed by the African empire it possessed after the frontier-marking treaties of 1891-1906. Lisbon could barely administer the massive area of five African colonies, whose total area comprised about 8 percent of the area of the colossal continent. The African territories alone were many times the size of tiny Portugal and, as of 1914, Portugal was the third colonial power in terms of size of area possessed in the world.The politics of Portugal's empire were deceptive. Lisbon remained obsessed with the fear that rival colonial powers, especially Germany and Britain, would undermine and then dismantle her African empire. This fear endured well into World War II. In developing and keeping her potentially rich African territories (especially mineral-rich Angola and strategically located Mozambique), however, the race against time was with herself and her subject peoples. Two major problems, both chronic, prevented Portugal from effective colonization (i.e., settling) and development of her African empire: the economic weakness and underdevelopment of the mother country and the fact that the bulk of Portuguese emigration after 1822 went to Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, and France, not to the colonies. These factors made it difficult to consolidate imperial control until it was too late; that is, until local African nationalist movements had organized and taken the field in insurgency wars that began in three of the colonies during the years 1961-64.Portugal's belated effort to revitalize control and to develop, in the truest sense of the word, Angola and Mozambique after 1961 had to be set against contemporary events in Europe, Africa, and Asia. While Portugal held on to a backward empire, other European countries like Britain, France, and Belgium were rapidly decolonizing their empires. Portugal's failure or unwillingness to divert the large streams of emigrants to her empire after 1850 remained a constant factor in this question. Prophetic were the words of the 19th-century economist Joaquim Oliveira Martins, who wrote in 1880 that Brazil was a better colony for Portugal than Africa and that the best colony of all would have been Portugal itself. As of the day of the Revolution of 25 April 1974, which sparked the final process of decolonization of the remainder of Portugal's third overseas empire, the results of the colonization program could be seen to be modest compared to the numbers of Portuguese emigrants outside the empire. Moreover, within a year, of some 600,000 Portuguese residing permanently in Angola and Mozambique, all but a few thousand had fled to South Africa or returned to Portugal.In 1974 and 1975, most of the Portuguese empire was decolonized or, in the case of East Timor, invaded and annexed by a foreign power before it could consolidate its independence. Only historic Macau, scheduled for transfer to the People's Republic of China in 1999, remained nominally under Portuguese control as a kind of footnote to imperial history. If Portugal now lacked a conventional overseas empire and was occupied with the challenges of integration in the European Union (EU), Lisbon retained another sort of informal dependency that was a new kind of empire: the empire of her scattered overseas Portuguese communities from North America to South America. Their numbers were at least six times greater than that of the last settlers of the third empire.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Empire, Portuguese overseas
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27 Foreign policy
The guiding principle of Portuguese foreign policy since the founding of the monarchy in the 12th century has been the maintenance of Portugal's status first as an independent kingdom and, later, as a sovereign nation-state. For the first 800 years of its existence, Portuguese foreign policy and diplomacy sought to maintain the independence of the Portuguese monarchy, especially in relationship to the larger and more powerful Spanish monarchy. During this period, the Anglo- Portuguese Alliance, which began with a treaty of commerce and friendship signed between the kings of Portugal and England in 1386 (the Treaty of Windsor) and continued with the Methuen Treaty in 1703, sought to use England ( Great Britain after 1707) as a counterweight to its landward neighbor, Spain.As three invasions of Portugal by Napoleon's armies during the first decade of the 19th century proved, however, Spain was not the only threat to Portugal's independence and security. Portugal's ally, Britain, provided a counterweight also to a threatening France on more than one occasion between 1790 and 1830. During the 19th century, Portugal's foreign policy became largely subordinate to that of her oldest ally, Britain, and standard Portuguese histories describe Portugal's situation as that of a "protectorate" of Britain. In two key aspects during this time of international weakness and internal turmoil, Portugal's foreign policy was under great pressure from her ally, world power Britain: responses to European conflicts and to the situation of Portugal's scattered, largely impoverished overseas empire. Portugal's efforts to retain massive, resource-rich Brazil in her empire failed by 1822, when Brazil declared its independence. Britain's policy of favoring greater trade and commerce opportunities in an autonomous Brazil was at odds with Portugal's desperate efforts to hold Brazil.Following the loss of Brazil and a renewed interest in empire in tropical Africa, Portugal sought to regain a more independent initiative in her foreign policy and, especially after 1875, overseas imperial questions dominated foreign policy concerns. From this juncture, through the first Republic (1910-26) and during the Estado Novo, a primary purpose of Portuguese foreign policy was to maintain Portuguese India, Macau, and its colonies in Africa: Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea- Bissau. Under the direction of the dictator, Antônio de Oliveira Salazar, further efforts were made to reclaim a measure of independence of foreign policy, despite the tradition of British dominance. Salazar recognized the importance of an Atlantic orientation of the country's foreign policy. As Herbert Pell, U.S. Ambassador to Portugal (1937-41), observed in a June 1939 report to the U.S. Department of State, Portugal's leaders understood that Portugal must side with "that nation which dominates the Atlantic."During the 1930s, greater efforts were made in Lisbon in economic, financial, and foreign policy initiatives to assert a greater measure of flexibility in her dependence on ally Britain. German economic interests made inroads in an economy whose infrastructure in transportation, communication, and commerce had long been dominated by British commerce and investors. Portugal's foreign policy during World War II was challenged as both Allied and Axis powers tested the viability of Portugal's official policy of neutrality, qualified by a customary bow to the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance. Antônio de Oliveira Salazar, who served as minister of foreign affairs, as well as prime minister, during 1936-45, sought to sell his version of neutrality to both sides in the war and to do so in a way that would benefit Portugal's still weak economy and finance. Portugal's status as a neutral was keenly tested in several cases, including Portugal's agreeing to lease military bases to Britain and the United States in the Azores Islands and in the wolfram (tungsten ore) question. Portugal's foreign policy experienced severe pressures from the Allies in both cases, and Salazar made it clear to his British and American counterparts that Portugal sought to claim the right to make independent choices in policy, despite Portugal's military and economic weakness. In tense diplomatic negotiations with the Allies over Portugal's wolfram exports to Germany as of 1944, Salazar grew disheartened and briefly considered resigning over the wolfram question. Foreign policy pressure on this question diminished quickly on 6 June 1944, as Salazar decreed that wolfram mining, sales, and exports to both sides would cease for the remainder of the war. After the United States joined the Allies in the war and pursued an Atlantic strategy, Portugal discovered that her relationship with the dominant ally in the emerging United Nations was changing and that the U.S. would replace Britain as the key Atlantic ally during succeeding decades. Beginning in 1943-44, and continuing to 1949, when Portugal became, with the United States, a founding member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Luso-American relations assumed center stage in her foreign policy.During the Cold War, Portuguese foreign policy was aligned with that of the United States and its allies in Western Europe. After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the focus of Portuguese foreign policy shifted away from defending and maintaining the African colonies toward integration with Europe. Since Portugal became a member of the European Economic Community in 1986, and this evolved into the European Union (EU), all Portuguese governments have sought to align Portugal's foreign policy with that of the EU in general and to be more independent of the United States. Since 1986, Portugal's bilateral commercial and diplomatic relations with Britain, France, and Spain have strengthened, especially those with Spain, which are more open and mutually beneficial than at any other time in history.Within the EU, Portugal has sought to play a role in the promotion of democracy and human rights, while maintaining its security ties to NATO. Currently, a Portuguese politician, José Manuel Durão Barroso, is president of the Commission of the EU, and Portugal has held the six-month rotating presidency of the EU three times, in 1992, 2000, and 2007. -
28 Theater, Portuguese
There are two types of theater in Portugal: classical or "serious" theater and light theater, or the Theater of Review, largely the Revistas de Lisboa (Lisbon Reviews). Modern theater, mostly but not exclusively centered in Lisbon, experienced an unfortunate impact from official censorship during the Estado Novo (1926-74). Following laws passed in 1927, the government decreed that, as a cultural activity, any theatrical presentations that were judged "offensive in law, in morality and in decent customs" were prohibited. One consequence that derived from the risk of prohibition was that directors and playwrights began to practice self-censorship. This discouraged liberal and experimental theatrical work, weakened commercial investment in theater, and made employment in much theater a risky business, with indifferent public support.Despite these political obstacles and the usual risks and difficulties of producing live theater in competition first with emerging cinema and then with television (which began in any case only after 1957), some good theatrical work flourished. Two of the century's greatest repertory actresses, Amélia Rey-Colaço (1898-1990) and Maria Matos (1890-1962), put together talented acting companies and performed well-received classical theater. Two periods witnessed a brief diminution of censorship: following World War II (1945-47) and during Prime Minister Marcello Caetano's government (1968-74). Although Portuguese playwrights also produced comedies and dramas, some of the best productions reached the stage under the authorship of foreign playwrights: Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw, Arthur Miller, and others.A major new phase of Portuguese serious theater began in the 1960s, with the staging of challenging plays by playwrights José Cardoso Pires, Luis Sttau Monteiro, and Bernardo Santareno. Since the Revolution of 25 April 1974, more funds for experimental theater have become available, and government censorship ceased. As in so much of Western European theater, however, the general public tended to favor not plays with serious content but techno-hits that featured foreign imports, including musicals, or homegrown musicals on familiar themes. Nevertheless, after 1974, the theater scene was enlivened, not only in Lisbon, but also in Oporto, Coimbra, and other cities.The Theater of Review, or light theater, was introduced to Portugal in the 19th century and was based largely on French models. Adapted to the Portuguese scene, the Lisbon reviews featured pageantry, costume, comic skits, music (including the ever popular fado), dance, and slapstick humor and satire. Despite censorship, its heyday occurred actually during the Estado Novo, before 1968. Of all the performing arts, the Lisbon reviews enjoyed the greatest freedom from official political censorship. Certain periods featured more limited censorship, as cited earlier (1945-47 and 1968-74). The main venue of the Theater of Review was located in central Lisbon's Parque Mayer, an amusement park that featured four review theaters: Maria Vitória, Variedades, Capitólio, and ABC.Many actors and stage designers, as well as some musicians, served their apprenticeship in the Lisbon reviews before they moved into film and television. Noted fado singers, the fadistas, and composers plied their trade in Parque Mayer and built popular followings. The subjects of the reviews, often with provocative titles, varied greatly and followed contemporary social, economic, and even political fashion and trends, but audiences especially liked satire directed against convention and custom. If political satire was not passed by the censor in the press or on television, sometimes the Lisbon reviews, by the use of indirection and allegory, could get by with subtle critiques of some personalities in politics and society. A humorous stereotyping of customs of "the people," usually conceived of as Lisbon street people or naive "country bumpkins," was also popular. To a much greater degree than in classical, serious theater, the Lisbon review audiences steadily supported this form of public presentation. But the zenith of this form of theater had been passed by the late 1960s as audiences dwindled, production expenses rose, and film and television offered competition.The hopes that governance under Prime Minister Marcello Caetano would bring a new season of freedom of expression in the light theater or serious theater were dashed by 1970-71, as censorship again bore down. With revolution in the offing, change was in the air, and could be observed in a change of review show title. A Lisbon review show title on the eve of the Revolution of 25 April 1974, was altered from: 'To See, to Hear... and Be Quiet" to the suggestive, "To See, to Hear... and to Talk." The review theater experienced several difficult years after 1980, and virtually ceased to exist in Parque Mayer. In the late 1990s, nevertheless, this traditional form of entertainment underwent a gradual revival. Audiences again began to troop to renovated theater space in the amusement park to enjoy once again new lively and humorous reviews, cast for a new century and applied to Portugal today. -
29 North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO)Portugal joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949, as a founding member. Besides complementing the Atlantic orientation of Portugal's foreign and defense policies, this membership also supported the country's close relationship with two leading members of NATO, Great Britain and the United States. Portugal's slight contribution to NATO in the first decades after joining was conditioned mainly by the fact that Portugal's primary concern was in defending its colonial empire, Portuguese India (1954-61) and in conducting several colonial wars in its African empire in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea- Bissau (1961-74). One contentious question during this phase of Portugal's membership was the extent to which Portugal used NATO-issued equipment to fight those wars in Africa and Asia, since several of these colonial territories were neither on the Atlantic nor in NATO's jurisdiction (Mozambique and Portuguese India).The perceived strategic value of Portugal's key Atlantic archipelagos, the Azores and Madeiras, constituted Portugal's primary contribution to NATO and neutralized any U.S. ambivalence about the question of Portugal's NATO membership. The usefulness of Azores' air and naval bases, especially Lajes base at Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island, Azores, along with bases in continental Portugal and in the Madeira Islands, trumped international criticism of Portugal's colonial action and influenced American policy toward Portugal. This remained the situation until after the Yom Kippur war, an Arab-Israeli conflict, in October 1973, when Portugal, despite the risks to her energy supplies, gave the United States permission to use Azores bases for resupplying Israel.The Revolution of 25 April 1974 had an impact on Portugal's relationship to NATO. Leftist forces in Portugal were now in command, and Portuguese NATO delegates did not attend highly sensitive NATO defense briefings. But by 1980, after moderate military forces had ousted the radical leftists, Portugal's NATO roles returned to the routing. One of NATO's major subordinate commands became IBERLANT (Iberian Atlantic Command), under SACLANT (Supreme Commander Atlantic), located at Norfolk, Virginia. IBERLANT is located at Oeiras, Portugal and, in 1982, the IBERLAND commander for the first time was a Portuguese Vice Admiral. That same year, Spain joined NATO and, until 1986, when Spain decided not to join NATO's integrated military structure, Portugal was anxious that Portuguese commanders not be subordinate to Spanish commanders in NATO. As a key leader of IBERLANT, along with the representative units of Great Britain and the United States, Portugal's forces remain responsible for surveillance and patrolling of the area from central Portugal to the straits of Gibraltar.Portugal has made symbolic if modest contributions to NATO's mission in the Balkan conflicts beginning in the late 1990s and in Afghanistan since 2001. Among Portugal's contributions has been the service of medical units in Afghanistan.Historical dictionary of Portugal > North Atlantic Treaty Organization
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30 Banking
Historically, banking in Portugal was in the hands of eight very large family-owned private banks (Banco Totta e Açores, Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Banco Pinto e Sotto Mayor, Banco Espirito Santo, Banco Português do Atlantico, Banco Borges e Irmão, Banco Fonsecas e Burnay, and Banco Intercontinental Português), all regulated by the state-owned Banco de Portugal. After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, private banks and private insurance companies were nationalized; that is, taken over by the state. Nationalization created structural problems for banks because they were required to extend credit at negative real interest rates to finance the budget deficits of nonprofitable public enterprises. They were also plagued by undercapitalization, overstaffing, and excessive branching.The banking sector began to change during the 1980s, when, as a condition for joining the European Economic Community (EEC), it was liberalized and internationalized. In 1984, a law was passed that allowed private banks and insurance companies to be organized. In the 1980s, six foreign banks (Manufacturers Hanover Trust, Chase Manhattan, Barclays, Banque Nationale de Paris, Citicorp, and Gé-nérale de Banque of Belgium) and four majority Portuguese banks (Banco de Comércio e Indústria, Banco Internacional de Crédito, Banco Português de Investimento, and Banco Comercial Português) began operating. In the 1990s, the banks nationalized after the Revolution of 25 April were reprivatized (beginning with Banco Totta e Açores followed by Banco Português do Atlantico) by selling shares in them to the public. This has allowed some of the dispossessed families, such as the Espirito Santos, to attempt to regain control of their banks by becoming majority shareholders in them. Despite the privatizations of the 1990s, the Portuguese state maintains tight control over banking through the Banco de Portugal. The state continues to be a majority shareholder in the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Portugal's largest savings bank, the Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Banco de Fomento e Exterior, and the Banco Borges e Irmão. -
31 Commemorations, Portuguese historic
As in so many other activities of Portugal and its people, in historic commemorative work, the past always seems present. For more than a century, Portugal has planned and sponsored a variety of historic commemorations related to the glorious Age of Discoveries era of historic Portugal. The Columban centenary commemorations, involving Spain and Italy in particular, have gained greater world attention, Portugal, nevertheless, has a history of her own commemorations.Whatever the political ideology of the governmental system involved, Portugal's historic commemorations have been continuous and well-planned, and have sought to stir national pride as well as regime loyalty. Portugal's official efforts in public commemoration date at least back to 1880, when the Portuguese celebrated the 300th anniversary of the death of the national epic poet, Luís de Camões. Others followed that sought to arouse national remembrance and encourage notions of national revival, by focusing either on biographical or national discovery dates. The next major commemoration was in 1894, when Portugal commemorated the 500th anniversary of the birth in 1394 of Prince Henry of Aviz (Prince Henry the Navigator) and, in 1897-99, the 400th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India.The 20th century has seen the most elaborate and publicized historic commemorations for Portugal. Besides its extensive propaganda program beginning in the 1930s, the Estado Novo put considerable effort into extensive historic commemorations, with the purpose of encouraging national pride and international respect, as well as regime loyalty. At least three national commemorations are worthy of note here, although scores of other events were held on a smaller scale. From June to December 1940, Portugal held the grand Double Centenary celebrations, which celebrated Portugal's emergence as an independent monarchy and state in 1140 (800 years) and the restoration of independence from Spain in 1640 (300 years). More than five months of activities included expensive publications of books and tourist materials, exhibits, academic conferences, and an outstanding Lisbon "world's fair" known as the "Exposition of the Portuguese World," staged at Belém, in front of the Monastery of Jerónimos, and involving the unveiling for the first time of the new Monument of the Discoveries.Two other commemorations of the Estado Novo deserve mention: the 1947 celebration of the 800th anniversary of the Portuguese taking of Lisbon (1147) from Moorish forces and the 1960 commemoration activities marking the 500th anniversary of the death of the central figure of the Portuguese Discoveries, Prince Henry the Navigator. The latter set of events took place during a time of political sensitivity, when the government's African policy was under strong international pressures.Since the Revolution of 25 April 1974, democratic Portugal has put substantial resources into commemorating various persons and events of the Age of Discoveries. In 1980, Portugal's scholars celebrated the 400th anniversary of the death of the national poet Camões in many books, articles, exhibits, and conferences. But this would all be overshadowed by the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Portuguese Discoveries, which would run from 1988 to 2000. This elaborate effort involved the establishment of a government agency, the National Committee for the Commemoration of the Portuguese Discoveries, headed by one of Portugal's most eminent scholars on the subject, Dr. Vasco Graça Moura. Commemoration began in 1988 with the celebration and reenactment of the 1488 voyage of navigator Bartolomeu Dias from Lisbon to beyond the Cape of Good Hope, in South Africa. The 12-year cycle, the longest Discoveries commemorations of any century and of any Western country, put the 1992 Columban Quincentenary events somewhat in the shade.Between May and October 1998, Portugal held Expo '98 in Lisbon, a world's fair that was keyed to the celebration of the 500th anniversary of Vasco da Gama's discovery of an all-water route to India in 1498. This cycle ended in 2000, marking the 500th anniversary of the year that Portugal's Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Commemorations, Portuguese historic
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32 France
The continental European country with which Portugal has had the closest and most friendly relations since the Middle Ages and whose culture since early modern times has been the most important model for Portugal's culture. Beginning in the Reconquest, French groups assisted the Portuguese in fighting the Muslims, and Portugal's first royal dynasty was Burgundian. Various French religious orders settled in Portugal and brought new skills and ideas. Franco-Portuguese relations in diplomacy went through various phases after a virtual break between the two monarchies during the Hundred Years' War and Castile's campaigns to conquer Portugal up to the battle of Aljubarrota (1385), when France was the main ally of Castile. France gave Portugal vital assistance in the 16th and 17th centuries against Spanish aggression. French aid was given to Dom Antônio, Prior of Crato, who opposed Filipe's domination of Portugal, and to restoration Portugal during the War of Restoration (1640-68). With the important exception of the disastrous Napoleonic invasions and war (1807-11), Franco-Portuguese relations in diplomacy, trade, and culture were exceptionally good from the first quarter of the 19th century.In part as a response to unpopular Castilianization during Spain's domination, the Portuguese found French culture a comforting, novel foil and prestigious alternative. Despite Great Britain's dominance in matters commercial, diplomatic, and political under the Anglo- Portuguese Alliance, French culture and politics came to enjoy primary importance in Portugal. Even in commerce, France was Portugal's third or fourth best customer during the 19th century. Especially between 1820 and 1960, French influence provided a major model for the well-educated.A brief list of some key political, literary, philosophical, and artistic ideas Portugal eagerly embraced is suggestive. King Pedro IV's 1826 Charter ( A Carta) was directly modeled on an early French constitution. French models of liberalism and socialism prevailed in politics; impressionism in art; romanticism and realism, Parnassian-ism, and symbolism in literature; positivism and Bergsonianism in philosophy, etc. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Portuguese language, including vocabulary and orthography (spelling), experienced extensive Frenchification. French became the second language of Portugal's elite, providing access to knowledge and information vital for the education and development of isolated Portugal.French cultural influences became pervasive and entered the country by various means: through the French invasions before 1811, trade and commerce, improved international communication and transportation, Portuguese emigration to France (which became a mass movement after 1950), and close diplomatic and intellectual relations. An example of the importance of French culture until recently, when British and American cultural influences have become more significant, was that works in French dominated foreign book sections in Portuguese bookstores. If Portugal retained the oldest diplomatic link in world history with Britain, its chief cultural model until recently was France. Until after the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the largest portion of Portugal's educated elite studying abroad resided in France and took French higher degrees. The pattern of Portuguese students in higher education abroad has diversified in the years since, and now a significant portion are studying in other European continental states as well as in Britain and the United States. Diplomatic posts in France rank high in the pecking order of Portugal's small foreign service. -
33 Socialist Party / Partido Socialista
(PS)Although the Socialist Party's origins can be traced back to the 1850s, its existence has not been continuous. The party did not achieve or maintain a large base of support until after the Revolution of 25 April 1974. Historically, it played only a minor political role when compared to other European socialist parties.During the Estado Novo, the PS found it difficult to maintain a clandestine existence, and the already weak party literally withered away. Different groups and associations endeavored to keep socialist ideals alive, but they failed to create an organizational structure that would endure. In 1964, Mário Soares, Francisco Ramos da Costa, and Manuel Tito de Morais established the Portuguese Socialist Action / Acção Socialista Português (ASP) in Geneva, a group of individuals with similar views rather than a true political party. Most members were middle-class professionals committed to democratizing the nation. The rigidity of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) led some to join the ASP.By the early 1970s, ASP nuclei existed beyond Portugal in Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, Frankfurt, Sweden, and Switzerland; these consisted of members studying, working, teaching, researching, or in other activities. Extensive connections were developed with other foreign socialist parties. Changing conditions in Portugal, as well as the colonial wars, led several ASP members to advocate the creation of a real political party, strengthening the organization within Portugal, and positioning this to compete for power once the regime changed.The current PS was founded clandestinely on 19 April 1973, by a group of 27 exiled Portuguese and domestic ASP representatives at the Kurt Schumacher Academy of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Bad Munstereifel, West Germany. The founding philosophy was influenced by nondogmatic Marxism as militants sought to create a classless society. The rhetoric was to be revolutionary to outflank its competitors, especially the PCP, on its left. The party hoped to attract reform-minded Catholics and other groups that were committed to democracy but could not support the communists.At the time of the 1974 revolution, the PS was little more than an elite faction based mainly among exiles. It was weakly organized and had little grassroots support outside the major cities and larger towns. Its organization did not improve significantly until the campaign for the April 1975 constituent elections. Since then, the PS has become very pragmatic and moderate and has increasingly diluted its socialist program until it has become a center-left party. Among the party's most consistent principles in its platform since the late 1970s has been its support for Portugal's membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union (EU), a view that clashed with those of its rivals to the left, especially the PCP. Given the PS's broad base of support, the increased distance between its leftist rhetoric and its more conservative actions has led to sharp internal divisions in the party. The PS and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) are now the two dominant parties in the Portuguese political party system.In doctrine and rhetoric the PS has undergone a de-Marxification and a movement toward the center as a means to challenge its principal rival for hegemony, the PSD. The uneven record of the PS in general elections since its victory in 1975, and sometimes its failure to keep strong legislative majorities, have discouraged voters. While the party lost the 1979 and 1980 general elections, it triumphed in the 1983 elections, when it won 36 percent of the vote, but it still did not gain an absolute majority in the Assembly of the Republic. The PSD led by Cavaco Silva dominated elections from 1985 to 1995, only to be defeated by the PS in the 1995 general elections. By 2000, the PS had conquered the commanding heights of the polity: President Jorge Sampaio had been reelected for a second term, PS prime minister António Guterres was entrenched, and the mayor of Lisbon was João Soares, son of the former socialist president, Mário Soares (1986-96).The ideological transformation of the PS occurred gradually after 1975, within the context of a strong PSD, an increasingly conservative electorate, and the de-Marxification of other European Socialist parties, including those in Germany and Scandinavia. While the PS paid less attention to the PCP on its left and more attention to the PSD, party leaders shed Marxist trappings. In the 1986 PS official program, for example, the text does not include the word Marxism.Despite the party's election victories in the mid- and late-1990s, the leadership discovered that their grasp of power and their hegemony in governance at various levels was threatened by various factors: President Jorge Sampaio's second term, the constitution mandated, had to be his last.Following the defeat of the PS by the PSD in the municipal elections of December 2001, Premier Antônio Guterres resigned his post, and President Sampaio dissolved parliament and called parliamentary elections for the spring. In the 17 March 2002 elections, following Guterres's resignation as party leader, the PS was defeated by the PSD by a vote of 40 percent to 38 percent. Among the factors that brought about the socialists' departure from office was the worsening post-September 11 economy and disarray within the PS leadership circles, as well as charges of corruption among PS office holders. However, the PS won 45 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections of 2005, and the leader of the party, José Sócrates, a self-described "market-oriented socialist" became prime minister.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Socialist Party / Partido Socialista
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34 Trade
Owing to the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, England ( Great Britain after 1707) was, until the 1920s, Portugal's main trading partner. The Methuen Treaty (1703) stipulated that Portuguese wines and English woolens would be exempt from custom duties. The imperial nationalist economic ideas of the Estado Novo directed Portuguese trade toward its Africa colonies of Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea- Bissau. The historical importance of the British export market to Portuguese trade necessitated Portugal becoming a charter member of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) in 1959.When Britain joined the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973, Portugal had to follow, with a trade agreement with the European Union (EU). Negotiations between Portugal and the EU produced an accord that stipulated mutual tariff reductions, until their disappearance in mid-1977 on industrial products, while EU member states were allowed to restrict some Portuguese textiles and paper and cork products. Tariffs were also reduced for Portuguese tinned tomatoes and fish, as well as for port wine. Since gaining full membership in the EU in 1986. Portugal's trade has shifted strongly toward continental EU member states. In the 1990s, EEC/EU member states purchased nearly 75 percent of Portugal's exports and supplied nearly 70 percent of its imports. Within the EEC/EU, Britain, Germany, France, and Spain are Portugal's a main trading partners. Portuguese trade with its former colonies fell sharply after the Revolution of 25 April 1974, as Portugal turned away from Africa and toward Europe.In 2007, Portugal's major commodity exports have been textiles, clothing, footwear, machinery, transportation equipment, paper and cork products, wine, tomato paste, chemicals, and plastic products. Portugal's comparative advantage lies in its low hourly costs for skilled labor, which are about 20 percent lower than other EU member states. Manufactured goods account for about 75 percent of merchandise imports; food and beverages about 10 percent; and raw materials (mainly petroleum) about 15 percent. -
35 Christian Democratic Party
Established originally as the Centro Democático e Social (CDS) in May 1974, following the fall of the Estado Novo, the CDS was supported by conservatives inspired by Christian humanism and Catholic social doctrines. In the first democratic elections after the Revolution of 25 April 1974, which were held on 25 April 1975, the CDS won only a disappointing 7.6 percent of the vote for the Constituent Assembly. In the following general elections for the Assembly of the Republic, in April 1976, however, the party more than doubled its votes to 16 percent and surpassed the number of votes for the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP). In 1979-80, the Christian Democrats joined the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in a coalition called the Aliança Democrática (Democratic Alliance), a grouping that defeated the Socialist Party (PS) in the succeeding elections. The Christian Democrats remained in the background as the principal party rivals for power were the PS and the PSD.In the 1990s, the CDS altered its name to the Partido Popular (PP) and featured new leaders such as party chief Paulo Portas. While the democratic Portuguese system had become virtually a two-party dominant system by the 1980s and 1990s, the PP would have opportunities, depending upon circumstances, to share power in another coalition with one of the two larger, major parties, the PS or PSD. Indeed, parliamentary election results in March 2002 gave the party just such an opportunity, as the PP won 14 percent of the vote, thus surpassing for the first time since the 1975 elections the PCP, which was reduced to 12 percent of the vote. The PP thus gained new influence as the PSD, which won the largest number of seats in this election, was obliged to share governance with the PP in order to have a working majority in the legislature.Various right-wing lobbies and interest groups influenced the PP. In early 2000, the PP proposed a law to the Assembly of the Republic whereby former colonists, now mainly resident in Portugal, who had lost property in Portugal's former colonies of Angola and Mozambique, would be compensated by Portugal for material losses during decolonization. The PP leadership argued that the manner in which the governments after the Revolution of 25 April 1974 administered the disputed, controversial decolonization process in these territories made the government responsible for compensating Portuguese citizens for such losses. The PS-dominated government of then prime minister, Antônio Guterres, argued, however, that independent governments of those former colonies were responsible for any compensation due. Thus, Guterres declined to accept the proposed legislation. This proposal by the PP and others like it followed upon other proposed laws such as Law 20, 19 June 1997, put before the Assembly of the Republic, which was passed under the aegis of the PS. This law pledged to compensate opposition militants (the survivors) who had opposed the Estado Novo and had spent years in exile, as well as in clandestine activities. Such compensations would come in the form of pensions and social security benefits. Given the strength of conservative constituencies and former settlers' lobbies, it is likely that the Christian Democrats will introduce more such proposed laws in future parliamentary sessions.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Christian Democratic Party
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36 Cinema
Portuguese cinema had its debut in June 1896 at the Royal Coliseum, Lisbon, only six months after the pioneering French cinema-makers, the brothers Lumiere, introduced the earliest motion pictures to Paris audiences. Cinema pioneers in Portugal included photographer Manuel Maria da Costa Veiga and an early enthusiast, Aurelio da Paz dos Reis. The first movie theater opened in Lisbon in 1904, and most popular were early silent shorts, including documentaries and scenes of King Carlos I swimming at Cascais beach. Beginning with the Invicta Film company in 1912 and its efforts to produce films, Portuguese cinema-makers sought technical assistance in Paris. In 1918, French film technicians from Pathé Studios of Paris came to Portugal to produce cinema. The Portuguese writer of children's books, Virginia de Castro e Almeida, hired French film and legal personnel in the 1920s under the banner of "Fortuna Film" and produced several silent films based on her compositions.In the 1930s, Portuguese cinema underwent an important advance with the work of Portuguese director-producers, including AntônioLopes Ribeiro, Manoel de Oliveira, Leitao de Barros, and Artur Duarte. They were strongly influenced by contemporary French, German, and Russian cinema, and they recruited their cinema actors from the Portuguese Theater, especially from the popular Theater of Review ( teatro de revista) of Lisbon. They included comedy radio and review stars such as Vasco Santana, Antônio Silva, Maria Matos, and Ribeirinho. As the Estado Novo regime appreciated the important potential role of film as a mode of propaganda, greater government controls and regulation followed. The first Portuguese sound film, A Severa (1928), based on a Julio Dantas book, was directed by Leitão de Barros.The next period of Portuguese cinema, the 1930s, 1940s, and much of the 1950s, has been labeled, Comédia a portuguesa, or Portuguese Comedy, as it was dominated by comedic actors from Lisbon's Theatre of Review and by such classic comedies as 1933's A Cancáo de Lisboa and similar genre such as O Pai Tirano, O Pátio das Cantigas, and A Costa do Castelo. The Portuguese film industry was extremely small and financially constrained and, until after 1970, only several films were made each year. A new era followed, the so-called "New Cinema," or Novo Cinema (ca. 1963-74), when the dictatorship collapsed. Directors of this era, influenced by France's New Wave cinema movement, were led by Fernando Lopes, Paulo Rocha, and others.After the 1974-75 Revolution, filmmakers, encouraged by new political and social freedoms, explored new themes: realism, legend, politics, and ethnography and, in the 1980s, other themes, including docufiction. Even after political liberty arrived, leaders of the cinema industry confronted familiar challenges of filmmakers everywhere: finding funds for production and audiences to purchase tickets. As the new Portugal gained more prosperity, garnered more capital, and took advantage of membership in the burgeoning European Union, Portuguese cinema benefited. Some American producers, directors, and actors, such as John Malkovich, grew enamored of residence and work in Portugal. Malkovich starred in Manoel de Oliveira's film, O Convento (The Convent), shot in Portugal, and this film gained international acclaim, if not universal critical approval. While most films viewed in the country continued to be foreign imports, especially from France, the United States, and Great Britain, recent domestic film production is larger than ever before in Portugal's cinema history: in 2005, 13 Portuguese feature films were released. One of them was coproduced with Spain, Midsummer Dream, an animated feature. That year's most acclaimed film was O Crime de Padre Amaro, based on the Eça de Queirós' novel, a film that earned a record box office return. In 2006, some 22 feature films were released. With more films made in Portugal than ever before, Portugal's cinema had entered a new era. -
37 India, Portuguese
Formerly a Portuguese colony, and all that remained of Portugal's Indian holdings of the 16th and 17th centuries, Goa, Damão, and Diu are located on the western coast of the Indian subcontinent. These three enclaves, comprising an area of about 2,473 square kilometers (1,537 square miles), were acquired by Portugal during the 16th century after the initial voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-99), which discovered the sea route to the Indies from Portugal. Beginning in 1510, Goa was the capital of the Portuguese State of India, which had jurisdiction over Portugal's holdings in eastern Africa as well as in Asia. Goa became not only an administrative capital but a center for religion and education. Various Catholic religious orders, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, used Goa as a base for missionary efforts in Asia. Most notable among them was St. Francis Xavier. Goa had a colonial golden age in the 16th and 17th centuries, as churches, seminaries, and colleges flourished. In time, Goa was bypassed, and the capital of Portuguese India was transferred first to Mormugao and then to Pangim.For religious and political reasons, not economic, Portugal held on to Portuguese India when confronted after World War II with Indian nationalism. Pressures to leave Goa, Damão, and Diu mounted throughout the 1950s, following the independence of India in 1947. In December 1961, after numerous alarms and efforts by Indian and Goan nationalists to employ passive resistance to oust Portuguese control, India's Nehru ordered the Indian army to invade, conquer, and annex Goa, Damão, and Diu and incorporate them as part of the Indian Union. With most of its armed forces in the African territories at the time and with Britain refusing to allow the use of British bases to reinforce Portugal's small garrison in Portuguese India, Portuguese armed forces resisted only briefly. Salazar's government dealt harshly with the forces that surrendered in India and were made prisoners of war. Lisbon negotiated their release without enthusiasm. Lisbon affected to ignore the facts of India's conquest, annexation, and absorption of former Portuguese India; refused to recognize the action's legality internationally; and continued to seat "deputies" from "Portuguese India" in the National Assembly of Portugal until the Revolution of 25 April 1974. Resentment against Salazar's treatment of the army in India was one of the stated reasons later for the military conspiracy and 1974 coup of the Armed Forces Movement. -
38 Macau
Portuguese colonial territory in south China. Portugal's last colony, in effect, and by agreement turned over to the People's Republic of China in 1999. Since Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in 1557, this tiny territory of 11 square kilometers (7 square miles) has been a Portuguese colony headed by a Portuguese administration. Long a dependency of the Viceroyalty of Goa, Portuguese India, Macau's prosperity depended on the vicissitudes of diplomatic and trade relations between China and the West. For nearly three centuries (ca. 1557-1842), Macau was the only Western entrepót-outpost-enclave-colony on the China coast. Even after Japan expelled Western traders in the 17th century, Macau had a key role as the link between China and the West. This role changed after Great Britain seized neighboring Hong Kong (1842) as a colony. Thereafter, Macau fell into the shadow of a booming Hong Kong.While it was a remote dependency of Portugal in the Far East, Macau has long played a multiplicity of roles: China's window on the West, preempted in the 1840s by Hong Kong; sanctuary and refuge for various waves of refugees from China or Hong Kong; because of its peculiar international status and location, a center of vice (gambling, smuggling, prostitution, and drug traffic); and a meeting place and exchange point for the Chinese and Portuguese civilizations.Following the Revolution of 25 April 1974, Lisbon offered to return Macau to mainland China, but the offer was refused, and negotiations between China and Portugal ensued. In the 1980s, China and Portugal negotiated a settlement whereby Portuguese sovereignty would continue until December 1999; "a Chinese territory under Portuguese administration" was the formula's general description. Chinese businessmen controlled Macau's economy, including its lucrative gambling and tourist industries, while Portugal provided nominal law and order. The settlement included a pledge by China that protection for the use of Portuguese language and the maintenance of democratic liberties would be continued for at least 50 years. In late December 1999, the last Portuguese governor-general hauled down the flag of Portugal, and the People's Republic of China assumed sovereignty over Macau. In effect, Portugal's formal overseas empire ceased with this historic change. During colonial times, Macau was known for its gambling casinos. Since its return to China, gambling has become its biggest industry and, in 2006, Macau overtook Las Vegas in gaming revenue. -
39 East Timor
Colony of Portugal from the 16th century to December 1975, with an area of 40,000 square kilometers (18,989 square miles). East Timor is located on the eastern portion of the island of Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. From 1975 to August 1999, when it was forcibly annexed and occupied by Indonesia, until May 2002, when it achieved full independence, East Timor was, in effect, a ward of the United Nations.In the 16th century, the Portuguese established trading posts on the island, but for centuries few Portuguese settled there, and the "colony" remained isolated and neglected. After the Dutch won control of Indonesia, there was a territorial dispute with Portugal as to who "owned" what on the island of Timor. In 1859, this question was decided as the Dutch and Portuguese governments formally divided the island into a Dutch portion (west) and the Portuguese colony (east) and established the frontier. From the late 19th century to World War I, Portugal consolidated its control of East Timor by means of military campaigns against the Timorese tribes. In addition to colonial officials, a few Portuguese missionaries and merchants occupied East Timor, but few Portuguese ever settled there.East Timor's geographic location close to the north coast of Australia and its sharing of one island in the Dutch colony catapulted it into world affairs early in World War II. To forestall a Japanese invasion of Timor, a joint Dutch-Australian expedition landed on 17 December 1941; the Portuguese authorities neither resisted nor cooperated. In February 1942, when Japanese troops landed in Timor, the small allied force fled to the hills and later was evacuated to Australia. Japan occupied all of Timor and the remainder of the Dutch East Indies until Japan's surrender in September 1945. Portugal soon reassumed control.After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, East Timorese nationalist parties hoped for rapid decolonization and independence with Lisbon's cooperation. But on 28 November 1975, before a preoccupied Portugal could work out a formal transfer of power, the Revolutionary Front of Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), then in control of the former colony's capital, declared independence, and, on 7 December 1975, Indonesian armed forces swiftly invaded, occupied, and annexed East Timor. In the following years, a tragic loss of life occurred. Portugal refused to recognize Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor and claimed legal sovereignty before the United Nations.As Indonesia persistently and brutally suppressed Timorese nationalist resistance, world media attention focused on this still remote island. Several sensational international and Indonesian events altered the status of occupied East Timor, following the continuation of FRETILIN guerrilla resistance. In November 1991, world media disseminated information on the Indonesian forces' slaughter of East Timorese protesters at a cemetery demonstration in the capital of Dili. In 1996, two East Timorese, Bishop Belo and José Ramos Horta, each a symbol of East Timorese resistance and the desire for independence, shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, in 1998, in Indonesia, the Suharto regime collapsed and was replaced by a more democratic government, which in January 1999 pledged a free referendum in East Timor. On 30 August 1999, the referendum was held, and nearly 80 percent of the East Timorese voters voted for independence from Indonesia.However, Indonesian armed forces and militias reacted brutally, using intimidation, murder, mayhem, and razing of buildings to try to reverse the people's will. Following some weeks of confusion, a United Nations (UN) armed forces, led by Australia, took control of East Timor and declared it a UN protectorate, to last until East Timor was secure from Indonesian aggression and prepared for full independence. East Timor had changed from a Portuguese colony to an Indonesian protectorate/colony to a fledgling nation-in-the-making.The status of East Timor as a ward of the UN was made official on 25 October 1999, as the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor began to prepare the country for independence. Appalling conditions prevailed: 70 percent of the country's buildings had been destroyed and nearly half of the population of 800,000 had been driven out of East Timor into uneasy refuge in West Timor, under Indonesian control. A territory without an economy, East Timor lacked police, civil servants, schools, and government records.With UN assistance, general elections were held in the spring of 2002; the majority of parliamentary seats were won by FRETILIN, and José "Xanana" Gusmão was elected the first president. On 20 May 2002, East Timor became independent. World luminaries adorned the independence celebrations: UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, and other celebrities attended. But East Timor's travails continued with civil strife and uncertainty. -
40 Emigration
Traditionally, Portugal has been a country with a history of emigration to foreign lands, as well as to the overseas empire. During the early centuries of empire, only relatively small numbers of Portuguese emigrated to reside permanently in its colonies. After the establishment of the second, largely Brazilian empire in the 17th century, however, greater numbers of Portuguese left to seek their fortunes outside Europe. It was only toward the end of the 19th century, however, that Portuguese emigration became a mass movement, at first, largely to Brazil. While Portuguese-speaking Brazil was by far the most popular destination for the majority of Portuguese emigrants in early modern and modern times, after 1830, the United States and later Venezuela also became common destinations.Portuguese emigration patterns have changed in the 20th century and, as the Portuguese historian and economist Oliveira Martins wrote before the turn of the century, Portuguese emigration rates are a kind of national barometer. Crises and related social, political, and economic conditions within Portugal, as well as the presence of established emigrant communities in various countries, emigration laws, and the world economy have combined to shape emigration rates and destinations.After World War II, Brazil no longer remained the favorite destination of the majority of Portuguese emigrants who left Portugal to improve their lives and standards of living. Beginning in the 1950s, and swelling into a massive stream in the 1960s and into the 1970s, most Portuguese emigrated to find work in France and, after the change in U.S. immigration laws in the mid-1960s, a steady stream went to North America, including Canada. The emigration figures here indicate that the most intensive emigration years coincided with excessive political turmoil and severe draft (army conscription) laws during the First Republic (1912 was the high point), that emigration dropped during World Wars I and II and during economic downturns such as the Depression, and that the largest flow of Portuguese emigration in history occurred after the onset of the African colonial wars (1961) and into the 1970s, as Portuguese sought emigration as a way to avoid conscription or assignment to Africa.1887 17,0001900ca. 17,000 (mainly to Brazil)1910 39,0001912 88,000 (75,000 of these to Brazil)1930ca. 30,000 (Great Depression)1940ca. 8,8001950 41,0001955 57,0001960 67,0001965 131,0001970 209,000Despite considerable efforts by Lisbon to divert the stream of emigrants from Brazil or France to the African territories of Angola and Mozambique, this colonization effort failed, and most Portuguese who left Portugal preferred the better pay and security of jobs in France and West Germany or in the United States, Venezuela, and Brazil, where there were more deeply rooted Portuguese emigrant communities. At the time of the Revolution of 25 April 1974, when the military coup in Lisbon signaled the beginning of pressures for the Portuguese settlers to leave Africa, the total number of Portuguese resident in the two larger African territories amounted to about 600,000. In modern times, nonimperial Portuguese emigration has prevailed over imperial emigration and has had a significant impact on Portugal's annual budget (due to emigrants' remittances), the political system (since emigrants have a degree of absentee voting rights), investment and economy, and culture.A total of 4 million Portuguese reside and work outside Portugal as of 2009, over one-third of the country's continental and island population. It has also been said that more Portuguese of Azorean descent reside outside the Azores than in the Azores. The following statistics reflect the pattern of Portuguese emigrant communities in the world outside the mother country.Overseas Portuguese Communities Population Figures by Country of Residence ( estimates for 2002)Brazil 1,000,000France 650,000S. Africa 600,000USA 500,000Canada 400,000Venezuela 400,000W. Europe 175,000 (besides France and Germany)Germany 125,000Britain (UK) 60,000 (including Channel Islands)Lusophone Africa 50,000Australia 50,000Total: 4,010,000 (estimate)
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См. также в других словарях:
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