Portugal

Portugal
Kingdom of Portugal
Reino de Portugal
File:Portugal location.pngLocation of Portugal
Capital	Lisbon
Largest City	Lisbon
Population	10 million
Government Type	Constitutional Monarchy

Portugal, officially the Kingdom of Portugal (Portuguese: Reino de Portugal), is a country located in the westernmost region of the Iberian Peninsula. The majority of the country is located in continental Europe, where it only borders Spain. The kingdom is composed of six continental provinces and two overseas provinces in the Atlantic: Madeira and Azores (Açores).

History

Early History

Portugal was established in 1143, after the signature of the Treaty of Zamora, but the kingdom was only recognized by the papacy in 1179. The nation developed to its modern borders during the process of the Reconquista, a series of wars among the christian kingdoms of Europe and the Muslim caliphates in the Iberian peninsula. Since the conquest of Algarve in 1249, Portuguese territory didn’t suffer significant changes, thus making the country borders one of the most stable in Europe.

Portugal was the first medieval European nation to start sailing across the Atlantic in the search of resources in distant lands. The many voyages of Portuguese ships started what is called the Age of Discoveries. Portuguese caravels crossed the seas, making use of the best scientific and practical knowledge of the time. During the centuries XIV, XV and XVI sailed to Africa, to the far East and to the depths of the South American continent. In 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral reached the coast of Brazil, a thing that changed the history of the tiny Iberian nation, and put the kingdom among the powers of Europe for centuries.

Portugal in the 18th century conflicts and French Revolution

Portuguese role in the Great Silesian War (1750-1755)

During the Great Silesian War, from 1750 to 1755, Portugal sided with Britain and her allies, such as Austria. The country didn’t fight directly in the conflict due its geographic isolation from the core of the war, and its lack of interest in Central European affairs, assuming a position just for political and diplomatic reasons during the half-decade conflict.

Portugal during the French Revolution and Augustine Wars

During the events of the French Revolution and the Augustine Wars, Portugal, just like the majority of other European monarchies at the time, saw the Augustine regime over France as a threat to the Ancien Regime and the status quo of Europe. Thus the country allied itself with the other monarchies against France.

Far away from the effective fighting and not being the great power the nation once was, France didn’t put her eyes on the Iberian nation, therefore, the country wasn’t invaded. During the conflict, Portugal upgraded the defenses near the Spanish border, sent a few hundred soldiers to fight alongside British ones, and helped the royal navy to patrol the European coast.

The 1807 proposal:

Around half way on the conflict, in 1807, fearing at some moment in the future the French would invade through Spain, the counselors of king Dom Afonso VII proposed to move the kingdom capital to Rio de Janeiro temporarily, so if the Portuguese territories in Europe fall, the king and the court would take refugee in Brazil. The idea was thrown away later and never got out of paper.

End of absolutism in Portugal

Spring of Nations in Portugal:

In the early 1830s, revolutionaries inspired by the French Revolution decades prior started a rebellion in Spain. Motivated by the liberal, nationalist and republican ideals, those revolutionaries advocated the reform of the Spanish monarchy and the end of absolutism. Soon these revolutions reached Portugal.

Since the French Revolution, the Portuguese bourgeoisie along a part of the military got invested in spreading the liberal ideals across the country. The wealthy members of the bourgeoisie had monetary power, but lacked political representation. Nobility titles could be bought, but they were generally low ranking and not seen as legit, by the nobility that achieved the titles by blood. So the idea of having political positions was amusing to them. Some parts of the military also got interested in the political representativity as a way of social ascension.

In 1834, riots inspired by those in Spain started to occur in Portuguese urban centers, and with part of the military supporting the ideals of reformation, the government feared the start of a bloody civil-war in the country. So, in May of 1834, the assembly to discuss the instauration of a constitutional monarchy over Portugal took place.

The 1834 constitution

After months of discussion, the main articles of the constitution were: Abolishment of absolutism; creation of the independent executive, legislative and judicial powers; political representativity for the literated, male and over 20 years old population; the church would still has voice in nationwide decisions; the monarch would have the role to keep the harmony among the other three powers. The 1834 constitution wasn’t as liberal as the French revolutionary one, the Church and the Estate were still united, the monarch could still have voice in decisions and dissolve the parliament in cases of crisis. These small characteristics of the Ancien Regime were considered to gain support from the catholic Portuguese society and have harmony among the institutions of the nation.

End of the colonial empire in South America

Independence of Bahia and the Riograndense Republic

The Bahia Republic and the Riograndense Republic, respectively, gained independence from Portugal in 1845 and 1846. The two nations were the first to break from the colony of Brazil during the ramifications of the Spring of Nations in Latin America.

Independence of Equador

In 1877, Equador was recognized as independent by Portugal after a war started by large landowners. Three years prior, in 1874, Portugal abolished slavery in all of its territory. The economy of Equador at the time was solel based on plantations and slave labor, thus the end of slavery was seen as threat to profit by the large plantation owners. After many disagreements with the crown, the rural elite of the colony rebelled.

Creation of the Autonomous Territory of Brazil

By the late 19th century, only the region around Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, southern Mato Grosso and Paraná were still under Portuguese colonial rule. In 1878, after the failure to end the revolt in Equador, Portugal feared that their last bit of Brazil would break up as well very soon. To prevent this to happen, Brazil ceased to be a colony in this year, and was elevated to the title of Autonomous Territory of Brazil.

During the period as an autonomous territory, Brazil, for the first time, could hold elections and had a constitution mirroring the Portuguese one. Brazilians could now vote for the Brazilian parliament in Rio de Janeiro, province presidents and for the public offices of their municipalities. The only exception was the Governor of Brazil title, which was directly appointed by the crown. The Governor also had the power to dissolve the parliament if this decision was seen as necessary.

Mid to late-19th century

Coffee empire

Coffee was first brought to Brazil in the early 18th century, not for large-scale cultivation and export, but only to be traded in the inner market of the colony. Was only in the early 19th century that the cultivation of coffee would become the main economic activity of the colony, and gave Portugal a monopoly over the high demand of the grains from nations across the globe. This scenario, for the most part, is the result of coffee turning into a luxury drink in Europe and North America.

The coffee economic boom fit like a glove for the Portuguese economy and the landowners in Brazil. Since the late 18th century, the gold exports, Brazil’s main source of income, have gone down due to the end of the mineral in more superficial deposits. During the gold rush, many plantations were closed and their owners shifted to exploration of mines, then when mining ceased, the colony and, therefore Portugal, suffered from a heavy economic crisis. So when coffee became a highly demanded drink in other continents, Portugal saw this as an opportunity to recover from this decades-long crisis.

For about a century, this region became the core of Brazil and the Portuguese colonial empire, but when foreign nations' demand for coffee decreased in the late 19th century, once again, the single activity based economy entered a recession. The end of the coffee based economy also opened the opportunity to Brazilian industrialization and rise of nationalism.

Failed Communard Revolution

In the 1870s, Europe was shaken once again by a wave of revolutions, The Communard Revolutions. Although France and Spain were the two that most suffered the effects of such unrest, Central Europe, Italy and Portugal had their own attempts of revolutionary take over. In 1875, the Sociedade Comunarde de Portugal (Communard Society of Portugal) was formed in the city of Coimbra, and started to plan a coup to end the Portuguese Monarchy.

Communardism had arrived in Portugal already in the mid-19th century, and was popular among part of the academic community in Coimbra and Lisbon. At that time, Europe was facing a rapid process of economic growth and industrialization, but this reality didn’t arrive in Portugal with the same strength as it did in other western nations, so the country kept focused on an agrarian based economy, especially focused on coffee exportation. The communards saw this situation as a result of the conservative Portuguese government, which still had some characteristics of the old absolutist regime. According to many publications, the only way for Portugal to rise as a power again, was to end the monarchy once and for all.

Differently from the cases in France and Spain, the Communard Society of Portugal didn’t last long. After the revolutions beginning in the neighboring nations, Portuguese parliament quickly approved the instaurantion of censorship over communard papers and the prohibition of public demonstrations. The citizens were also advised to tell authorities any suspicion of revolutionary activities. Soon later, the members of the Communard Society of Portugal got arrested for the crime of conspiracy and rebellion. The imprisonment of the group was seen by sympathizers as an atrocious action, soon riots started to happen first in Coimbra and days later in Lisbon. Both were unsuccessful.

Portuguese colonization in the 19th century

Kingdom of Portugal and colonial holdings in 1900. The Autonomous Territory of Brazil is also shown.

In 1900, the Portuguese colonial holdings consisted of large chunks of land in continental Africa and city ports across the Gulf of Guinea, islands in North Atlantic, Madagasikara, India and the Canton coast.

Portuguese Southern Africa

Portuguese Southern Africa stretches from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the west coast. It is composed by the colonies of Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and many protectorates near the Congo river and the Zambezi basin.

Angola

The Portuguese first arrived in the future colony of Angola in the late 15th century. The region was explored with the main goal of develop the Atlantic Slave Trade, one of the most lucrative economic activities of Portugal at the time. From the end of the 15th century to the early 19th century, more than a million individuals were forced to leave Africa to the other side of the Atlantic, especially to northeastern Brazil, but also to the Caribbean and North America.

In a period of more than 200 years, Portugal expanded Angola from the settlement of Luanda, created in 1575, all the way down to the borders of the Namibian desert, either by military conquest, or by treaties with native kingdoms, establishing protectorates. In the late 19th century, the race for dominance over Africa started among the European powers, and  Portugal sent diverse expeditions to the interior of the continent. The objective was to establish relations with the kingdoms in the Zambezi river basin and unite the two sides of Africa. By 1900, Angola comprised an enormous amount of land, bordering to the north British Soudan, to the south the Portuguese colony of Namibia, and to the east the many Portuguese protectorates in Zambezia.

Mozambique

The Mozambique coast was first explored in the late 15th century by Portuguese voyages in the search of routes to India. Later in the 16th century, the first permanent settlements in the region were established. The colonization of Mozambique had the primal objective of keeping control of trading routes to the East Indies, as well for the search of gold and other minerals in the interior of the country. The plantations of sugar also had a key role in the colony’s economy. But it was only in the late 19th century when Portuguese rule took control effectively on the interior. The competition with Britain to have control of the Zambezi river basin made Portugal put effort into exploring and claiming the region. By 1900, the colony of Mozambique expanded into the interior of the continent to the point of reaching Lake Malawi. In the beginning of the 20th century, Mozambique borders British East Africa to the north, the Zambezi Protectorates to the west and the British South African protectorates to the southwest.

Namibia

Composed for the most part by hot deserts, Namibia wasn’t of interest to European nations until the late 19th century. The Portuguese first claimed the Namibian coast since the beginning of their explorations of the continent, but no mission efforts to establish permanent settlements in the region were taken, so, for centuries, Namibia was untouched by Europe. Competing with Britain, and fearing at some point the Cape Republic might get the territory, Portugal sent expeditions to the region in the late 19th century, and discovered rich mineral deposits in the interior of the Namibian Desert. After the discovery, the Portuguese government quickly started settlement missions in the area.

Zambezian Protectorates

The Zambezi Protectorates are composed of various African kingdoms, such as the Lunda, Ndembu, Rozvi and others. Although not proper colonies, these nations were completely dependent on Portugal economically, and their politics were heavily influenced by the Portuguese interests.

In 1873, the Lisbon Geographic and Scientific Society and the Geographic Section of the Ministry of Marine, worked in a joint expedition to map, collect local flora and establish relations with the kingdoms along the Zambezi River basin. The expedition reached the Lunda and the Ndembu kingdoms, where a trading relation between the Portuguese and the two kingdoms were established.

In 1875, Britain and Portugal signed a treaty establishing the Limpopo river as the border between Mozambique and British Natal. Also in 1875, Portugal launched an expedition to reach Angola from Mozambique through the Zambezi River. During this period, Britain was having troubles dealing with the many South African nations above Natal, and Portugal saw this as a perfect opportunity to explore and claim the whole Zambezi basin. The expedition took many weeks. Scientists collect plant samples and small animals. After reaching the Lunda Kingdom, the Portuguese dream to connect the two sides of the continent was fulfilled.

From 1875 to 1879, the encounters between Portuguese and British explorers in the region were very common, due the lack of proper documents stating the ownership of those lands, Britain started to build outposts in Rozvi territory, and many times Portuguese forces tried to convince the British to leave the area. Tensions were high during this period, only a spark was needed to start a conflict, but the two nations agreed to discuss the situation diplomatically.

On July 10th, 1879, the Treaty of Birmingham was signed between Britain and Portugal. Portugal was capable of proving their presence in the region was prior to the British, therefore their claims should be respected. In the end, the region was recognized as part of Portuguese Southern Africa, but British ships and explorers could travel freely through the rivers.

North Atlantic and Gulf of Guinea

The North Atlantic is where the Portuguese colonial ambitions first started. Madeira Island was the first overseas territory occupied and colonized by Portugal. The island was discovered by sailors in 1418, but only in 1425 the occupation of the land started. The island has a very strategic position in the Atlantic, and opened the opportunity to the Portuguese Crown to sail even more south into the African coast.

Also in the 15th century, sailors reached the Azores Archipelago. In the early 1430s, the first settlers to the islands arrived in  the archipelago. It was important for Portugal to keep control of these islands. Located in the middle of the North Atlantic, they had a strategic position, and many ships stopped on the Azorian ports when coming from the Americas on the route to Europe.

Later in the 15th century, in 1460, the archipelago of Cape Verde was discovered. Santigao was the island most suitable for colonization, and the first settlers arrived on the island in 1462. Given their strategic position, on the routes that linked Europe, Africa and Brazil, the islands served as a trading and supply post, with particular emphasis on the slave trade.

The two last insular holdings in the Gulf of Guinea were the islands of São Tomé e Príncipe and Bioko. São Tomé e Príncipe was first discovered in 1470. Prior to this date, the island was unknown both in an European and African perspective. Later in the 1470s, the island received its first Portuguese settlers along with enslaved Africans from the mainland. Sugar production was the most important economic activity.

Bioko was discovered shortly after in 1472, and just like its neighboring islands, sugarcane had a key role in the island's economy, but cocoa was also another important product. Bioko, differently from São Tomé e Príncipe, had a significant population prior to European arrival, thus it was harder to keep control of the colony. Rebellions were common and enslaved individuals escaped the plantations to the interior on a regular basis.

Portuguese Guinea is the largest holding in the region, and the only one which is not an island. The Portuguese presence in the coast of Guinea dates since the XIV century, when outpost for trade, especially slave trade, with the natives were build. In the late 19th century, Portugal expanded into the African interior, reaching the Niger River basin. By 1900, Portuguese Guinea bordered Swedish Guinea, Genoese Guinea, Spanish Guinea, French Niger and many African states such as the Tukulor Empire.

Indian city ports

Portugal had control over five city ports on the coast of India by 1900. Goa, Diu, Daman, Baçaim, Calicut and Nagapatnam. The Portuguese voyages were the first to reach the Indian subcontinent, still in the end of the 15th century. The control over the ports had a key role in the first phase of the empire. In the busy markets of these towns, the Portuguese could find very lucrative products to be brought to the western markets, such as textiles and spices of all kinds. These ports were either conquered, such as in the case of Goa, or cedded to Portugal by the local nations, such as in the case of Diu.

Matatana

Matatana is a city port bordering the British protectorate of Sackalava in the south of Madagasikara. The island of Madagasikara was already known by the Portuguese since 1500. Due to its strategic location in the middle of the path to India, the Portuguese Crown showed interest in building an outpost on the island. In 1508, settlers built a small village and a fort in a cape near a river delta.

Macau

Macau was established by a deal between Portugal and Ming China in 1557. Portugal could annex a small portion of the coast and build a port for their ships, in exchange, China would receive an annual payment. Portugal kept the payment until the mid-19th century, when the Kingdom of Canton was established. Macau, for a certain time, was the most important European port in East-Asia, this importance made it susceptible for foregin attacks, especially from the Dutch, which invaded the port several times during conflicts with Portugal.

United kingdom with Brazil

The Luso-Brazilian Compromise (1922)

In the early 20th century, only the British colony of Carolina and the Territory of Brazil were the major European holdings in South America, until the instauration of the Act of Home Rule in Carolina in 1914. The end of the colonial rule in Carolina sparked once again the feeling of nationalism and independence in Brazil, many republican authors, republican associations and communard societies across Brazil started to advocate for the end of Portuguese rule in the continent. These ideals gained more force after Brazil got hit directly by the economic crisis in Europe during most of the 1920s.

The economic crisis hit Brazil severely, coffee customers across the world, Brazil’s most important economic partners, started to reduce the purchase of the product, thus the many coffee plantations started to suffer from overproduction and devaluation of the prices. Many businesses closed and unemployment skyrocketed. In this context, opposition to the semi-colonial government of Brazil started to gain force. Many saw the problem as consequences of the crown heavily influencing the political and economic decisions, and from August 1922 to November of the same year, protests demanding more political freedoms, and in the most radical cases, total independence, started to happen.

On november the 2nd, 1922, in a radio broadcast, the province president of São Paulo declared independence. The province of Minas Gerais followed the same strategy soon later in the same day. The presidents of the two provinces had been in secret talks since September of 1922, the plan was to declare the provinces independent, wait for the other provinces to join, demand independence and use the national forces against the Portuguese army.

Portugal wasn’t in shape to fight a war thousands of kilometers away, and in telegram, agreed to discuss terms with the new Brazilian Government, which already comprised four of the six provinces of Brazil. On November 25th, Portuguese envoys and the Brazilian Independent Government gathered in Rio de Janeiro to solve the situation diplomatically.

On December 4th, the Luso-Brazilian Compromise, or Treaty of Rio, established the dual monarchy of Portugal and Brazil. The main terms of the treaty were:

• The creation of a new Brazilian constitution;
• The Kingdom of Brazil would consists of every Portuguese territory in South America, while the Kingdom of Portugal would consists of the rest of the empire;
• Abolition of the title of Governor of Brazil and creation of the title of Prime Minister;
• Brazilians could be elected to all political offices;
• Establishment of a single citizenship. Luso-Brazilian;
• Free access of Brazilians to Portugal;
• A common Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for diplomacy and foreign policy, comprised from both Portuguese and Brazilian integrants;
• Brazil would engage in every conflict which Portugal is involved;
• Brazil would have the right to vote in the Portuguese Parliament in decisions of nationwide effects.