Monthly Archives: March 2011

Half a century of Salazarism had never engendered as much anti-communism among ordinary people as 18 months of PCP* participation in various governments. Two-thirds of the Portuguese population lived in the northern part of the country. The northern peasants had … Continue reading →

Two indirect consequences of the Carnation Revolution were a collapse of the economy and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of people who returned from the colonies to Portugal as refugees. From May 1974 to the end of the 1970s, several … Continue reading →

Children of Empire The decolonization process was poorly done (among many things: the rights of the citizens that lived in African territories, and considered themselves Portuguese, were not clear in the decolonization agreement; Portugal failed to offer collaterals against the … Continue reading →

September 28, 1974: there hundreds of arrests made by COPCON* – late at night, without warrants, the imprisoned are incarcerated in Caxias military prison and other jails. October 10: 82 arrested clergymen incarcerated in Caxias, other 46 – in Cadeia … Continue reading →

Tarrafal  was a prison camp in Cabo Verde, then a Portuguese overseas territory, set up after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936), where the fiercest enemies of Estado Novo regime were sent. Such a decision was an emergency measure in conditions of bloody … Continue reading →

 The Portuguese, who had settled in Africa and ruled considerable territory since the 15th century, believed in a multi-racial overseas empire. Portuguese leaders, including Salazar, defended the policy of multiracialism and civilising mission, or Lusotropicalism, as a way of integrating … Continue reading →

On the morning of March 15, 1961, some fifty places over a 400-mile front were attacked as part of a plan carefully prepared by the communist-backed terrorist “liberation movement” in Angola, then a Portuguese province. The terrorists, primed with drugs, alcohol … Continue reading →

One of the most famous and glorious Portuguese warriors ever, a commando, who had been fighting terrorists in Portuguese West Africa. He was decorated with five “crosses of war” — a record number for this decoration for the whole history of Portuguese … Continue reading →