(
Portuguese for "'''New State'''";
Pron. ) is the name of the
Portuguese Authoritarian regime installed in
1933 , following the army-led
''coup D'état'' of
28th May 1926 against the democratic
First Republic . The Estado Novo was developed by
António De Oliveira Salazar , ruler of Portugal from 1932 to 1968.
The Estado Novo was a dictatorial regime with an
Integralist orientation, which differed from the
Fascist regime of
Italy by its more moderate use of state violence. However it incorporated the same principles for its military from
Mussolini 's system. Salazar was a
Catholic traditionalist who believed in the necessity of control over the forces of economic modernisation in order to defend the religious and rural values of the country, which he perceived as being threatened. One of the pillars of the regime was the
PIDE , the secret police. Many political dissidents were imprisoned at the
Tarrafal prison in the African archipelago of
Cape Verde , on the capital island of Santiago, or in local jails. Strict state censorship was in place.
The Estado Novo enforced '' of the regime became resistance to the wave of decolonization which swept Europe after the end of World War II.
The Estado Novo accepted the idea of
Corporatism as an economic model. This policy was pursued in order to protect the elites and defend oligarchic
Capitalism as the economic system, under state paternalist supervision. Although Salazar refused to sign the
Anti-Comintern Pact in 1938, the
Portuguese Communist Party was intensely persecuted. So were Anarchists, Liberals, Republicans and anyone opposed to the regime. The only allowed party was the ''
União Nacional '' (National Union), which encompassed a wide range of
Right-wing politics, passing through
Monarchism ,
Corporatism ,
Fascism ,
Nationalism and
Capitalism .
The ''Legião Nacional'' was a Popular Militia similar to the Italian
Blackshirts . For young people, the ''Mocidade Portuguesa'', an organization similar in organisation (but not in ideology) to the
Hitler Youth , replaced the
Federação Escotista De Portugal . These two organizations were heavily supported by the State and imposed a martial style of life.
During the 1940s and 1950s Portugal experienced great economic growth due to increased raw material exports to the war-ravaged and recovering nations of Europe. Salazar managed to discipline the Portuguese economy, after the chaotic
First Portuguese Republic of 1910–1926. A brand new road system was built, new bridges spanned the rivers and the Educational Program was able to build a
Primary School in each Portuguese town. Further education was discouraged except for a tiny elite, and was closely supervised. Salazar believed that education destroyed the basic conservative and religious values of the people and should only be accessible to a minority with close ties to the regime.
With the economic recovery of Europe in the 1960s, the Portuguese economy stagnated, and Portugal underwent a significant economic downturn compared to other countries in Europe. Liberal economic reforms advocated by some of the elements of the ruling party, which were successfully implemented under similar circumstances in neighbouring Spain, were rejected out of fear that industrialization would destabilize the regime and its ideological base and would strengthen the Communists and other left-wing movements.
In 1962 the "
Academic Crisis " occurred. The regime, fearing the growing popularity of democratic ideas among the students, carried out the boycott and closure of several student associations and organizations, including the important National Secretariat of Portuguese Students. The students, with strong support from the
Portuguese Communist Party , responded with demonstrations which culminated on
March 24 with a huge student demonstration in Lisbon that was brutally suppressed by the shock police, which led to hundreds of student injuries. Immediately thereafter, the students began a strike that marked a significant point in the resistance against the regime.
The economic dead-end forced hundreds of thousands of Portuguese workers each year to seek better economic and political conditions in other countries, or to escape conscription. In all, over 15 years nearly one million emigrated to France, another million to the USA, many hundreds of thousands to Germany, Switzerland, the UK, Luxembourg, Venezuela or Brazil. Political parties, such as the
Socialist Party , persecuted at home, were established in exile. The only party which managed to continue (ilegally) operating in Portugal during all the dictatorship was the Portuguese Communist Party.
The end of the Estado Novo began with the uprisings in the colonies in the 1960s. The Independence Movements in
Angola ,
Mozambique and
Guinea were supported by both the
USA and the
USSR , which both wanted to end all colonial empires and expand their own spheres of influence. The colonial wars had the same effects in Portugal as the
Vietnam War in the United States, or the
Afghanistan War in the Soviet Union: they were unpopular, messy and ultimately lost, killing many thousands, and struck at the ideological foundation of the regime.
Although Portugal was able to maintain some superiority in the colonies by its use of elite paratroopers and special operations troops, the foreign support to the guerillas made them more maneuverable, allowing them to inflict heavy losses on the Portuguese army. The situation was aggravated by the death of Salazar, the strong man of the regime, in 1970. His replacement was one of his closest advisors,
Marcelo Caetano , who tried to slowly democratize the country, but could not hide the obvious dictatorship that oppressed Portugal. In 1974, the
Carnation Revolution , organized by left-wing military officers, overthrew the Estado Novo.
