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The
Political History of Nineteenth Century Portugal1
Paulo
Jorge Fernandes
Autónoma University of Lisbon
paulojorge@mail.telepac.pt
Filipe Ribeiro de Meneses
National University of Ireland
Filipe.deMeneses@may.ie
Manuel Baiôa
CIDEHUS-University of Évora
manuelbaioa@hotmail.com
Abstract
The political history of nineteenth-century Portugal
was, for a long time, a neglected subject. Under Salazar's New State
it was passed over in favour of earlier periods from which that nationalist
regime sought to draw inspiration; subsequent historians preferred to
concentrate on social and economic developments to the detriment of
the difficult evolution of Portuguese liberalism. This picture is changing,
thanks to an awakening of interest in both contemporary topics and political
history (although there is no consensus when it comes to defining political
history). The aim of this article is to summarise these recent developments
in Portuguese historiography for the benefit of an English-language
audience.
Keyword
Nineteenth Century, History, Bibliography, Constitutionalism,
Historiography, Liberalism, Political History, Portugal
Politics has finally begun to carve out a privileged space at the heart
of Portuguese historiography. This invasion is a recent phenomenon
and can be explained by the gradual acceptance, over the course of two
decades, of political history as a genuine specialisation in Portuguese
academic circles. This process of scientific and pedagogical renewal has
seen a clear focus also on the nineteenth century. Young researchers concentrate
their efforts in this field, and publishers are more interested in this
kind of works than before.
In Portugal, the interest in the 19th century is a reaction against decades
of ignorance. Until April 1974, ideological reasons dictated the absence
of contemporary history from the secondary school classroom, and even
from the university curriculum. The 19th century was viewed as the triumph,
from 1834 onwards, of the suspect liberal State which grew,
in the first quarter of the twentieth century (1910-1926), into the despised
Republic. It was against this regime that Salazars New State, corporative
and nationalist, affirmed itself. History degrees usually did not extend
beyond a coverage of the 17th century thus focusing on the glorious
period of Portuguese maritime discoveries and imperial expansion.
Nevertheless, in the last decades of the New States existence, from
the 1950s onwards, some attempt was made to carry out a process of historiographical
renewal, one which might include, for the first time, contemporary history.
This process occurred, however, outside the context of Portuguese universities,
and was clearly influenced by a Marxist current limited by its own ideological
prejudices. The historiographical paradigms of this school rarely concerned
themselves with politics. Historians such as António José
Saraiva, Armando de Castro, Barradas de Carvalho, Borges de Macedo, Joel
Serrão, Oliveira Marques, Piteira Santos, Silva Dias, Virgínia
Rau and Vitorino Magalhães Godinho, among others, were more interested
in understanding socio-economic mechanisms and cultural cycles than in
assessing the importance of deeds and dates or measuring the influence
of leading personalities. The generation that followed, and which began
lecturing in the wake of the 25 April 1974 revolution, guided itself by
the principles of the Annales School, again paying more attention
to economic and social history than to its political counterpart. However,
as the years passed, historical curiosity regarding the 19th century grew,
whetting the appetite of the academic community.
In a now outdated work of synthesis which attempted to list the principal
figures in Portuguese historiography, A. H. de Oliveira Marques complained
with good reason that Portuguese authors avoided conceptual
reflections on theoretical and methodological questions. What was true
in the mid 1970s, however, is no longer the case. Innovation has arrived
in the form of political history, whose practitioners are keen to affirm
the theoretical validity of their topic. The first echo of the international
debate regarding the character and the strength of the New Political
History demonstrated that the Portuguese academic community was
aware of foreign developments and determined not to be excluded (Teixeira,
1988). Nevertheless, and to the horror of those who dreamed of a return
to the simple description of events woven together into a plot capable
of conferring a global sense to the historical narrative, the proposed
alternatives were so permeable to quantitative methods, and to social
and anthropological concerns that is, to a subject-less politics
that they threatened to prolong the agony of the narrative. Lines
of division soon became apparent. The partisans of history as a literary
form (Ramos, 1991) and those who emphasise its relativist nature (Hespanha,
1991) have all had the chance to propound their preferences and to sharpen
their arguments, going as far as to propose the return to older forms
of history (history as a dramatic construct) as the only way of freeing
it from the academic ghetto to which it was confined by the Annales school, by Structuralism, and, most recently, by the New History
and its offshoots (Bonifácio, 1993a). Nothing approaching a consensus
has been arrived as a result of this debate, which, nevertheless, has
resulted in a certain strengthening of those who invest heavily in political
history (Bonifácio, 1999), but who still remain a clear minority
in university circles.
Linguistic barriers have imposed severe limits to foreign academics
knowledge of the historiographical developments in Portugal. Even today
there is no figure comparable to Raymond Carr, or others, who not only
write about Spain, but are engaged in a constant dialogue with Spanish
historians. The aim of this article is therefore to acquaint an English-language
reader with the developments in Portugals political evolution over
the course of the 19th century, simultaneously highlighting the latest
works of political history and attempting to establish some conclusion
about the historiographical advances of the past fifteen years. The text
is divided in three moments. Starting from the general works and reviews
about the period, we try to highlight the most important works that deal
with the period between the Peninsular Wars (1807-1811) and the fall of
the constitutional monarchy (1910). In the last moment, we have a small
reference about thematic studies covering the 19th century History.
General Works and Reviews
We begin this introduction to Portuguese historiography with an analysis
of the large general works published over the past few years and of available
reference works. The standard by which other general works on Portuguese
history are measured was set by Damião Peres monumental História
de Portugal, published from 1928 to 1937, to which was added a Supplement
written by the same author sometime later, in 1954, and which was concluded
by Franco Nogueira in 1981. The first eight volumes, published in order
to commemorate the eighth centenary of the Foundation of the Nationality,
were heavily stamped by a prevailing nationalist climate, despite having
received the collaboration of reputed specialists from diverse areas.
Peres opted for a dynastic division of the subject matter, which was distributed
across well-defined areas and pays special attention to political history.
Less space was reserved for cultural, colonial, and socio-economic concerns.
In the seventh volume (1816-1918), contemporary events were approached
from a political and descriptive perspective. Peres História
de Portugal is still seen as an essential work, presenting a rich
source of information for all those starting out in this field, although
it is often criticised for its lack of bibliographical elements and systematic
notation. Nevertheless, it was the first such work aimed at a wide audience.
A significant contribution to the renovation of Portuguese historiography
was made by A. H. de Oliveira Marques. His History of Portugal (1972), in two volumes, represented a considerable editorial success,
and was often reprinted and translated. Part of its appeal lay in the
dedication of half the work to the period following the liberal revolution.
This work, which aspires to make a descriptive, rather than interpretative
synthesis, is essentially an economic and social study. Political history
is relegated to a secondary role. In open opposition to it stands the História de Portugal of Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão,
written in fourteen volumes (published from 1977 to 2001), which embodies
the virtues and faults of a work of such enormous size prepared by a single
author. Positivist in nature and often uncomfortably close to the nationalist
historiographical ideals elaborated by the New State, this
work has devoted four volumes to the 19th century period (1807-1910) and
is also marked by an abundance of bibliographical references, as well
as by the elevation of political history to a level of equality with socio-economic
and cultural history.
The ninth volume of Nova História de Portugal, directed
by Joel Serrão and A.H. de Oliveira Marques, has emerged as a basic
university textbook for the study of this period (the foundation of Liberalism),
and its usefulness residing not in the originality of subject matter and
interpretation but rather in the way that it synthesises available information.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that this book is heavily marked by the Annales school. The appearance of some more recent works must also
be mentioned. A well-known medievalist, José Mattoso, coordinated
the publication of an eight-volume História de Portugal (1993-1995) which has become the latest obligatory work of reference,
enjoying the greatest prestige at the moment and benefiting, in terms
of sales, from a simultaneous publication by two different publishing
houses. Each volume was entrusted to specialists in the field; we will
consider the final four, dedicated to the last two hundred years. The
fifth volume, which covers the period 1807-1890, was directed by Luis
Reis Torgal and João Lourenço Roque, of the University of
Coimbra, and includes contributions from over two hundred collaborators,
which is reflected in a lack of homogeneity when it comes to the text
and which is necessarily detrimental to the study of political evolution
in the period. The sixth volume (1890-1926), written by Rui Ramos, is
deliberately driven by the narrative, and is markedly revisionist at the
expense of more traditional interpretations. This History of Portugal has the added value of a brief chronology of Portuguese history and
of useful reference indexes included in the last volume; despite its recent
publication date it has already been re-edited a number of times.
The extensive História de Portugal dos tempos pre-históricos
aos nossos dias (1993), directed by João Medina, of the University
of Lisbon, deserves also to be mentioned. This collective work is marked
by a great diversity in the subject matter covered, wherein, nevertheless,
politics receive a privileged treatment. The 19th century takes up three
of the fifteen published volumes. Some other general works should be included
in this survey. Portugal Contemporâneo (1989-1990), directed
by António Reis and made up, in its first edition, of six volumes,
is an abundantly illustrated work which, despite being aimed at a wide
public, nevertheless contains excellent summarised accounts written by
specialists in their area and constitutes a good point of departure for
further research. Again, the 19th century deserves special attention on
the first volume of the second edition.
A remarkable competition was suddenly embarked upon in the field of colonial
history by the simultaneous publication of the still incomplete Nova
História da Expansão Portuguesa (1992-2001), coordinated
by Joel Serrão and A.H. de Oliveira Marques, and the História
da Expansão Portuguesa (1998-1999), directed by Francisco Bethencourt
and K. N. Chandhuri.
This typology of general works is completed by an examination of a number
of historical dictionaries. The oldest and most famous of all, which received
the collaboration of the widest circle of researchers and which was most
ambitious in the number of entries, was directed by Joel Serrão.
This Dicionário de História de Portugal (1963-1971),
published in six volumes, combines politics with a study of the economy,
society, and the cultural and mental aspects of Portugal since its foundation
until the Republic. Moreover, the often-neglected Dicionário
Enciclopédico da História de Portugal (1985) makes for
a useful complement to the larger work produced by Joel Serrão.
More specific, but not less useful, therefore, are the Dicionário
da Maçonaria Portuguesa (1986), published in two volumes, and
the História da Maçonaria Portuguesa (1990-1997)
in three volumes, both written by A. H. de Oliveira Marques; they contain
convenient information about a substantial portion of the Portuguese political
class of the 19th century. For the English-language reader an obvious
starting point is Douglas Wheelers Historical dictionary of Portugal (1993). A significant new initiative has come to light in the shape of
the different volumes of the Dicionário Biográfico
Parlamentar. This is an ambitious project entrusted to Zília
Osório de Castro (for the period 1821-1823 and 1826-1828)
already published in 2001 and to Maria Filomena Mónica (1834-1910),
and is intended to make available the biography and political careers
of all members of parliament from the first liberal assembly in 1821 until
1910.
As part of this list of general works a number of up-to-date general histories
of Portugal published in English should be mentioned. Generally speaking,
English-language historians of Portugal skip over the greater part of
the 19th century the period that follows the successful conclusion
of the Peninsular war. Interest shown in the battles of Bussaco and Torres
Vedras, and the performance of Portuguese troops under Wellington and
Beresford, is rarely, if ever, matched by interest in the consequences
of a conflict which devastated large swathes of Portugal. An interesting
example of this lack of interest is to be found in a quick sketch of Portuguese
history attempted by Kenneth Maxwell (1995) in his recent The making
of Portuguese democracy, in which a tremendous leap is made from the
18th Century statesman, the Marquis of Pombal, to Salazar, with no reference
to anything or anyone in between. Turbulent political developments, with
constant changes of government and even of Constitution, are difficult
to decipher and summarise. Nevertheless, David Birminghams Concise
History of Portugal (1993) remains a useful starting point. A more
recent account of Portuguese history is James Andersons The History
of Portugal (2000).
Despite this increasing interest about 19th century Portugal, the editorial
landscape is bleaker when it comes to specialised reviews. There is not
a single review dedicated exclusively to political history, which reveals
the weakness of this specialisation in the Portuguese university milieu,
since practically all third-level institutions where History is taught
as a subject have their own publications. There is, however, some solace
to be found in other publications. The review Análise Social,
which began to be published in the 1960s in the Instituto de Ciências
Sociais, and presently directed by a sociologist, António Barreto,
does cast a regular eye over contemporary political history; a good recent
example is issue 157, published in 2001. Issue 150 (1999), is especially
useful, including as it does a complete index covering all back issues.
The review Ler História, linked to the Instituto Superior
de Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa (ISCTE), has been directed
since its first issue (1983) by Miriam Halpern Pereira. It too publishes
frequent articles relating to political concerns. Some other useful reviews,
not directly linked to any institutions, are Penélope: Revista
de História e Ciências Sociais2,
Política Internacional3, and the monthly
magazine História, directed by Fernando Rosas and aimed
at a general audience. Its main focus lies in the period covering the
First Republic and, above all, the New State, and in fact this review
has in many ways become the unofficial spokesman for the new historiography
of these periods. Nevertheless, 19th century political events are also
included in the main concerns of this publication. In English one might
add a number of reviews dedicated to lusophone affairs, including Portuguese
Studies (based in Great Britain) and Portuguese Studies Review (based in the United States); in both of these, however, history jostles
for space with other disciplines.
The 19th Century: from the Napoleonic wars to the
fall of the Constitutional Monarchy (1807-1910)
Despite the rather bleak landscape so far presented, it is now possible
to find some general interpretations of the century that begins
in 1807 with the first of three French invasions and which comes to an
end on 5 October 1910 with the fall of the monarchy. According to these
interpretations which are far from being consensual the
history of nineteenth-century Portugal consists of a long, complicated,
and frequently violent transition from the monarchy to the Republic, carried
out against the forces which struggled to preserve the half-way house
between the two (Bonifacio, 2002). That is to say, it was a time
of conflict between radicalism and liberalism that resulted in the growing
and inevitable republicanisation of the regime, in which from the
founding of constitutional monarchism in 1834, the Revolution became the
most powerful agent in Portuguese history (Ibid). There were a number
of stages until 1910, which we will quickly set out, detailing the authors
who have dedicated themselves to their political history.
As can be imagined, Portugal was not immune to the impact of the French
Revolution. In the context of Napoleonic expansionism at the beginning
of the century, Portugals international ambiguity, marked by an
attempt to seek a compromise between the traditional British alliance
and the continental system imposed by the new masters of Europe, dragged
the country into the French orbit as a result of three military campaigns
(1807-8, 1809, and 1810-1) which not only devastated a substantial part
of the territory (Matos, 1999; Rodrigues, 1999), but also forced the exile
of the court to Rio de Janeiro, which it reached under escort from the
British navy. This Brazilian city was suddenly transformed into the capital
of a trans-oceanic empire. The Braganza dynastys tropical exile
did not prevent Portugal from becoming a battlefield for the war between
France and Great Britain (Vicente, 2000). The invading French armies were
driven out thanks to British support, which came at the cost of British
tutelage until 1820 and which was facilitated by the royal familys
fear of returning to Europe. Portugal became, simultaneously, a colony
of Brazil and a British protectorate, and was divided into a pro-French
party and a pro-British party; the origins of these factions lie, obviously,
in the pre-1807 period (Alexandre, 1993). On 24 August 1820 some Portuguese
military leaders, in conjunction with a middle class group which bore
the stamp of the freemasons, carried out a liberal and nationalist pronunciamento in the city of Oporto with the objectives of freeing the country from
the oppressive presence of British officials, forcing King João
VI to return from Brazil, and carrying out elections for a Constituent
Assembly, charged with drawing up a modern Constitution in accordance
with the liberal ideas of the age. This was the dawn of Vintismo (1820-3) (Brandão, 1990; Proença, 1990; Vargues, 1997).
A number of civilian figures soon rose to the fore (Mogarro, 1990; Castro,
1990) men like José da Silva Carvalho, Manuel Borges Carneiro
and, above all, Manuel Fernandes Tomás, the patriarch of
the Revolution who, in tandem with officers such as Bernardo
de Sepúlveda and Sebastião Cabreira, did not allow for the
radicalisation of the situation, imposing instead the model provided by
the Cadiz Constitution (1812). The Portuguese experience of liberalism
did not thus suffer from a wave of Jacobinism similar to that of France
thirty years earlier. The greatest achievement of the Constituent Congress,
elected by universal male suffrage at the end of 1820 (Pereira, 1992)
was the Constitution of 1822, an advanced document for its time, which
forced the King to accept a secondary role within the new political regime.
The text upheld the principles of national sovereignty, of representation
of the Nation, and of the separation of powers, but was from the very
start threatened by the tension between the two principles at its core,
democracy and monarchy (Miranda, 2001). The evolution of the Portuguese
liberal model would thus be hamstrung by reactionary elements loyal to
the old absolutist order, who congregated in turn around Queen Carlota
Joaquina (Sara Pereira, 1999) and Prince Miguel. These carried out the
coup of May/June 1823, known in Portugal as the Vilafrancada, with
the support of some sections of the army, in order to force the monarch
to bring to a halt the workings of the liberal Cortes and to abolish
the Constitution. The workings of the parliament had opened various wounds
in Portuguese society (Castro, 1996), the most traumatic of which was
the parting of ways with Brazil, made inevitable by the return of the
King to Lisbon (Proença, 1999).
After the death of João VI in 1826, the Emperor of Brazil
and Portuguese Crown Prince Pedro IV, attempted to calm the political
waters, drafting in Rio de Janeiro a Constitutional Charter, more conservative
in tone than the Constitution of 1822. This text introduced the moderating
power of the monarch, a royal veto, a chamber for hereditary peers and
indirect elections (Miranda 2001). Pedro IV (known as Pedro I of Brazil),
forced to choose between kingdoms, opted for Brazilian, abdicating the
Portuguese throne in favour of his daughter, still a minor, the future
Maria II (Macaulay, 1986). The regency created to oversee the kingdom
was not strong enough to ensure the political stability of Portugal, threatened
by the supporters of prince Miguel, exiled in Vienna. These defenders
or royal absolutism took advantage of the situation to create a climate
of terror and persecution, which culminated with the Princes return
to Lisbon in 1828, where he was quickly proclaimed King in 1828. This Miguelista experience would last until 1834 (Lousada, 1987), when,
after two years of civil war, the liberal party triumphed. The war was
resolved by the convention of Évora-Monte and the permanent exile
of the usurper. After this episode the Miguelist threat was contained
but not extinguished (Mónica, 1997; Brissos, 1997) and, despite
the clear victory of the liberal forces, political stability did not ensue.
The fragmentation of the liberal 'family', driven by ideological differences
dating back to the years of exile (1828-1832/34) contributed to the creation
of a regime which, if militarily victorious, did not have sufficient authority
to impose law and order. The Charter of 1826 was imposed, a fifteen-year
old Queen was installed on the throne, and the government was entrusted
to the Duke of Palmela and the friends of Pedro IV who had, in the meantime,
died (Valente, 1993). On 9 September 1836 the politicised population of
Lisbon and the National Guard carried out a revolution in the capital
designed to drive the Charterists from power and force Maria
II to restore the Constitution of 1822. This new movement, known as Setembrismo,
suffered from the impact of constant popular demands, which paralysed
its activity in government. Its principal achievement, the Constitution
of 1838, fell halfway between the two previous texts, but was short-lived. Order was restored in the beginning of 1842, with royal approval,
by António Bernardo da Costa Cabral, a one-time radical who had
fallen for the delights of French doctrinaire politics. A new phase was
entered into, during which no recognition was given to the constituent
power of the Nation and in which no pacts were made either with the moderate
Left, headed by Rodrigo da Fonseca Magalhães and Passos Manuel
the leading lights of Setembrismo or the radical
Left, entrenched in the political clubs of the capital. The most visible
effect of this movement was the restoration of the Charter of 1826 and
the holding of elections, which provided Costa Cabral with a disciplined
majority, which in turn allowed him to rule with such firmness as to be
accused of tyranny (Bonifácio, 1986). In 1844, the pronunciamento of Torres Novas/Almeida, which had intended to return Setembrismo to power, was easily crushed by the government, but two years later, in
1846, the executive was finally forced to resign as a result of a popular
revolt, known as the Maria da Fonte, and of the lack of military
support within the regime (Capela, 1997).
Incapable of containing the popular revolt, Cabrals government was
dismissed by Maria II, who on the night of 5-6 October called on the Duke
of Saldanha to take charge of the country without informing the chief
of government, Terceira, a move later interpreted as a palace coup. Three
days later a Junta was formed in Oporto, which declared its hostility
to the new government in Lisbon. The civil war that ensued, known as the
war of Patuleia4, concluded
in June 1847 thanks to the British diplomatic intervention, which brought
to an end the military deadlock which had developed (Bonifácio,
1993b). Costa Cabral returned to power in 1849, replacing Saldanha, but
the defeat of the springtime of the nationalities the year
before had rendered redundant the return of the doctrinaires to power
(Ribeiro, 1990). The Duke pondered revenge for a time, and, once assured
that there would be no Spanish reaction to his move, carried out another pronunciamento in 1851. The unity of the army being more complete
than it had been since 1834, Saldanha became the dominant personality
of the time, able to impose his political and social views. The period
known as the Regeneration began, and a whole new generation
entered Parliament and reached positions of power. A wave of enthusiasm
for national reconciliation swept the whole country and all political
factions, since the constitutional reform of 1852 allowed for changes
long demanded by the Left, including direct elections. The Regenerationist
cabinet (1851-6) went as far as naming some of the leaders of Setembrismo
to positions of power within the State apparatus. Cabral went into exile
in Spain for a second time in five years and the country embarked on a
programme of material development directed by Minister Fontes Pereira
de Melo, the most significant political figure of the period. In 1856,
King Pedro V, displeased with the governing style of Fontes and his growing
unpopularity, charged the Marquis of Loulé with the formation of
a new cabinet in order to breathe new life into governmental action. The
years that followed, until 1868, were, however, marked by continuous political
disorder and successive changes of government. Históricos
and Regenerationists or, in other terms, the centre-left and centre-right
whether alternating in power or in a coalition,5 did not really differ in their preference for material progress and extensive
public works at the expense of the States finances. Roads and railroads
were built throughout the country. The historiography of this period has
generally opted for an exaltation of the climate of concord that reigned,
presenting the Regeneration as a time when all alliances were possible
(Sardica, 2001), although there is a contrasting view that of a
false Regenerationist peace (Bonifácio, 2002a).
The end of this coalition against radicalism, in 1868, helped to consolidate
the idea of the people as a political force, notably when
it came to the more militant urban population of Lisbon. Insurmountable
financial difficulties; permanent turmoil on the streets of the capital
and in the Parliament; and a succession of governments which proved incapable
of carrying out the agreed programme of developing Portugal and bringing
democracy to the regime; all of these factors pushed Saldanha into once
again, and for the last time in his long career, demonstrating his strength.
With the help of the army the old officer imposed a supra-party dictatorship
in 1870 which, however, failed in its basic bid: an attempt to carry out
the political reforms deemed necessary in order to allow radical ideas
to enter the political mainstream at a moment when the republican threat
was becoming increasingly evident (Catroga, 2000).
A reorganisation of the political parties took place in the years that
followed. In 1870 there had appeared the Reformist party, resulting from
the desire of part of the Históricos to become an unfettered
left-wing force. In 1876, the Progressive party was created, which, led
by Anselmo José Brancaamp, was the result of a fusion between the
Históricos and the more radical Reformists on the latters
terms, worked out through the Granja Pact6. This
was the same year in which a Republican party was founded. Despite these
changes, the 1870s were a decade of social and political peace, largely
as a result of a long-lasting Fontes Pereira de Melo government (1871-1877),
by now the clear leader of the Regenerationist party. But cooperation
between Progressives and Republicans at the end of the decade made necessary
the inclusion of Brancaamps party in the running of the country
in order to isolate republicanism. The electoral reform of 1884, negotiated
by Fontes, allowed the defeated party to preserve a significant number
of deputies in Parliament. The aim was clear: to separate the Progressives
from their electoral base and to create a peaceful rotation, allowing
the two parties to succeed each other in power peacefully. A second constitutional
reform, in 1885, sealed the new consensus: hereditary peers became a thing
of the past, the upper house being packed instead with government appointees.
The regime was closing ranks around itself and the result was not long
in coming.
Brancaamp died in September 1885 and Fontes died in January 1886. Less
than five years would elapse before the great tumult caused by the British
ultimatum of January 1890 (Teixeira, 1990) provoked by a colonial dispute
over the territory separating Angola from Mozambique, which Portuguese
troops had begun to occupy. Portuguese society reacted badly to the governments
acceptance of British terms, and a wave of patriotism was the outcome,
largely orchestrated by the Republican party, which capitalised on this
issue. The ultimatum provoked a crisis of authority in the State, which
was simultaneously discredited by its diplomatic and military weakness,
a failed Republican rising in Oporto in January of 1891, a financial crisis,
and the end of the previous decades understanding between the dynastic
parties. The peaceful rotation of, and the balance of power between, the
parties, came to an end. New life in politics was needed.
The very existence of the liberal regime hung in the balance (Ramos 2001b).
The dynastic parties stood accused of being the main bulwarks against
the renovation of national politics, identified as essential in order
to safeguard the countrys future. New leaders emerged, and new parties,
but still the attempt to save the monarchy failed. José Luciano
de Castro (Progressive) shared power with Hintze Ribeiro (Regenerationist)
in a second peaceful rotation, but both watched, powerless, as the crisis
of the liberal monarchy worsened. In 1901, João Franco, one of
the leading political figures of the time, abandoned the Regenerationists
to form his own party, which he titled Liberal-Regenerationist (Sardica,
1994). In 1903, Jacinto Cândido, imitating Franco, attempted to
rally conservative Catholicism around a Nationalist party, while the Progressive
party was also affected by this fragmentation with José Maria Alpoims
Progressive Dissidence of 1905. Even the Republican party was composed
of different factions which disagreed on how to reach a position of power
although they would not have long to wait.
The political and social dissatisfaction of these years (Mónica,
1987), marked by an intellectual climate of decadence, a commercial deficit,
the threat of financial bankruptcy, and constant governmental and parliamentary
instability, was aggravated in February 1908 with the twin murder of King
Carlos and the crown prince in Lisbon, carried out by members of the Carbonária,
a revolutionary secret society. The new monarch, Manuel II, a 18-year
old boy with no political experience, attempted to return some stability
to the country, but the decomposition of the regime was actually hastened
as successive scandals escaped the governments control. On 5 October
1910 few were found to defend the monarchy.
Thematic Studies covering the 19th century History
Studies of an exclusively political nature for this period continue to
be few and far between, despite the growing interest in contemporary history.
The first that must be mentioned is the pioneering work of Fernando Piteira
Santos on the 1820 elections (Santos, 1962). The authors interpretation
of the event, although pointedly Marxist, represented a key moment in
Portuguese historiography, although few were willing to take up his mantle.
Two decades would elapse before a new study, dedicated to the elections
of the Setembrista period (Sacuntala de Miranda, 1982) contributed,
in more complete fashion, to the comprehension of Portuguese electoral
politics of the liberal period. More recently, Pedro Tavares de Almeida
(Almeida, 1991, 1998 & 2001) took up the baton once again with his
work on elections and Caciquismo, publishing a useful compilation
of all relevant legislation from 1820 to 1926. It is also easier to study
the electoral phenomenon for the last years of the century (Vidigal, 1998).
Another field of by-now permanent activity is the study of the nineteenth
centurys political elites. Essential to this are Pedro Tavares de
Almeidas doctoral theses on the role of the national political elites
in the construction of the liberal State (Almeida, 1995) and the recently
published correspondence of many of the periods key players (Moreira,
1998; Mónica, 2000; Almeida, 2001). The analysis of the behaviour
of local elites has also been the subject of numerous studies; among these
can be found the cases of Lisbon (Paulo Jorge Fernandes, 1999) and Montemor-o-Novo
(Paulo Silva Fernandes, 1999). Less research has been carried out into
the appearance and development of political factions. There is no single
study of the phenomenon for the first half of the century. For the later
period, it is worth noting the publication, in 2001, of a study by José
Miguel Sardica dedicated to the formation of the party system in the first
phase of the Regeneration period (2001).
A number of studies have investigated ideological developments over the
course of the nineteenth century (Torgal, 1989, Campos Matos, 1998). João
Medina also made some headway into the development of socialism in Portugal
(Medina, 1984). In the case of republicanism, the History school
at the University of Coimbra has made a number of incursions into the
field (Homem, 1990, Catroga, 2000); but for liberalism, despite its obvious
importance, there is only an older study examining its more moderate elements
(Canaveira, 1988). Another area which has not yet been exhausted is military
history. Some authors have returned to it time and time again, notably
António Pedro Vicente and Fernando Pereira Marques. The first published
recently a compilation of articles dedicated essentially to the Napoleonic
campaigns and their consequences for Portugal. Pereira Marques has emerged
as a specialist in the organisation of the army (1999). For an analysis
of military interference in politics one should turn to the work of Vasco
Pulido Valente, remarkable for its narrative style and the abundant use
made of documentary evidence (1997).
The relationship between government and the parliament, and the very workings
of the parliament, are still to be understood, despite a first approach
(Pinto dos Santos, 1986) which includes a useful list of the different
governments in place since 1834. Another area still in its infancy is
constitutional history; a first attempt was made by Jorge Miranda, a specialist
in the matter, who recently compiled Brazilian and Portuguese constitutional
texts (2001). Administrative evolution and reforms (Manique, 1989) and
the political importance of the territory (Silveira, 1997b) have already
been considered, there being an abundance of works dedicated to the history
of municipalities and local power bases (Oliveira, 1996; VA, 1998).
The biographical genre is, after a first step (Pinheiro, 1996), undergoing
a period of expansion. In 2001 a number of especially important biographies
were published, including those of the writer Eça de Queirós
and the politicians João Franco and Vieira de Castro (Mónica,
2001; Ramos, 2001a; Valente, 2001). Even Análise Social surrendered to the charms of the biography, dedicating a special issue
to it (160). Pedro IV (or I, in Brazil) was the subject of an English-language
biography translated into Portuguese in Brazil (Macaulay, 1986). A general
study of Church-State relations during the period of the constitutional
monarchy can be found in another work published by the Coimbra school
(Neto, 1998) although a more detailed study of the normalisation of relations
between Lisbon and Rome is also at hand (Doria, 2001).
This brief survey of historical writing on nineteenth-century Portugal
will conclude with two traditionally popular areas colonial history
and international relations. The construction of an African empire (Clarence-Smith,
1990 & Alexandre, 2000) after the loss of Brazil led to increased
value being attached to Mozambique and Angola in the context of Portugals
overseas empire (Telo, 1991b & 1994). This is demonstrated by the
number of studies dedicated to these particular colonies (Henriques, 1997;
Pelissier, 2000 & 2001). The Portuguese presence in Asia has been
somewhat neglected (Guimarães, 1996), as has been the abolition
of slavery (João Pedro Marques, 1999). Meanwhile, the first investigations
into Portuguese diplomatic history (Macedo, 1987) have been overtaken
by the analysis of Portugals insertion into the post-Vienna European
order (Manique, 1988; Bonifácio, 1991) and the relationship between
foreign policy and public opinion (Costa, 1988).
This survey has shown that, until some years ago, there was only a grudging
acceptance of political history in Portuguese universities. The situation
is currently being altered, with this field gaining both academic credit
and visibility in the media, despite the relatively small number of
those engaged in it. Not even the conceptual struggle between the upholders
of the narrative and the followers of the New Political History
has hindered the growth of this field of specialisation: the debate
has helped to strengthen political history, thanks to the introduction
of different analytical and methodological approaches which act as an
engine of development.
Notes
1 A different version of this article was published in Historia y Política:
Ideas, procesos y movimientos sociales, no. 7, Madrid, Universidad
Complutense de Madrid e Editorial Biblioteca Nueva, 2002, pp. 11-54.
2 Currently directed by Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, this
review has published a number of articles on political history. Number
25 (2002) should be highlighted, for a complete index of all articles
published since 1988.
3 Published since 1990 and directed by João Ferreira
de Sousa, this review is mostly concerned with international relations,
but occasionally includes historiographical texts and original documents.
4 Patuleia is a deturpation of pata-ao-léu, or barefoot, in reference to the popular support enjoyed by the Oporto
Junta.
5 The so-called fusion government of 1865-8 was
made up of an alliance between the Regenerationists and a faction of
the 'Históricos' which was not opposed to such a collaboration
(unha branca). Within the latter party there existed, however,
another faction which was radically opposed to such an understanding
(unha preta), defending the alternative of a completely autonomous
Left.
6 Thus named after the sea-side town where the pact was signed.
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2003, ISSN 1645-6432
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