Carnation Revolution

On 25 April 1974, a group of military officers toppled Portugal's long-running dictatorship, the Estado Novo, in a coup that met almost no resistance. Crowds poured into the streets of Lisbon to support the soldiers, and the carnations they pushed into rifle barrels gave the revolution its name. The coup opened the way to democracy in Portugal and brought a rapid end to its African wars and its colonial empire.

Portugal had been under authoritarian rule since a military coup on 28 May 1926. Under António de Oliveira Salazar, prime minister until 1968, the regime censored the press, rigged elections and used its political police, the PIDE, to imprison and torture opponents. When Salazar suffered a stroke in 1968, Marcelo Caetano replaced him and promised cautious reform, but hard-liners soon pushed back.

From 1961 the regime was also fighting independence movements in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea. The Portuguese Colonial War, including the Angolan War of Independence, dragged into its second decade, consumed up to 40 per cent of the budget and left the country isolated abroad. Thousands of young men emigrated illegally to avoid conscription.

By late 1973 many career officers had concluded that the wars could not be won and needed a political solution. They were also angered by new decrees letting short-course militia officers rise on equal terms with academy graduates. Led by Vasco Lourenço, Vítor Alves and Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, they formed the Armed Forces Movement (MFA). General António de Spínola, a former governor of Portuguese Guinea who was dismissed from the army leadership in early 1974 after publishing a book critical of colonial policy, became a figurehead for reform. A premature rising at Caldas da Rainha on 16 March failed, but it persuaded the government that the threat was smaller than it was.

The coup was launched by radio. At 22:55 on 24 April a Lisbon station played Portugal's Eurovision entry, "E Depois do Adeus", alerting the plotters; at 00:20 on 25 April Rádio Renascença played "Grândola, Vila Morena" by Zeca Afonso, a singer much of whose work was banned, and units moved to seize key points. Ignoring appeals to stay at home, thousands of civilians joined the troops. Caetano sheltered at the Largo do Carmo headquarters of the National Republican Guard, where the rebels surrounded him and pressed him to hand power to Spínola, which he did. Caetano and President Américo Tomás were sent into exile in Brazil.

The day was not entirely bloodless. Agents at the political police headquarters fired on the crowd outside, killing four civilians; in all, six people died. Some provincial authorities held out for several days, the last on 30 April.

Two turbulent years followed, known as the Ongoing Revolutionary Process. Conservatives around Spínola clashed with radical officers, a right-wing counter-coup failed and Spínola was removed, large areas of farmland were seized, and a split opened between Communists and Socialists. A failed coup by far-left officers on 25 November 1975 was followed by a successful counter-move by moderates. The first free elections, held on 25 April 1975, chose an assembly to write a new constitution, and in 1976 the Socialist Mário Soares formed the first constitutional government. Portugal joined the European Economic Community in 1986.

The new authorities negotiated with the African liberation movements. Portuguese forces had pulled out of Guinea-Bissau before 1974 was over, and Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe and Angola followed in 1975, while East Timor declared independence before being invaded by Indonesia. Angola slid into the Angolan Civil War. More than a million Portuguese settlers, the retornados, came back from Africa. Macau stayed under Portuguese rule until 1999. Neighbouring Spain, where Francisco Franco died the following year, watched the events closely, and the revolution is often seen as the start of a worldwide wave of democratisation. The anniversary, 25 April, is celebrated in Portugal as Freedom Day.

Our 1960 map shows Portugal with its overseas empire still intact, and the 1985 map shows a democratic Portugal and the newly independent African states.