Page 61 - Northern Spain & Portugal: Pilgrimage into the Past

the Portuguese monarchy was restored in 1640, Dutch, English, and French competitors
had begun to seize the lion’s share of the world’s colonies and commerce. Portugal retained
Angola and Mozambique in Africa, and Brazil (under 1822), but its stronghold in Asia was
permanently lost.

After the nationalist revolution in 1640, a descendent of the Braganca noble family became the
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Dynasty,” which lasted into the 20th century. In 1668, the Treaty of Lisbon with Spain gave
Portugal recognized independence. Natural disaster struck in 1755, when a terrible earthquake
destroyed virtually all of Lisbon. In six minutes, 15,000 people were killed, thousands while
attending morning masses. The city was eventually reconstructed under the Marques de
Pombal, adviser to King Jose (1750-77).

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under Wellington in 1808, and the Peninsular War began. The French were driven out in 1811,
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King John VI returned from Brazil to resume leadership, and his son Dom Pedro declared
independence for Brazil in 1822.

King Carlos ascended the throne in 1889. When Carlos came to power, Portugal’s economy
was at an all-time low. The country had lost supremacy of commerce with the colonies and
was nearly bankrupt, having barely survived Napoleon’s invasions and the Civil war. The
Republicans blamed the monarchy for the country’s situation, and in 1908, Carlos and his
heir were shot dead on the streets of Lisbon. The new king, Manoel II, was driven from the
throne in the revolution of 1910 and Portugal became a French-style republic. Instability was
rampant, however, with revolutions and uprisings occurring two or three times a year.

Traditionally friendly to Britain, Portugal fought in World War I on the Allied side in Africa
as well as on the Western Front. Weak postwar governments led to a military coup d’etat in
1926 and the establishment of a dictatorship that lasted for almost 50 years. Antonio Oliveira
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68)—and he ruled Portugal as a virtual dictator. Salazar kept Portugal neutral in World War II,
but gave the Allies naval and air bases after 1943. Portugal joined NATO as a founding member
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in 1968 and died in 1970.

Portugal has transformed itself politically in recent decades. The consolidation of democracy
since the 1974 “carnation revolution” and of EU membership since 1986 has brought Portugal
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introduced the Euro.

Of its once extensive territorial possessions, only the Madeira group and the Azores in the
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1976, the Azores and Madeira were granted partial autonomy; and all the colonial territories
in Africa became independent countries—Angola, the Cape Verde Islands, Portuguese Guinea,

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