Historical Party (Portugal, 1852–1876)

The Historical Party ( Partido Histórico in Portuguese ) was one of the two major political parties during the constitutional phase of the Portuguese monarchy . It emerged from the Setembrist movement and represented the more liberal part of the Portuguese party spectrum. By today's standards, they could be described as left-liberal-progressive. It was founded in 1854 and existed until 1876. Its most important opponent was the Regeneration Party .

The Historical Party provided the head of the Portuguese government, the Duke of Loulé , in 1856-1859, 1860-1865 and 1869/1870 . From 1865–1868 she ruled together with the Regeneration Party in a grand coalition.

In 1867, the Reformist Party split off from the Historical Party under the Marquis of Sá da Bandeira . After Sá da Bandeira's death (1876), the two parties reunited and renamed themselves the Progressive Party .

History of the party

After the Cartists had organized themselves politically in the Regeneration Party in 1851, the Historical Party was founded as a counterpart in 1854. With its name, the party wanted to refer to the "historical" resistance of its leaders against the dictatorship of Costa Cabral . The name was also chosen to indicate that the party should be open to all progressive forces in Portugal, not just supporters of the September constitution, i.e. the Setembrists in the narrower sense.

Since Queen Maria II was a supporter of the Regeneration Party, no governments of the Historical Party were appointed during her reign. Her husband Ferdinand II also held fast to the Regeneration Party during the period in which he reigned for his underage son Peter V. This only changed when Peter V began to rule independently in 1855. In the same year he appointed the Duke of Loulé as head of government for the first time.

An oligarchic parliamentary monarchy developed in Portugal . The politicians of both the Regeneration and the Historical Party both came from the upper class . Since it was a small, self-contained group of people who all had the same background, a system of regular rotation was formed in the exercise of government, called rotativismo in Portuguese historiography. As soon as a party was no longer able to exercise the government, it gave its mandate back to the monarch, who then appointed a head of government from the opposition. Only then did the monarch dissolve parliament, so that it was ensured that the party that had just assumed government responsibility also got a parliamentary majority, which was ensured by manipulating the elections if necessary (which was not difficult, given the fact that only one percent of the population was entitled to vote). In this system, the two major parties took turns in government responsibility, making sure that both ruled for about the same time. Under this system, the Duke of Loulé and thus the Historical Party led the government three times.

From 1865 to 1868 a grand coalition ruled in Portugal under Joaquim António de Aguiar ( Governo da fusão ). The Margrave of Sá da Bandeira, who was against the coalition with the Regeneration Party, finally resigns from the Historical Party together with António José de Ávila to found his own party. As a result, the party is so weakened that it no longer provides the government. After the death of Sá da Bandeira, the two parties reunite and form the Progressive Party, which carries on the tradition of the Historical Party and also provides the Portuguese government several times.