Liberal Revolution in Portugal
The Liberal Revolution in Portugal is understood to mean the events of 1821/1822, which brought the country the return of the king and its first democratic constitution .
prehistory
Portugal had been ruled in an absolutist way since the middle of the 17th century ; the Cortes , the Portuguese assembly of estates, at whose meetings representatives of the nobility, the Catholic Church and the cities were involved, was convened for the last time in 1669. The Marquês de Pombal , first minister in the reign of Joseph I , transformed the old clerical monarchy into an enlightened absolutist state.
In 1808 Portugal was occupied by French troops because of its refusal to join the Napoleonic continental blockade against England . The royal family fled to Brazil . Rio de Janeiro became the new residential city. English troops led by the Duke of Wellington and William Carr Beresford , together with the remnants of the Portuguese army, succeeded in forcing the French to leave the country after they had lost several battles, most recently the Battle of Sabugal on April 3, 1811.
The Napoleonic troops, however, had also brought the ideas of the French Revolution to Portugal. These fell on fertile ground, especially in the poorly paid and demoralized Portuguese army.
The war between France and England on Portuguese soil had disastrous consequences for Portugal. The country was devastated by the scorched earth tactics used by both the French and the English. The first beginnings of industrialization were ruined. Portugal was heavily indebted and its trade dependence on England grew. Since 1810 England had the right to trade directly with Brazil, bypassing Portugal. Portugal became a de facto British protectorate, and power in the country was in the hands of the British commander, William Carr Beresford . In 1815 Brazil, from where Portugal was ruled de jure , received a new status; it was no longer a Portuguese colony, but an independent kingdom with the same rights as Portugal and linked to it by a personal union.
These developments caused great discontent in the Portuguese army. The presence of British officers in the army and the omnipotence of Beresford demoralized the Portuguese, who had the impression that they were no longer in control of their own house. The fact that the king, who was still in Brazil, made no move to return to his country, dampened the morale of the Portuguese troops.
In neighboring Spain , where a similar situation prevailed, a constituent assembly had already met between 1810 and 1812 and a liberal constitution had been adopted. This was seen as a model for many Portuguese. In particular, the liberal thought leader and politician Manuel Fernandes Tomás called for a constitution with similar civil rights for his country.
Beresford reacted to these efforts with great severity. In 1817 he had a number of supporters of liberalism executed, including the Portuguese general Gomes Freire de Andrade .
The liberal revolution
The real liberal revolution began on August 24, 1820 with a revolt of liberal officers in Porto . The main demand of the rebels was not the abolition of the monarchy, so the revolution was not directed against King John VI, who was in Brazil . Rather, the insurgents wanted the British to withdraw, the king to return and the country to be transformed into a constitutional monarchy .
When the uprising broke out, Beresford was in Brazil. He immediately returned to Portugal, but could not turn the tide. The British officers had since been disarmed and removed from the Portuguese army. Beresford was not even allowed to enter the city of Lisbon . A provisional government ( junta ) had been established there in the meantime and convened a constituent assembly (Cortes).
In 1821 it passed a democratic constitution in the liberal spirit, the first constitution in Portuguese history. The constitution confirms the reign of the king, who is asked to return from Brazil, the Inquisition and special rights of the Catholic Church , as well as feudal rule , are abolished, a unicameral parliament is set up, the result of general elections in which all Portuguese participate Except for women, illiterate people and clerics could participate. A provisional government ( Junta Provisional do Supremo Governo do Reino ) was established. The new constitution gave the king the right to veto the parliamentary bills, but he was not given the right to dissolve parliament.
John VI followed the increasingly urgent demands of the constituent assembly to return to Portugal. finally, rather reluctantly, in 1821. This ended a 14-year period in which the Portuguese court resided in Rio de Janeiro. The king had no choice but to accept the constitution drawn up by the constituent Cortes, he finally swore an oath on it, so that it officially entered into force.
Developments after the return of the king
While John VI. endeavored honestly to keep his oath, to accept the constitution and to work with the liberal politicians, his wife, Queen Charlotte Johanna and his younger son, Prince Michael , practiced open obstructionism. Their goal was to abolish the constitution and restore the old absolutist regime.
In doing so, they agreed with the prevailing political currents in Europe. On September 26, 1815, under the leadership of the reactionary Austrian politician, Prince Metternich , Austria, Prussia and Russia concluded the Holy Alliance , the program of which was to restore the conditions from before the French Revolution everywhere in Europe, if necessary by force of arms . In 1823, on behalf of the Holy Alliance, a French army marched into neighboring Spain and ended the liberal experiment there. The Spanish King Ferdinand VII has since reigned as an absolute monarch.
In 1824 there was a counter-attack by the conservative forces in Portugal, led by the Queen and Prince Michael, who had previously been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Army by his father. They hoped that the French army would march on from Spain to Portugal to reintroduce absolutism here as well. King John VI, unwilling to violate his constitutional oath, was practically held as a prisoner in his palace by the queen and pressured by her to abdicate in favor of his son Michael.
In Portugal, unlike in Spain, the conservative uprising did not lead to success. Clear threats of war by England to France in the event that the French army in Spain would cross the Portuguese borders prevented French intervention on the part of the insurgents. The king was able to escape from his palace, embarked on an English warship, from there relieved his son of command of the Portuguese army and finally forced his son and his wife into exile. However, he had to revoke the 1821 constitution.
meaning
Even if the first liberal constitution in Portugal was only valid for a few years, from 1821 to 1824, these events were of great importance for the further history of the country. The liberal ideas had since been anchored in Portuguese politics, the liberal current a force that gained great influence in the politics of the country. It was mainly thanks to the Portuguese liberals that Michael was overthrown in the Miguelistenkrieg in 1834 and Queen Maria II was reinstated in her rights. After 1834, the Liberals split into a conservative wing, called the Cartists , and a more radical wing, called the Setembrists . From these two wings developed the two parties that were to determine Portuguese politics until the end of the monarchy, the conservative Regeneration Party and the radical Historical Party , which in turn became the Progressive Party in 1876 .
See also: History of Portugal , Timeline of Portugal
Footnotes
- ^ Joel Serrão: Da "Regeneração" à República . Livros Horizonte, Lisbon 1990, ISBN 972-24-0765-1 , p. 49.
- ↑ António Henrique de Oliveira Marques: Histoire du Portugal et de son empire colonial . Éditions Karthala, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-86537-844-6 , p. 388.
- ^ Hans-Otto Kleinmann : Between ancien regime and liberalism. (1808-1874) . In: Peer Schmidt (ed.): Small history of Spain . Reclam, Stuttgart, 3rd updated edition 2004, ISBN 3-15-017039-7 , pp. 271-273.