Portuguese Youth (Estado Novo)
The Portuguese Youth ( Portuguese : Mocidade Portuguesa ) was the youth organization of the Estado Novo regime in Portugal.
history
1936-1945
The fascism- friendly Estado Novo regime established in 1932 by the Finance Minister Salazar , who has been in office since 1928, introduced two typically fascist mass organizations in 1936, which were received with some enthusiasm and anchored the regime in the population. In addition to the Legião Portuguesa , a volunteer corps to protect the regime, this was the Mocidade Portuguesa, a paramilitary youth organization in which young people were forced to become members according to age. However, the new organizations also provoked violent backlashes, including a temporarily (January 1934) successful, revolutionary general strike by the workers, and a military uprising by right-wing and monarchist elements that was thwarted by the police.
After the introduction of the Mocidade Portuguesa for boys in 1936, it was also introduced for girls in 1938 and expanded to the Portuguese colonies in 1939 . It was inspired by Mussolini 's Balilla, founded in 1926, and the Hitler Youth , but despite contacts with them, it differed ideologically and structurally. The Mocidade Portuguesa combined aspects of Baden-Powell's scouting teaching with political and religious instruction. Outward signs of the Mocidade were their green shirt uniform and the Roman greeting , as well as their own hymn, the inner hierarchy and their own terminology .
It was compulsory for children aged 7 to 14 at least. For its male members, a volunteer militia was created within the Mocidade for the age group from 17 to 20 years, which acted as the armed arm of the organization and combined membership with advantages, such as crediting the time to the conscription. The leaders of the male Mocidade were usually military, while the female part was mostly led by secondary education teachers loyal to the regime .
1945–1974
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Mocidade Portuguesa was increasingly overtaken by the zeitgeist. The regime responded to the growing criticism with a partial reorientation, such as new tasks in the student organization, and membership was only mandatory from 11 to 14 years. However, the measures were unsuccessful. For example, the funding of the official youth centers within the universities failed completely, and from 1960 onwards even inspired the growing protest of the students, who were demanding ever more massive freedom and democracy.
As a result, the Mocidade Portuguesa was less and less rooted in the population and lost all meaning. Like the Legião Portuguesa, it was dissolved immediately and without resistance from the population in the course of the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
Individual evidence
- ↑ António Henrique de Oliveira Marques : History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 385). Translated from the Portuguese by Michael von Killisch-Horn. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , p. 559.
- ↑ entry in the Pathfinder , the Internet Encyclopedia of Porto Editora , accessed on 16 March
- ^ António Henrique de Oliveira Marques: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , pp. 580f.
- ^ António Henrique de Oliveira Marques: History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire. Kröner, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-520-38501-5 , pp. 602f.
- ↑ entry in the Pathfinder , the Internet Encyclopedia of Porto Editora , accessed on 16 March