Regeneration party
The Regeneration Party (in Portuguese Partido da Regeneração or Partido Regenerador) was one of the two major political parties during the constitutional phase of the Portuguese monarchy . She went from the movement of Cartista forward and represented the conservative part of the Portuguese political spectrum. By today's standards, they could be described as right-wing liberal-conservative. From its foundation in 1851 until the end of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910, it provided the majority of Portuguese governments. Its most important opponent was the Historical Party , later the Progressive Party .
Regeneration was provided by the Portuguese government in 1851–1856, 1859/1860, 1871–1877, 1878/1879, 1881–1886, 1893–1897, 1900–1904 and 1906. From 1865–1868 she ruled together with the Historical Party in a grand coalition. 1906-1908 ruled a split from the party, the Liberal Regeneration Party. The last prime minister of the monarchy (1910), António Texeira de Sousa, who, however, was already completely a man of transition, also belonged to the Regeneration Party.
The most important politicians of the Regeneration Party were: João Carlos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun , known by his noble name as the Duke of Saldanha; António José de Sousa Manoel de Menezes Severim de Noronha , known as the Duke of Terceira; Joaquim António de Aguiar , António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo , António de Serpa Pimentel and Ernesto Rodolfo Hintze Ribeiro . The last important prime minister of the monarchy, João Franco Ferreira Pinto Castelo Branco belonged to a group that had split off from the Regeneration Party.
After the end of the monarchy, the party no longer played a political role and dissolved.
History of the party
The party was founded by the Duke of Saldanha . After overthrowing the second government of the dictator António Bernardo da Costa Cabral , the Marquis of Tomar, in 1851, he led the country with dictatorial powers until 1856. He gathered cartist politicians around him and founded the Regeneration Party, initially less as a party in the modern sense, but more as a parliamentary support association for himself. In 1856 the new king, Peter V , dismissed the Duke of Saldanha and appointed a government of the historical for the first time Political party. The Regeneration Party initially lost power.
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.
The Regeneration Party lost a large part of its parliamentary seats in the elections in 1856 and 1858, which followed the formation of the Historical Party, and practically sank to a splinter party.
In 1859 there was another change, the new head of government was the Duke of Terceira from the Regeneration Party, a hero of the Miguelistenkrieg . However, he dies after a year in office, his successor being Joaquim António de Aguiar , a founding member of the Regeneration Party.
However, Aguiar can only stay in office for a short time, he cannot prevent the Historical Party from taking over power again. The elections of 1861 then lead to a defeat for Regeneration. Aguiar succeeds in entering into a "grand coalition" with the Historical Party; in the elections of 1865, the two major parties stand up with a common list. From 1865 to 1868 a government of the grand coalition (in Portuguese Governo da fusão) ruled under the leadership of Aguiar.
The popular dissatisfaction with this government, which was discredited by a series of unpopular measures, and the lack of an alternative (since both major parties were represented in the government) was great. On New Year's Day 1868, violent demonstrations broke out in Lisbon, which ultimately overthrew the Aguiar government. A wing that was against the coalition with the Regeneration Party had split off from the Historical Party. This new party, the Reformist Party , now briefly took power. This was again followed by a government of the Historical Party. The Regeneration Party hardly played a role during this period; devastating defeats (in the elections of 1868 the party won 13, in the elections of 1870 14 MPs) reflect the decline of regeneration during this period.
This changed when António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo became Prime Minister in 1871 . He ruled until 1877, making it the longest government Portugal has ever had during this phase of its history. Fontes de Melo is considered the most important politician of the Regeneration Party. The increasing success of the party in the elections during these years (1871 22 MPs, 1874 78 MPs, 1878, during the second Fontes de Melo government, 149 MPs) reflected the popularity of Fontes de Melo. Fontes de Melo was Prime Minister three times, his last government ended in 1886. In 1887, Fontes de Melo died, who not only had a decisive influence on his party as head of government, but also as leader of the opposition during the phases when the Regeneration Party was not in government.
In 1890, António de Serpa Pimentel, another politician of the Regeneration Party, became head of government. During his reign there was a momentous dispute with Great Britain over the Portuguese colonial territories in Africa. At that time Portugal only really controlled the coastal areas of its two large colonies, Portuguese West and East Africa (today's Mozambique and Angola ), but not the hinterland. The country now launched the plan to expand the colonies in the hinterland so far that the two areas would touch, in order to create a coherent large Portuguese colonial empire in Africa. This plan clashed with British ideas that wanted to connect their colonies from Egypt to South Africa as well. The British gave the Portuguese an ultimatum , in view of the realities of power politics, the Portuguese government had no choice but to accept the ultimatum, i.e. to forego the expansion of the colonial empire. In Portugal, the plan to expand the colonial empire in Africa had sparked a wave of nationalist enthusiasm. The disappointment was correspondingly great when one had to do without it. De Serpa Pimentel's government fell over it, and both major parties, indeed the entire classe politique , fell into disrepute in the eyes of the public, which even extended to the monarchy itself. It was during this time that the republican current in Portugal began to gain ground for the first time.
The king, Charles I , felt compelled to deviate from the traditional system of rotativismo and to appoint non-partisan governments from 1890 to 1893. The Portuguese national bankruptcy in 1891 fell during this period . In 1893, Ernesto Rodolfo Hintze Ribeiro followed , the last important head of government from the ranks of the Regeneration Party.
The country returned one last time to the traditional system of rotativismo , the rotation now taking place between the Regeneration Party and the Progressive Party , which had succeeded the Historical Party. Hintze Ribeiro is head of government three times, he ruled from 1893 to 1897, from 1900 to 1904 and in 1906. The Progressive Party ruled in between.
During this time, the crisis of the Ancien Régime became clear . Colonial conflict and national bankruptcy had undermined the people's confidence in the monarchy. The result was a steady strengthening of the republican tendency. Even if the elections, which were still controlled, did not reflect the strength of the Republicans, it was obvious that the monarchical system was losing control. The monarchists, both on the part of the Regeneration and the Progressive Party, reacted headlessly, instead of allying themselves against the Republicans, they argued among themselves. So in 1901 there was a split within the Regeneration Party, which heralded the end of the party. João Franco leaves the Regeneration Party with some of his supporters and founds the Liberal Regeneration Party . The government loses its parliamentary majority, the Cortes are dissolved, new elections are announced, but Hintze Ribeiro is initially able to stay in power when other groups within the Regeneration Party refuse to support it. After a last interlude of the progressives, he was again (1906) commissioned to form a government, but was unable to assert himself against the anarchic situation in the country and had to resign after a few months.
The king then appoints João Franco as prime minister, who had previously resigned from the Regeneration Party. The latter ruled with dictatorial powers from 1906 to 1908, but he was also unable to turn things around again. On February 1, 1908, the king and the heir to the throne were shot in an assassination attempt in Lisbon . The new king, Manuel II , dismisses João Franco and appoints a number of non-partisan governments, but these have nothing to counter the growth of the Republicans. In 1910 the Portuguese monarchy was overthrown, and Portugal became one of the first states to become a republic.
Perhaps it is an irony in Portuguese history that the last prime minister of the monarchy, a certain António Teixeira de Sousa , who was prime minister only for a short time in 1910 and otherwise left no traces in Portuguese history, was also a member of the regeneration and government thus the oldest Portuguese party was. With the end of the monarchy, the party had lost its political right to exist and sank into insignificance. In 1909 it had split into two competing wings with two party leaders. However, many of its members remained loyal to the monarchical movement, which during the first republic in Portugal tried - in vain - several times to turn back the wheel of history.