The Carnation Revolution- Summary

Image: RTVE

Until the second half of the twentieth century we will find in large areas of the world geography a series of authoritarian governments of fascist origin who had come to power between the 1920s and 1930s, but beginning in the 1950s, a series of rebellions against those systems of government would begin all over the world. In this lesson from a TEACHER we bring you a summary of the carnation revolution which is how the overthrow of the dictatorship that plagued Portugal since 1926 is known.

Index

1. Portuguese situation prior to the revolution
2. The year before the revolution
3. The carnation revolution
4. Curiosity about the name of the revolution
5. Consequences

In 1970 Portugal was bowed before a authoritarian government regime. The country was immersed in a great colonial war to maintain African possessions at all costs, an element that was plunging even more that nation into a great economic and political crisis.

In that way it is understandable to see the civil war that was established in said lands of the African continent, in whose lands a strong autarky appeared that punished the situation even more.

In February 1974, the head of state, Caetano, was forced to dismiss Antonio de Spínola and a group of his followers, because they wanted to change Portuguese policy in the colonies. This should put us on notice of the next move that the opposition to the regime would make.

Continuing with our summary of the carnation revolution, we must know that since 1973 a group opposed to the regime (in which we will find senior commanders of the Portuguese army) it grew in followers.

At first, this group was born out of concern for the future of their positions, but over time the objective of this group changed, because little by little they suffered great persecution at the hands of the State police, making it inevitable that the same components of the MFA attempted a coup on March 16, 1974.

This coup was stopped by the government and in retaliation began a series of movements of military contingents from one barracks to another to prevent further actions against Marcelo Caetano and his form of government. In the same way, the government police were monitoring much more closely all the military leaders of the MFA than They were very at odds with the regime, provoking in them the need to devise a quick way to put an end to it. regime.

Image: Brave New World Chronicles

The April 24, 1974 at 10:55 p.m. in Portugal a movement to end the regime authoritarian. It all began with a series of radio broadcasts of songs banned by the regime because, according to it, they fueled the desire of revolutionaries.

At 00: 25h on the 25th the song began to play on the radio "Grândola, Vila Morena", l the signal imposed by the members of the MFA to occupy the most important positions throughout the country with the intention of ending the government. And so it was, because at 01:00 a large part of the garrisons of Portugal had joined the movement, the government losing any hope of ending the coup.

In this way, at 09:00 the MFA and thousands of Portuguese citizens had taken the most important areas of the country. In the same way, all flights had been canceled, the ports were under the control of the rebels and therefore the government did not have the strength to fight the movement.

At 4:00 p.m. the entire government of Caetano surrendered to Antonio de Spínola, being transferred to the dungeons of a barracks until they knew what would become of them, a short time later, the entire cabinet was exiled to Brazil.

Without forgetting the importance of the carnation revolution in the Portuguese and international scene, we must know the meaning of the carnation In all this.

It seems that, when these events happened, a big party was canceled and on his return home, Celeste Caerio, he was bringing in his car a large quantity of red carnations. As he passed through a group of soldiers, one of them asked him for a cigarette and, not having, this handed a carnation, which ended up in the tank in which it was.

That same gesture was repeated by his companions, inserting them into the muzzles of their rifles as a sign of not wanting to fire their weapons. That way, the carnation became for the Portuguese a symbol of the peaceful revolution they wanted to carry out.

Image: The historical factory

On the European scene, the carnation revolution had a series of different connotations depending on the political system that each one had.

For example, we know that since Spain was seen with bad eyes because that revolution could reach the regime imposed by Francisco Franco, therefore the government preventedly closed all border entrances to prevent a possible entry of ideas.

About other European countries, at first they had no problem accepting what had happened, although they looked at the possibility of a pro-Soviet government, which would put the group at a disadvantage capitalist.

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