The First Portuguese Republic ( pt, Primeira República Portuguesa; officially: ''República Portuguesa'', Portuguese Republic) spans a complex 16-year period in the

history of Portugal The history of Portugal can be traced from circa 400,000 years ago, when the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Homo heidelbergensis. The Roman invasion in the 3rd century BC lasted several centuries, and developed the Roman provinc ...

, between the end of the period of constitutional monarchy marked by the

5 October 1910 revolution The 5 October 1910 revolution was the overthrow of the centuries-old Portuguese monarchy and its replacement by the First Portuguese Republic. It was the result of a ''coup d'état'' organized by the Portuguese Republican Party. By 1910, the K ...

and the 28 May 1926 ''coup d'état''. The latter movement instituted a

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the m ...

known as ''

Ditadura Nacional The ''Ditadura Nacional'' (, National Dictatorship) was the name given to the regime that governed Portugal from 1926, after the re-election of General Óscar Carmona to the post of President, until 1933. The preceding period of military dicta ...

'' (national dictatorship) that would be followed by the

corporatist Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests. The ...

'' Estado Novo'' (new state) regime of

António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the re ...

. The sixteen years of the First Republic saw nine presidents and 44 ministries, and were altogether more of a transition between the Kingdom of Portugal and the Estado Novo than they were a coherent period of governance.

Religion

The First Republic was intensely

anti-clerical Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...

. Historian Stanley Payne points out, "The majority of Republicans took the position that

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

was the number one enemy of individualist middle-class radicalism and must be completely broken as a source of influence in Portugal." Under the leadership of

Afonso Costa Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL (; born in Seia, 6 March 1871; died in Paris, 11 May 1937) was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and republican politician. Political career Costa was the leader of the Portuguese Republican Party and he was ...

, the Minister of Justice, the revolution immediately targeted the Catholic Church; the provisional government began devoting its entire attention to an anti-religious policy, in spite of the disastrous economic situation. On 8th October the religious orders in Portugal were expelled, and their property was confiscated. On 10 October – five days after the inauguration of the Republic – the new government decreed that all convents, monasteries and religious orders were to be suppressed. All residents of religious institutions were expelled and their goods confiscated. The

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

were forced to forfeit their Portuguese citizenship. A series of anti-Catholic laws and decrees followed each other in rapid succession. On 3 November, a law legalizing divorce was passed and then there were laws to recognize the legitimacy of children born outside wedlock, authorize cremation, secularize cemeteries, suppress religious teaching in the schools and prohibit the wearing of the

cassock The cassock or soutane is a Christian clerical clothing coat used by the clergy and male religious of the Oriental Orthodox Churches, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, in addition to some clergy in certain Protestant denomi ...

. In addition, the ringing of church bells to signal times of worship was subjected to certain restraints, and the public celebration of religious feasts was suppressed. The government also interfered in the running of seminaries, reserving the right to appoint professors and determine curricula. This whole series of laws authored by

culminated in the law of Separation of Church and State, which was passed on 20 April 1911. The republicans were anticlerical and had a "hostile" approach to the issue of church and state separation, like that of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, and the future

Mexican Constitution of 1917 The Constitution of Mexico, formally the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States ( es, Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the current constitution of Mexico. It was drafted in Santiago de Querétaro, in th ...

and

Spanish Constitution of 1931 The Spanish Constitution of 1931 was approved by the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1931. It was the constitution of the Second Spanish Republic (founded 14 April 1931) and was in force until 1 April 1939. This was the second period of Spanis ...

. On 24 May 1911,

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...

issued the encyclical '' Iamdudum'' which condemned the anticlericalism of the new republic for its deprivation of religious civil liberties and the "incredible series of excesses and crimes which has been enacted in Portugal for the oppression of the Church."IAMDUDUM: ON THE LAW OF SEPARATION IN PORTUGAL
Papal Encyclicals Online The Republic repelled a

royalist attack on Chaves The attack on Chaves, which occurred on 8 July, 1912, was a military action performed by supporters of the monarchy of Portugal in opposition to the Portuguese First Republic, which had been proclaimed two years prior. The attack was led by H ...

in 1912.

Heads of state and government

The First Portuguese Republic was an unstable period in the History of Portugal. In a period of 16 years (1910–1926) Portugal had 8 Presidents of the Republic, 1 Provisional Government, 38

Prime Ministers A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is no ...

and 1 Constitutional ''Junta'': File:Manuel de Arriaga (1911) - Ringelke.png, File:Teófilo Braga - Ilustração Portugueza (7JUN1915).png, File:BernardinoMachado.png, File:Sidónio Pais.png, File:João de Canto e Castro da Silva Antunes (Arquivo Histórico Parlamentar).png, File:António José de Almeida (c. 1900-1909).png, File:Manuel Teixeira Gomes.png,

Evaluation of the republican experiment and legacy

Most historians have emphasized the failure and collapse of the republican dream by the 1920s. José Miguel Sardica in 2011 summarized the consensus of historians: Algarve - Silves - Portuguese flag at the castle (25803263426)

Algarve - Silves - Portuguese flag at the castle (25803263426)

Sardica, however, also points up the lasting effects of the republican experiment:

Religion

Heads of state and government

Evaluation of the republican experiment and legacy

References

Further reading