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António de Oliveira Salazar

António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GCTE, GCSE, pron. , (April 28, 1889 – July 27, 1970) served as the Prime Minister and dictator of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. He founded and led the Estado Novo ("New State"), the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal's social, economic, cultural and political life from 1932 to 1974.

Rise to power

Salazar was born in Vimieiro, Santa Comba Dão, in central Portugal, from a family of modest income. His father, a small landowner, had started as an agricultural labourer and became the manager of a distinguished family of rural landowners of the region of Santa Comba Dão, the Perestrelos, who possessed lands and other assets scattered between Viseu and Coimbra. He had four older sisters, and was the only male child of two fifth cousins, António de Oliveira (Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão, Vimieiro, January 17, 1839 – Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão, Vimieiro, September 28, 1932) and wife (m. Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão, May 4, 1881/1884) Maria do Resgate Salazar (Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão, October 23, 1845 – Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão, Vimieiro, November 17, 1926), whose paternal grandfather was a landowner and a nobleman; despite the knowledge of his ancestry Salazar always preferred to claim humble origins. His older sisters were Maria do Resgate Salazar de Oliveira, an Elementary School teacher, Elisa Salazar de Oliveira, Maria Leopoldina Salazar de Oliveira and Laura Salazar de Oliveira, who in 1887 married Abel Pais de Sousa, whose brother Mário Pais de Sousa was Salazar's Interior Minister, sons of a family of Santa Comba Dão, Santa Comba Dão.

He studied at the Viseu Seminary from 1900 to 1914 and considered becoming a priest, but changed his mind. He studied Law at Coimbra University during the first years of the Republican government.

As a young man, his involvement in politics stemmed from his Roman Catholic views, which were aroused by the new anti-clerical Portuguese First Republic. Writing in Catholic newspapers and fighting in the streets for the rights and interests of the church and its followers were his first forays into public life.

During Sidónio Pais's brief dictatorship from 1917 to 1918, Salazar was invited to become a minister, but declined. He formally entered politics in the following years, joining the conservative Catholic Centre, and was elected to Parliament but left it after one session. He taught political economy at the University of Coimbra.

After the 28th May 1926 coup d'état, he briefly joined José Mendes Cabeçadas's government as the 71th Minister of Finance on June 3, 1926 but quickly resigned, explaining that since disputes and social disorder existed in the government, he could not do his work properly. Later again he became the 81st finance minister on April 26, 1928 after the Ditadura Nacional was consolidated, paving the way for him to be appointed the 101st prime minister in 1932. He remained finance minister until 1940, when World War II consumed his time.

His rise to power is due to three factors: the good image he was able to build as an effective finance minister, President Carmona's strong support, and shrewd political positioning. The authoritarian government consisted of a right-wing coalition, and Salazar was able to co-opt the moderates of each political current while fighting the extremists, using censorship and repression. The Catholics were his earliest and most loyal supporters, although some resented the continued separation of church and state. The conservative republicans who could not be co-opted became his most dangerous opponents during the early period. They attempted several coups, but never presented a united front, so these coups were easily repressed. Never a true monarchist, Salazar nevertheless gained most of the monarchists' support, as he had the support of the exiled deposed king, who was given a state funeral at the time of his death. The National Syndicalists were torn between supporting the regime and denouncing it as bourgeois. As usual, they were given enough symbolic concessions to win over the moderates, and the rest were repressed by the political police. Even if they were to be silenced shortly after 1933, as Salazar attempted to prevent the rise of National Socialism in Portugal.

The prevailing view, at the time, of political parties as elements of division and parliamentarism as being in crisis led to general support, or at least tolerance, of an authoritarian regime.

In 1933, Salazar introduced a new constitution which gave him wide powers, establishing an anti-parliamentarian and authoritarian government that would last four decades.

Estado Novo

Salazar developed the "Estado Novo" (literally, New State). The basis of his regime was a platform of stability. Salazar's early reforms allowed financial stability and therefore economic growth. After the chaotic years of the Portuguese First Republic (1910–1926) when not even public order was achieved, this looked like an impressive breakthrough to most of the population, Salazar achieved then his height in popularity. This transfiguration of Portugal was then known as "A Lição de Salazar" - Salazar's Lesson.

Education was not seen as a priority and was not heavily invested in. Nevertheless, basic education was granted to all citizens, even if literacy levels were at a very low level for Western Europe. There was substantial investment in educational infrastructure. Many of the schools he created are still active today.

Salazar relied on the secret police for fighting the communists and other political movements that opposed the regime. At first the secret police was called PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e Defesa do Estado). It had a Gestapo-inspired organization, and became better known by the name adopted from 1945 to 1969, Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado (PIDE). The secret police carried out the repression and elimination of dissidents especially those related to the international communist movement or the USSR. Constant references to the near-chaos that prevailed before 1926 served to keep the opposition in check until the 1950s.

Salazar's regime was authoritarian. He based his political philosophy around a selective and regressive interpretation of Catholic social doctrine, much like the contemporary regime of Engelbert Dollfuß in Austria. The economic system, known as corporatism, was based on a similar interpretation of the papal encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno, which was supposed to prevent class struggle and supremacy of economics. Salazar himself banned Portugal's National Syndicalists, a much more unambiguously Fascist party, for being, in his words, a "Pagan" and "Totalitarian" party. Salazar's own party, the National Union, was formed as a subservient umbrella organisation to support the regime itself, and was therefore lacking in any ideology independent of the regime. At the time many European countries feared the destructive potential of communism. Many neutral states in World War II, from the Baltic to the Atlantic, at least in principle, sympathized with any state that would wage war on the Soviet Union. Salazar forbade Marxist parties, but also revolutionary fascist-syndicalist parties. It is debatable whether Salazar's government can truly be considered 'Fascist', given the strong Roman Catholic, monarchist, regionalist, agrarian and restorational tendency of his rule, which is in sharp contrast to the innovative and revolutionary re-structuring of society so prevalent in Fascist countries. There is no doubt, however, that he at least respected Fascist leader Benito Mussolini at some point in time. He once said, "I'm with Mussolini in Italy, but I can't be in Portugal."

During World War II western Allied naval bases in Portuguese territory were granted to the United Kingdom, and later also to the United States.

Large numbers of Jews and political dissidents, including Abwehr personnel after the 20 July plot of 1944, sought refuge in Portugal, although until late 1942 immigration was very restricted.

Neutrality during World War II

Nobel Prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck was in Portugal on the eve of World War II under the protection of Salazar and in 1937 he wrote the introduction to the French translation of a work by the Portuguese politician ("Une revolution dans la paix"). During World War II, Salazar steered Portugal down a middle path. He did not officially side with any of the contenders in the war though a dictator and supporter of the Nationalist Spanish State. Salazar allowed General Sanjurjo, the rebel leader, to fly from a non-military airport in Portugal and Salazar sent aid to the Nationalists. Salazar initiated the Iberian Pact in 1939. Indeed, Salazar provided aid to the Allies, letting them use Terceira Island in the Azores as a military base, although he only agreed to this after the alternative of an American takeover by force of the islands was made clear to him by the British. Portugal, particularly Lisbon, was one of the last European exit points to the U.S., and a huge number of refugees found shelter in Portugal, many of them with the help from the Portuguese consul general in Bordeaux, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, who issued visas against Salazar's orders. Siding with the Axis would have meant that Portugal would have been at war with Britain, which would have threatened Portuguese colonies, while siding with the Allies might prove to be a threat to Portugal itself. There is some evidence that Franco planned to invade both Portugal and Gibraltar, together with the Nazis if Portugal was to side with the Allies against Spain (in the event that Spains could side with Germany). Portugal continued to export tungsten and other goods to both the Axis (partly via Switzerland) and Allied countries.

In 1945, Portugal had an extensive colonial Empire, including Cape Verde Islands, São Tomé e Principe, Angola (including Cabinda), Portuguese Guinea, and Mozambique in Africa; Goa, Damão (including Dadra and Nagar Haveli), and Diu in India; Macau in China; and Portuguese Timor in Southeast Asia. Salazar, a fierce integralist, was determined to retain control of Portugal's territories.

Post-war Portugal

Salazar wanted Portugal to be relevant internationally, and the country's overseas provinces made this possible, while Salazar himself refused to be overawed by the Americans. Portugal was the only non-democracy among the founding members of NATO in 1949, which reflected Portugal's role as an ally against communism during the Cold War. Portugal was offered help from the Marshall Plan because of the aid it gave to the Allies during the final stages of World War II; aid was initially refused but eventually accepted.

Throughout the 1950s, Salazar maintained the same import substitution approach to economic policy that had ensured Portugal's neutral status during World War II. The rise of the "new technocrats" in the early 1960s, however, led to a new period of economic opening up, with Portugal as an attractive country for international investment. Industrial development and economic growth would continue all throughout the 1960s. During Salazar's tenure, Portugal also participated in the founding of OECD and EFTA.

The colonies were under a constant state of disarray after the war. The Indian possessions were the first to fall. After the Indian Union was formed on 15th of August 1947, the nationalists in Goa continued their struggle to join Goa to India. This resulted in a detailed operation which included both civilian and military phases. The civilian phase involved a series of strikes and other protest movements by local people against the administration in Goa. The military phase included the role of the Indian Armed Forces, which invaded Portuguese India and wrested control of Goa, Daman and Diu in Operation Vijay in 1961. The overseas provinces were a continual source of trouble and wealth for Portugal, especially during the Portuguese Colonial War. Portugal became increasingly isolated on the world stage as other European nations with African colonies gradually granted them independence.

In the 1960s, armed revolutionary movements and scattered guerilla activity had reached Mozambique, Angola, and Portuguese Guinea. Except in Portuguese Guinea, the Portuguese army and naval forces were able to effectively suppress most of these insurgencies through a well-planned counter-insurgency campaign using light infantry, militia, and special operations forces. Most of the world ostracized the Portuguese government because of its colonial policy, especially the newly-independent African nations.

At home, Salazar's regime remained as rigidly authoritarian as ever. He was able to hold onto power with reminders of the instability that had characterized Portuguese political life before 1926. However, these tactics fell on increasingly deaf ears as a new generation was born who had no memory of this instability. In the 1960s, Salazar's opposition to decolonization and gradual freedom of the press created friction with the Franco dictatorship.

Economic policies

Economically, the Salazar years were marked by immensely increased growth. From 1950 until Salazar's death, Portugal saw its GDP per capita rise at an average rate of 5.66% per year. This made it the fastest growing economy in Europe. Indeed, the Salazar era was marked by an economic program based on the policies of autarky and interventionism, which were popular in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression. However, during his tenure, Portugal was co-founder of OECD and EFTA. Financial stability was Salazar's highest priority. In order to balance the Portuguese budget and pay off external debts, the dictator instituted numerous taxes. In the meantime, Salazar adopted a policy of neutrality during World War II, taking advantage of this neutrality to simultaneously loan the Base das Lages in the Azores to the Allies and export military equipment and metals to the Axis powers.

Colonialist ideology

His reluctance to travel abroad, his increasing stubbornness against delivering the colonies to the Marxist movements endorsed by the African Unity Organization, his blind will to fight the so-called "winds of change" sponsored by the superpowers (USSR, U.S.), and his refusal to grasp the impossibility of his regime outliving him, marked the final years of his tenure. "Proudly alone" was the motto of his final decade.

In order to support his colonial policies, Salazar adopted Gilberto Freyre's notion of Lusotropicalism, maintaining that since Portugal had been a multicultural, multiracial and pluricontinental nation since the 15th century, if the country were to be dismembered by losing its overseas territories, that would spell the end for Portuguese independence. In geopolitical terms, no critical mass would then be available to guarantee self-sufficiency to the Portuguese State. Salazar had strongly resisted Freyre's ideas throughout the 1930s, partly because Freyre claimed the Portuguese were more prone than other European nations to miscegenation, and only adopted Lusotropicalism after sponsoring Freyre on a visit to Portugal and its colonies in 1951-2. Freyre's work "Aventura e Rotina" was a result of this trip.

Salazar was a close friend of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith: after Rhodesia proclaimed its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain, Portugal - though not officially recognizing the new Rhodesian state - supported Rhodesia economically and militarily through the neighbouring Portuguese colony of Mozambique until 1975, when FRELIMO took over Mozambique after negotiations with the new Portuguese regime which had taken over after the Carnation Revolution. Ian Smith later wrote in his memoirs that had Salazar lasted longer than he did, Rhodesia would still be in existence today, ruled by a moderate black majority government under the name of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'.

Death

In 1968, Salazar suffered a major stroke, caused by his falling from a chair in his summer house, forcing President Américo Thomaz to replace him with Marcelo Caetano on 27 September 1968. It is believed that to his dying day Salazar thought that he was still Prime Minister of Portugal, but some of his aides claim that he was aware of the situation and just played along. He died in Lisbon on 27 July 1970. Tens of thousands, possibly many more, paid their last respects at the funeral and the Requiem Mass and at the passage of the special train that carried the coffin to his hometown of Santa Comba Dão, where he was buried according to his wishes in his native soil, next to his ancestors and the modest farmers of the region, in a plain ordinary grave. As a symbolic display of his views of Portugal and the Portuguese, there is well known footage of several members of the "Mocidade Portuguesa," of both African and European ethnicity, paying homage at his funeral.

Post-Salazar Portugal

After Salazar's death, his Estado Novo regime persisted under the direction of one of his longtime aides, Marcelo Caetano. Despite tentative overtures towards an opening of the regime, Caetano balked at ending the colonial war, despite the condemnation of most of the international community.

On April 25 1974, the Estado Novo finally fell with the Carnation Revolution.

Ancestors

Ancestors of António de Oliveira Salazar

Trivia

In 2006 poll of Os Grandes Portugueses, António de Oliveira Salazar won with a majority of 41 % of the votes (0,6%of the portuguese population) thereby becoming the Most Popular Portuguese in History