The «Old Republic» (an essay of political interpretation)

Abstract

The extreme instability of Portugal's First Republic has raised many comments, however, it has never warranted an explanation. This article is an attempt to do just that, by analysing the history of the regime between 1910 and 1917. Firstly, it deals with the necessary identification of the First Republic, with Afonso Costa's «Democratic» Party which had, as its forerunner, the Republican Party of «propaganda», that is, the period of opposition to the monarchy. It shows, afterwards, how this social and geographical minority force could only survive by means of mass terrorism, whose mechanics it describes. But it also shows how terrorism was not enough to dominate its opposers (the monarchists and the republicans) and to allow for the creation of a solid, legitimate state power. This argument helps to understand the terrifying civil war, in which the regime always existed. In the second part, the article sets out to explain Portugal's participation in the First World War and the sending to France of an Expeditionary Force, that was meant to unite the country under Republican rule and «Democratic» Party domination. Next, it shows how that interventionist policy dissolved the social alliance, on which republicanism was based and, thus, contributed decisively to the isolation of the «Democratic» Party, thereby making it vulnerable. Finally, the article describes how the forces which were united in order to promote the movement, commanded by Sidónio Paes in December 1917, abolished, in fact and de jure, the Constitution of 1911.