The Revolution of the 9th September 1836

Abstract

This article sets forth and analyses the logic of the events that, since the Évora-Monte convention in May 1834 till the reopening of the Cortes (national assembly during the monarchy) appointed for September 1836, led the liberal opposition (the future Septembristas) to conceive and finally to carry out a coup d'État strategy. As a matter of fact the operating political system, preventing any chance of alternation in government, dictated the adoption of that strategy as the only way of getting to it. The National Guards, among which the activists of the radical liberalism were organized, congregate and lead in collaboration with the political clubs, the popular movement that would legitimate the throwing down of the Duke of Terceiras cabinet, the abolition of the Constitutional Chart granted by Don Pedro in 1826 and the proclamation of the Constitution of 1822.