The Great War and Sidonism (an interpretation sketch)

Abstract

This study is presented by the author as an interpretation sketch, deliberatedly conceived without resorting to any footnotes, on the global evolution of the Portuguese society and political institutions during the period from 1914 till 1918. The essay is divided into two parts: the first dealing with the impact of the worldly conflict on the Portuguese society, even before the direct engagement of
Portugal in war; the second dealing with the period concerning the last year of the worldly conflict, which coincided with the dictatorship of Sidónio Pais. At the end, the autor analyses the realignment of the social and ideological forces, operated after Sidónio's murder, without forgetting the future processus of political rearrangement of the Portuguese right-wing forces under an authoritarian and conservative principle that will have its highest point with the smashing of the liberal parliamentary regime by the military coup of the 28th May 1926.