The people in arms: the national revolt of 1808-1809

Abstract

Who made the «heroic» the «glorious», the «unforgetable» revolution that liberated Portugal, in 1808-1809, from the French «tyrant's claws»? The answer is simple: the «people». As Acúrsio das Neves put it later on, the people «were always ready» every where after a long while and it was from their will, more and distinct, precise and threatning that «the revolution spranz as by itself». But the «people»'s behaviour would be surprising for the powerful in those confused and terrible years. As a matter of fact, every time the initiative belonged to the peasant or urban masses, or they played an essential role in the events, the walls of submission and deference separating the «big» and the «small», after centuries, fell quickly. Nowhere the people acted with the expected respect towards the established social hierarchies. For them the national rising against the foreign occupant always melted with a revolution, that is: with an attempt of sudden and violent liquidation of the ruling political order, whatever the masters' suffering might be. So it is useless to tryto establish a clear break between the revolt specifically «political» (that is, against the invasor and the collaborators) and the «social» revolt. The transition was by grades up to the end of the troubles and the «political» and «social» targets appeared associated indistinctly. Thus the «national revolt of 1808-1809» was indeed the largest social revolution in all the Portuguese history.