The 5 October 1910 Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução de 5 de outubro de 1910) was the overthrow of the centuries-old Portuguese monarchy and its replacement by the First Portuguese Republic. It was the result of a coup d'état organized by the Portuguese Republican Party.
By 1910, the Kingdom of Portugal was in deep crisis: national anger over the 1890 British Ultimatum, the royal family's expenses, the assassination of the King and his heir in 1908, changing religious and social views, instability of the two political parties (Progressive and Regenerator), the dictatorship of João Franco, and the regime's apparent inability to adapt to modern times all led to widespread resentment against the Monarchy. The proponents of the republic, particularly the Republican Party, found ways to take advantage of the situation. The Republican Party presented itself as the only one with a programme capable of regaining Portugal's lost status and placing it on the path of progress.
After the reluctance of the military to oppose the nearly two thousand soldiers and sailors that rebelled on 3 and 4 October 1910, the Republic was proclaimed at 9 a.m the next day from the balcony of Lisbon's City Hall. A provisional government led by Teófilo Braga directed the fate of the country until the approval of the Constitution in 1911, which marked the beginning of the First Republic. The national anthem and flag were changed, and some civil and religious liberties established; a wave of harsh anti-clericalism soon followed, corroding relations between the Republic and the Catholic Church.
Background
1890 British Ultimatum and 31 January rebellion
On 11 January 1890 the British government of Lord Salisbury sent the Portuguese government an ultimatum in the form of a "memorandum", demanding the retreat of the Portuguese military forces led by Serpa Pinto from the territory between the colonies of Angola and Mozambique (in the current Zimbabwe and Zambia), an area claimed by Portugal under the Pink Map.
The swift compliance by the government to the British demands was seen as a national humiliation by a broad cross-section of the population and the elite. This exacerbated deep dissatisfaction with the new monarch, King Carlos I, the royal family and the institution of the monarchy, all of which were seen as responsible for the alleged process of "national decline". The situation was aggravated by the severe financial crisis that occurred between 1890 and 1891, when the money sent from emigrants in Brazil decreased by 80% with the so-called crisis of encilhamento following the proclamation of the republic in Brazil two months previously, an event that was followed with apprehension by the monarchic government and with jubilation by the defenders of the republic in Portugal. The republicans knew how to take advantage of the dissatisfaction, initiating an increase of their social support base that would climax in the demise of the regime.
On 14 January, the progressive government fell and the leader of the Regenerador Party, António de Serpa Pimentel, was chosen to form the new government. The progressivists then began to attack the king, voting for republican candidates in the March election of that year, questioning the colonial agreement then signed with the British. Feeding an atmosphere of near insurrection, on 23 March 1890, António José de Almeida, at the time a student at the University of Coimbra and, later on, President of the Republic, published an article entitled "Bragança, o último", considered slanderous against the king and led to Almeida's imprisonment.
On 1 April 1890, the explorer Silva Porto self-immolated wrapped in a Portuguese flag in Kuito, Angola, after failed negotiations with the locals, under orders of Paiva Couceiro, which he attributed to the ultimatum. The death of the well-known explorer of the African continent generated a wave of national sentiment, and his funeral was followed by a crowd in Porto. On 11 April, Guerra Junqueiro's poetic work Finis Patriae, a satire criticizing the King, went on sale.
In the city of Porto, on 31 January 1891, a military uprising against the monarchy took place, constituted mainly by sergeants and enlisted ranks. The rebels, who used the nationalist anthem A Portuguesa as their marching song, took the Paços do Concelho, from whose balcony, the republican journalist and politician Augusto Manuel Alves da Veiga proclaimed the establishment of the republic in Portugal and hoisted a red and green flag belonging to the Federal Democratic Centre. The movement was, shortly afterwards, suppressed by a military detachment of the municipal guard that remained loyal to the government, resulting in 40 injured and 12 killed. The captured rebels were judged. 250 received sentences of between 18 months and 15 years of exile in Africa. A Portuguesa was forbidden.
Despite its failure, the rebellion of 31 January 1891 was the first large threat felt by the monarchic regime and a sign of what would come almost two decades later.
The Portuguese Republican Party
Thinking and science are republican, because creative genius lives on freedom and only a Republic can be truly free [...]. Labour and industry are republican, because the creative activity wants security and stability and only a Republic [...] is stable and secure [...]. A Republic is, in the state, liberty [...]; in industry, production; in labour, security; in the nation, strength and independence. For all, wealth; for all, equality; for all, light."
The revolutionary movement of 5 October 1910 occurred following the ideological and political action that, since its creation in 1876, the Portuguese Republican Party (PRP) had been developing with the objective of overthrowing the monarchic regime.
By making the national renewal dependent on the end of the monarchy, the Republican Party managed to define itself as distinct from the Portuguese Socialist Party, which defended a collaboration with the regime in exchange for the rights of the working class and attracted the sympathy of the dissatisfied sections of society.
Disagreements within the party became more connected with matters of political than ideological strategy. The ideological direction of the Portuguese republicanism had been traced much earlier by the works of José Félix Henriques Nogueira, little changed through the years, except in terms of later adaptation to the everyday realities of the country. The works of Teófilo Braga contributed to this task by trying to concretize the decentralization and federalist ideas, abandoning the socialist quality in favour of democratic aspects. This change also aimed to attract the small and medium bourgeoisie, which turned into one of the main bases of republican support. In the election of 13 October 1878 the PRP elected its first member of parliament, José Joaquim Rodrigues de Freitas, for Porto.
There was also an intention to give the overthrow of the monarchy overtones of unification, nationalism and being above the particular interests of individual social classes. This panacea that would cure, once and for all, all the ills of the nation, elevating it to glory, emphasized two fundamental tendencies: nationalism and colonialism. From this combination came the final desertion of Iberian Federalism, patent in the first republican theses by José Félix Henriques Nogueira, identifying the monarchy as antipatriotism and the yielding to foreign interests. Another strong component of republican ideology was emphasized by anti-clericalism, due to the theorization of Teófilo Braga, who identified religion as an obstacle to progress and responsible for the scientific retardation of Portugal, in opposition to republicanism, which was linked by him to science, progress and well-being.
Ideological issues were not, ultimately, fundamental to the republican strategy: for the majority of sympathizers, who didn't even know the texts of the main manifestos, it was enough to be against the monarchy, against the Church and against the political corruption of traditional parties. However, this lack of ideological preoccupation did not mean that the party did not bother to spread its principles. The most effective action of dissemination was the propaganda made through its rallies and popular demonstrations and bulletins such as A Voz Pública (The Public Voice) in Porto, O Século (The Century, from 1880) O Mundo (The World, from 1900) and A Luta (The Struggle, from 1906) in Lisbon.
The republican propaganda managed to take advantage of some historical facts with popular repercussions. The celebrations of the third centenary of the death of Luís de Camões in 1580, and the British ultimatum in 1890, for example, were capitalized on to present the republicans as the true representatives of the purest national sentiments and popular aspirations.
The third centenary of Camões was commemorated with great celebrations: a civic entourage that went through the streets of Lisbon, in the middle of great popular enthusiasm and, also, the transfer of the remains of Camões and Vasco da Gama to Jerónimos Monastery. The atmosphere of the national celebration that characterized the commemorations complemented the patriotic exaltation. The idea of the Camões commemorations came from the Lisbon Geographic Society, but the execution was entrusted to a commission constituted by, amongst others, Teófilo Braga, Ramalho Ortigão, Jaime Batalha Reis, Magalhães Lima and Pinheiro Chagas, leading figures of the Republican Party.
Besides Rodrigues de Freitas, Manuel de Arriaga, José Elias Garcia, Zófimo Consiglieri Pedroso, José Maria Latino Coelho, Bernardino Pereira Pinheiro, Eduardo de Abreu, Francisco Teixeira de Queirós, José Jacinto Nunes, and Francisco Gomes da Silva were also elected members of parliament, representing the PRP in various legislative sessions between 1884 and 1894. From this date to 1900 there was no republican parliamentary representation. In this phase, while separated from parliament, the party committed itself to its internal organization.
After a period of great repression of PRP, the republican movement could reenter the legislative race in 1900, electing four parliament members: Afonso Costa, Alexandre Braga, António José de Almeida and João de Meneses.
1908 Lisbon regicide
On 1 February 1908, while returning to Lisbon from the Ducal Palace in Vila Viçosa in Alentejo, where they had spent time hunting, the King Dom Carlos I and his eldest son and heir-apparent, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal of Portugal were assassinated in Lisbon's Commerce Square.
The attack occurred after a progressive decline of the Portuguese political system, effective since the Regeneration, due in part by the political erosion stemming from a system of rotating governments in which the Progressive and Regenerator Parties kept alternating in government. The king, as arbiter of the system under the Constitution, had designated João Franco as the president of the Council of Ministers (government chief). João Franco, dissident of the Regenerator Party, convinced the king to dissolve the parliament so that he could implement a series of measures with an aim to moralize Portuguese politics. This decision irritated not only republicans but the royalist opposition as well; led by political rivals of Franco who accused him of governing as a dictator. The events were aggravated by the issues of the advanced payments to the Royal House and the signing of the decree of 30 January 1908 that foresaw the banishment to the colonies, without judgement, those involved in a failed republican coup two days prior.
I saw a man with a black beard [...] open a cape and take out a carbine [...]. When I saw [him] [...] aiming at the carriage I realised, unfortunately, what it was. My God, the horror of what then happened! Soon after Buíça opened fire [...] started a perfect shooting, like a fight among beasts. The Palace Square was deserted, not a soul! This is what I find hardest to forgive João Franco...
— D. Manuel II
The Royal Family was in the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa, but the events led the king to bring forward his return to Lisbon, taking a train from the station of Vila Viçosa on the morning of 1 February. The royal escort arrived in Barreiro in the evening where, to cross the Tagus, it took a steam boat to Terreiro do Paço in Lisbon, at around 5pm. Despite the atmosphere of great tension, the king chose to continue in an open carriage, with a reduced escort, to demonstrate normality. While greeting the crowds present in the square, the carriage was struck by several shots. One of the carbine bullets hit the king's neck, killing him immediately. More shots followed, fatally wounding the prince. The queen defended herself with a bouquet of flowers offered by the people, which she used to hit one of the attackers who had climbed onto the carriage. The prince, D. Manuel was struck in the arm. Two of the attackers, Manuel Buíça, a primary school teacher, and Alfredo Luís da Costa, a commerce employee and editor, were killed at the scene, others managed to escape. The carriage entered the Navy Arsenal, where the deaths of the king and his heir were verified.