Estado Novo (
Portuguese for "
New State";
pron. IPA&_160;
[(?)?'tadu 'novu]; also known as the Second
Republic) is the name of the
Portuguese authoritarian regime installed in
1933, following the army-led
coup d'état of
28th May 1926 against the democratic
First Republic. The Estado Novo was developed by
António de Oliveira Salazar, ruler of Portugal from 1932 to 1968.
In 1908, King Charles of Portugal was killed in a regicide at Lisbon. The Portuguese monarchy lasted until 5th October 1910, when through a revolution it was overthrown and Portugal was proclaimed a republic. The overthrow of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910 led to a sixteen-year struggle to sustain parliamentary democracy under republicanism - the Portuguese First Republic (1910–1926).
The 28th May 1926 coup d'état or, during the period of Estado Novo, the National Revolution (Portuguese Revolução Nacional), was a military action that put an end to the chaotic Portuguese First Republic and initiated the Ditadura Nacional (National Dictatorship) (years later, renamed Estado Novo).
The Estado Novo was an authoritarian regime with an integralist orientation, which differed from fascist regimes by its lack of expansionism, lack of a charismatic leader, lack of party structure and more moderate use of state violence. [1] However it incorporated the same principles for its military from Mussolini's system. Salazar was a Catholic traditionalist who believed in the necessity of control over the forces of economic modernisation in order to defend the religious and rural values of the country, which he perceived as being threatened. One of the pillars of the regime was the PIDE, the secret police. Many political dissidents were imprisoned at the Tarrafal prison in the African archipelago of Cape Verde, on the capital island of Santiago, or in local jails. Strict state censorship was in place.
