- Born:
- April 28, 1889, Vimieiro, Port.
- Died:
- July 27, 1970, Lisbon (aged 81)
- Title / Office:
- prime minister (1932-1968), Portugal
António de Oliveira Salazar
-
Who was António de Oliveira Salazar?
António de Oliveira Salazar was an economist and Prime Minister of Portugal for 36 years, from 1932 to 1968.
In 1928, Salazar became the minister of finance and gained power. Later, in 1932, he was named prime minister. Salazar drafted a new constitution that reorganized Portugal’s political system along authoritarian lines. His rule was influenced by Catholic, papal, and nationalist thought, and he called his new order in Portugal the New State (Estado Novo).
Salazar served as minister of war (1936–44) and minister of foreign affairs (1936–47), in addition to being prime minister. In September 1968, Salazar suffered a stroke and was no longer able to perform his duties.
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When did Salazar become the prime minister of Portugal?
On July 5, 1932, António de Oliveira Salazar became the prime minister of Portugal. He was appointed by General António Oscar de Fragoso Carmona. Salazar then drafted a new constitution that reorganized Portugal’s political system along authoritarian lines. His rule was strongly influenced by Catholic, papal, and nationalist thought, and he called his new order in Portugal the New State (Estado Novo). He remained prime minister until he suffered a stroke in September 1968.
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What kind of government did Salazar lead in Portugal?
Salazar led Portugal's government as a "unitary, corporatist republic" under the 1933 constitution. His Estado Novo (New State) featured a National Assembly with deputies elected as a bloc and a Corporative Chamber. All assembly seats went to government supporters, and the Corporative Chamber was formed after employers’ and workers’ syndicates were established. Salazar's government regulated labor, banned strikes, and monitored social welfare. Political parties were prohibited, and voters were urged to join the National Union, a loyalist movement. Salazar's New State prioritized order over freedom, employing censorship, propaganda, and political imprisonment, while partially restoring the pre-1910 privileges of the church.
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How did Salazar change life for people in Portugal?
António de Oliveira Salazar, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968, implemented significant changes that affected the Portuguese population. As finance minister, he reversed deficits through budgetary surpluses, which allowed for expenditures in social programs, infrastructure, and rearmament.
Salazar's New State (Estado Novo) emphasized order over freedom, using censorship, propaganda, and political imprisonment to neutralize society, while also restoring some pre-1910 privileges to the church. Strikes and lockouts were banned, and the government regulated labor-management relations. Although Salazar's regime did not rejuvenate agriculture or encourage industrialization, his conservative yet consistent development plans reduced debt and led to economic growth from 1960 to 1973.
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What was the Estado Novo, and how was Salazar involved in it?
The Estado Novo ("New State") was the name given to the dictatorial regime in Portugal from 1933 to 1974. António de Oliveira Salazar, who served as prime minister of Portugal for 36 years (1932–68), drafted the new constitution that established the Estado Novo, reorganizing Portugal’s political system along authoritarian lines.
Under Salazar's leadership, the Estado Novo emphasized order over freedom, using censorship, propaganda, and political imprisonment to neutralize society. Salazar's rule was strongly influenced by Catholic, papal, and nationalist thought. Although political parties were prohibited, all eligible voters were encouraged to join the National Union, an approved loyalist movement.
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How did Salazar’s rule impact Portugal’s role in world events, like World War II and its colonies?
António de Oliveira Salazar served as Portugal's prime minister for 36 years, from 1932 to 1968. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), Salazar supported the Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco.
During World War II, Portugal maintained official neutrality but quietly favored Britain, later granting them bases in the Azores under the ancient Anglo-Portuguese alliance. In 1949, Portugal became a founding member of NATO, and in 1955, it was admitted to the United Nations. Salazar resisted decolonization, leading to colonial wars in Angola, Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea between 1961 and 1964.
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António de Oliveira Salazar (born April 28, 1889, Vimieiro, Port.—died July 27, 1970, Lisbon) was a Portuguese economist, who served as prime minister of Portugal for 36 years (1932–68).
Salazar, the son of an estate manager at Santa Comba Dão, was educated at the seminary at Viseu and at the University of Coimbra. He graduated from there in law in 1914 and became a professor specializing in economics at Coimbra. He helped form the Catholic Centre Party in 1921 and was elected to the Cortes (parliament), but he resigned after one session and returned to the university. In May 1926, after the army had overthrown Portugal’s parliamentary government, Salazar was offered the cabinet post of minister of finance, but he could not obtain his own conditions. In 1928 General António Oscar de Fragoso Carmona, as president, offered him the finance ministry with complete control over the government’s income and expenditures, and this time Salazar accepted. As finance minister, he reversed the century-old tradition of deficits and made budgetary surpluses the hallmark of his regime. The surpluses were invested in a series of development plans.
Gaining in power, Salazar was named prime minister by Carmona on July 5, 1932, and thus became the strong man of Portugal. He drafted a new constitution that reorganized Portugal’s political system along authoritarian lines. Salazar’s rule was strongly influenced by Catholic, papal, and nationalist thought. Salazar called his new order in Portugal the New State (Estado Novo). The National Assembly was composed solely of government supporters, and Salazar chose his own ministers, whose work he closely supervised. Political freedoms in Portugal were thus curtailed, military police repressed dissidents, and attention was concentrated on economic recovery.
Owing to the crises occasioned by the Spanish Civil War and World War II, Salazar served as minister of war (1936–44) and minister of foreign affairs (1936–47) in addition to holding the office of prime minister. He was friendly with Francisco Franco and recognized the Nationalist government in Spain in 1938, but he kept Portugal neutral in World War II and led the country into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. After World War II, Portugal’s railways, road transport, and merchant navy were reequipped, and a national airline was instituted. Electrification was planned for the whole country, and rural schools were developed. However, Salazar’s insistence on maintaining Portugal’s colonies in Africa could only be sustained with difficulty at a time when the other European colonial empires in Africa were being dismantled.
Salazar suffered a stroke in September 1968 and was unable to continue his duties. He was replaced as prime minister by Marcello Caetano, a change that the disabled Salazar was never told had taken place. He died two years later. Salazar lived a life of frugal simplicity, shunning publicity, rarely making public appearances, and never leaving Portugal.