The angry young captains

Abstract

The crowds that turned out in Lisbon to greet Portugal’s soldier liberators on 25 April 1974. thought they were applauding a revolution. But they were only witnessing the changing of the guard. One faction in the Portuguese army overthrew another faction, that was all. Ever since a military coup on 17 June 1926 had put an end to sixteen years of unstable parliamentary government, power in Portugal had always lain with the army. Real power continued to lie with the soldiers even after they put an austere conservative academic, Antonio Salazar, in the post of finance minister in 1928 to handle an economic crisis that was too much for them.