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The vast history of the territory of the Euro-Region Galicia and the North of Portugal has enabled the footprints of the different settlers to be still perceptible these days. It is enriching to be able to visit the prehistoric monuments of these regions, for a better understanding of how life centuries ago was.

The vast history of the territory of the Euro-Region Galicia and the North of Portugal has enabled the footprints of the different settlers to be still perceptible these days. It is enriching to be able to visit the prehistoric monuments of these regions, for a better understanding of how life centuries ago was.

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From Gallaecia to the Euro-Region<br />

Portugal in the second half of the<br />

19th century: from Rotativism to<br />

the First Republic<br />

Over the years, the Portuguese society and culture started to advance towards a<br />

direction, whereas the monarchy did not show this same permeability. Under the<br />

rule of Luis I, the Rotativism was implemented, taking as a model the <strong>English</strong><br />

parliamentary system, based on the alternation of two parties in the power<br />

that represented, in theory, opposed ideas. These were the Regenerative Party<br />

and the Progressive Party. What was intended with this was to keep both sides<br />

happy and therefore to get stability. Behind this new conception was his righthand<br />

man Fontes Pereira de Melo.<br />

But in this apparent calm, there was soon place for those that did not feel<br />

themselves represented, turning into the majority as the century progressed. This<br />

was the situation that Carlos I found then he inherited the power. Against this<br />

background, he progressively entrusted the government to Joao Franco, a<br />

man who was in favour of force solutions, whose measures only aggravated<br />

the tension.<br />

On the 1st February 1908, the Portuguese royal family came back to Lisboa after<br />

a long absence when a group of fanatics shot them, killing the king and his heir.<br />

The efforts of the heir, Manuel II, of forming a Government that could stabilise the<br />

situation were not useful. On the 5th October 1910, a Republican revolution<br />

proclaimed the First Portuguese Republic.<br />

The return of Fernando VII<br />

In this same century in Spain there was also a debate between absolutism and<br />

liberalism, but the situation was even more unstable. The end of the Napoleonic<br />

Wars meant the return of Fernando VII. After years of war where his figure<br />

had been idealized, he was called the desired. But the situation that he found<br />

was that of two confronted worlds, the one of the absolutists and the one of<br />

the liberals. Soon, the actions and decisions of the monarch made clear his<br />

inclination towards absolutist ideas. The liberals organized different uprisings and<br />

attempts that signalled the political path. In this way, a tradition of the army<br />

taking part in the public sphere was inaugurated, and this would be key over<br />

the 19th and 20th centuries.<br />

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