Portuguese Contemporary Revolutionarism: A Survey on Numbers and Roots

Characterized by their polysemy and recurrence, revolutions were one of the true drivers of contemporary times, destroying the old world of the Ancien Régime, and are thus an excellent thread of any narrative of much of European history over the last two centuries. Stemming from this premise, the aim of this article is to look at the theme of the revolution in 19th and early 20th century Portugal, highlighting the reasons as to why it was also a “hidden leitmotiv” (as stated by Hannah Arendt in relation to Europe) of national contemporaneity. To this purpose, some overall numbers of the Portuguese revolutionary activity will be presented, along with six historical roots or general causes that can explain the frequency of Portuguese revolutionarism, from the impact of the French Invasions to the consolidation of the Estado Novo (New State) dictatorship.