2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, which ended a long period of authoritarianism that began with a military dictatorship in a 1926 coup and continued through the repressive regime of the Estado Novo, which was founded in 1933 and is associated with the name of António de Oliveira Salazar and continued even after his incapacity to hold office due to an accident (1968) and his death (1970) for another four years under his successor Marcello Caetano. A widespread sense of the country’s backwardness and, above all, the great burdens resulting from increasingly futile military action against independence efforts in Portugal’s African colonies, especially in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, led to broad resistance against the regime that culminated in the almost completely non-violent revolution of April 25, 1974. The colloquium will focus on the wider political context of the Carnation Revolution, its consequences for Angola, and its place in popular art and music, as well as Portugal’s political development in the following decades.

Organization and concept: Markus Ebenhoch, Cláudia Fernandes, Christopher F. Laferl

Picture credits: Márcio Correia Campos