António de Oliveira Salazar

Who was António de Oliveira Salazar?

António de Oliveira Salazar, GColIH, GColTE, GColSE was a Portuguese professor and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1932 to 1968. His Council of Ministers briefly served as acting President of the Republic in 1951; he was never President of the Republic, but was the virtual dictator of the country in the manner of Franco and Mussolini. He founded and led the Estado Novo, the authoritarian, right-wing government that presided over and controlled Portugal from 1932 to 1974. In 1940, Life called Salazar "the greatest Portuguese since Prince Henry the Navigator".

Opposed to communism, socialism, anarchism and liberalism, Salazar's rule was corporatist, conservative, and nationalistic in nature. Its policy envisaged the perpetuation of Portugal as a pluricontinental nation under the doctrine of lusotropicalism, with Angola, Mozambique, and other Portuguese territories as extensions of Portugal itself, with Portugal being a source of civilization and stability to the overseas societies in the African and Asian possessions.

Portuguese India was lost following Indian invasion in 1961, prompting the international community to start opposing Salazar's colonial politics as well as initiating a lengthy struggle for the control of the colonies, involving hundreds of thousands of Portuguese soldiers, which ended only in 1975.