Inspired by the anti-colonial insurrections across Portugal’s colonies in Africa, this uprising would mark a turning point in Portugal’s history and, for a brief while, breathed new life into the promise of socialism in Europe.
As the victorious revolutionary soldiers marched through the streets, civilians greeted them with carnations, memorializing the event as the Carnation Revolution.
The Estado Novo dictatorship began almost half a century earlier when the rise of António Salazar’s fascist regime assured the continued underdevelopment of Portugal’s colonial territories, where a system of forced labour persisted well into the 20th century.
Enforced cash-cropping to empower Portugal’s capitalist class removed the means of subsistence from the colonies and many farmers were unable to feed themselves. Mozambicans, for example, had no choice but to spend six months of the year working for Portuguese settlers.
Forced cultivation of cotton was required to prop up Portugal’s textile industry. Prices for Mozambican produce were set so low that famine swept the colony in the 1940s.
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