A Very Short History of the Carnation Revolution

Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, set in motion by the military coup of 25 April 1974, is one of the most eye catching moments in contemporary European history.

In just a few hours, a military movement — initially formed to address the grievances of the officer class and in response to the colonial war — ended up overthrowing western Europe’s longest‑lasting authoritarian regime of the twentieth century and paved the way for an intense and complex process of transition to democracy. Between the fall of the dictatorship and the consolidation of the democratic system, with the approval of a new constitution in April 1976, just two years elapsed, a revolutionary period that wrought deep changes in Portuguese society and reverberated across the globe.

This book provides a rigorous but easy‑to‑follow account of the Carnation Revolution, aimed at readers from around the world who recognise the 25th of April as a symbol of freedom in Portugal and can now enjoy a bird’s eye view of the sequence of events, the leading characters and what it all meant for history.