page_title: May 14 Revolt
section_title: The revolt
hierarchical_section_title: May 14 Revolt / The revolt
caption_attribution_description: Português: Couraçado Vasco da Gama. Scan de imagem do Livro "História de Portugal" Vol VIII, edição de Quidnovi. English: Vasco da Gama battleship (1876 - 1936) of the Portuguese Navy. Scan from a printed picture from Book "História de Portugal" vol. VIII, Quidnovi edition.
context_page_description: The May 14 Revolt was a politico-military uprising led by Álvaro de Castro and General Sá Cardoso which started in Lisbon, Portugal, with the objective of taking power from the dictatorship of General Pimenta de Castro during the Portuguese First Republic and returning the government to the principles of the 1911 Constitution.
context_section_description: On the morning of May 14, a group of revolutionaries that included naval marines, army soldiers, some men from the Guarda Fiscal (English: Fiscal Guard), Guarda Nacional Republicana (English: Republican National Guard) and accompanied by members of the Carbonária occupied the Naval Arsenal, in Lisbon, immediately taking possession of the arms. The reaction from the Castro government troops was timid and apprehensive. The 16th Infantry, commanded by Colonel Gomes da Costa, encircled the Naval Arsenal, but were violently bombarded by the ships in the Tagus River, including the cruiser NRP Vasco da Gama. The artillery attempted to bombard the ships, but their forces were repulsed from the heights of Santa Catarina. Yet, Álvaro de Castro was fearful that loyal government troops in Lisbon would counter-attack and traveled to Santarém in order to shore up republican forces.
  During subsequent hours on May 14, members of Pimenta de Castro's government escaped to the protection of the barracks in the Largo do Carmo, due to the disproportionate forces that were armed against them, and by the end of the afternoon had surrendered.
  Although rapid, the May 14 Revolt was quite violent; many residents and protestors battled the police and were mortally wounded or injured, during the events of the insurrection: 200 people were killed, and approximately, 1000 were injured. João Chagas, the former Prime Minister, was blinded by a gunshot in the location of the Entroncamento, by Senator João José de Freitas. The aggressor was immediately lynched by the gathered crowd. The majority of the deaths did not occur from the bombardments on May 14, but occurred in the following days, as members of the Carbonária and Formiga Branca pursued the combatants and made ajustes de contas (English: reprisal killings). Between May 14 and 17 there did not exist law in the streets of Lisbon, allowing the members of the Carbonária and Formiga Branca to pillage, assassinate and conduct political retributions on their enemies; more than 20 police officers and officer cadets were summarily executed in the streets, police stations were attacked, private homes assaulted and clubs whose proprietors supported Pimenta de Castro were vandalized. Some Republican vigilantes proceeded to attack the newspapers that supported Pimenta de Castro, the monarchist's papers, and Machado Santo's O Intransigente. Afonso Costa, would later eulogize the members of the Formiga Branca, in the pages of the newspaper O Mundo:
  "The truth is that the Formiga Branca, as an association or revolutionary institution, does not exist. What is referred to as the Formiga Branca is only people that love the Republic, today as on the 5th of October, and who, for great love, zealously watch and defend her. The Portuguese Republican Party does not have to repudiate this Formiga Branca, because the Portuguese Republican Party has to be, and is, a popular Party, in the exact sense of the term."
  The attacks motivated the French, Spanish and English governments to send contingents to mitigate the violence and allow the new government to reestablish order, as well as protect their nationals. The revolt lasted until the 19 May 1915.
caption: Portuguese Navy cruiser NRP Vasco da Gama, used in the bombardment and support of revolutionary forces in the Tagus River on May 14, 1915
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