page_title: 5 October 1910 revolution
section_title: Performance of the Provisional Government
hierarchical_section_title: 5 October 1910 revolution / The first steps of the Republic / Performance of the Provisional Government
context_page_description: The 5 October 1910 revolution was the overthrow of the centuries-old Portuguese Monarchy and its replacement by the First Portuguese Republic. It was the result of a coup d'état organized by the Portuguese Republican Party.
  By 1910, the Kingdom of Portugal was in deep crisis: British pressure on Portugal's colonies, the royal family's expenses, the assassination of the King and his heir in 1908, changing religious and social views, instability of the two political parties, the dictatorship of João Franco, and the regime's apparent inability to adapt to modern times all led to widespread resentment against the Monarchy. The proponents of the republic, particularly the Republican Party, found ways to take advantage of the situation. The Republican Party presented itself as the only one that had a programme that was capable of returning to the country its lost status and place Portugal on the way of progress.
  After a reluctance of the military to combat the nearly two thousand soldiers and sailors that rebelled between 3 and 4 October 1910, the Republic was proclaimed at 9 o'clock a.m of the next day from the balcony of the Lisbon City Hall in Lisbon.
context_section_description: On 6 October 1910, newspaper Diário do Governo announced: "To the Portuguese people —Constitution of the Provisional Government of the Republic — Today, 5 October 1910, at eleven o'clock in the morning, was proclaimed the Portuguese Republic in the grand hall of the Palaces of Lisbon Municipality, after the end of the National Revolution movement. The Provisional Government was constituted immediately: Presidency, Dr Joaquim Teófilo Braga. Interior, Dr. António José de Almeida. Justice, Dr. Afonso Costa. Treasury, Basílio Teles. War, António Xavier Correia Barreto. Navy, Amaro Justiniano de Azevedo Gomes. Foreign (Relations), Dr. Bernardino Luís Machado Guimarães. Public Works, Dr. António Luís Gomes."
  By decree on 8 October, the Provisional Government determined the new names of the ministries, with the most important changes being made to the ministries of the Kingdom, Treasure and Public Works, which were renamed ministries of Interior, Finances and Development. However, Basílio Teles refused the position and, on the 12th, it was given to José Relvas. On 22 November, Brito Camacho entered government after the departure of António Luís Gomes, appointed Portuguese ambassador in Rio de Janeiro.
  During its time of power, the Provisional Government took a series of important measures that had long-lasting effects. To calm tempers and make reparations with the victims of the monarchy, a broad amnesty was granted for crimes against the security of the State, against religion, of disobedience, of forbidden weaponry usage, etc. The Catholic Church resented the measures taken by the Provisional Government. Among these were the expulsion of the Society of Jesus and other religious orders of the Regular clergy, the closure of convents, the prohibition of religious teaching in schools, the abolition of the religious oath in civil ceremonies and a secularisation of the State by the separation of Church and State. Divorce was institutionalised, as were the legality of civil marriage, the equality of the marriage rights of men and women, the legal regulation of "natural children"; the protection of childhood and old age, the reformulation of the Press laws, the elimination of royal and noble ranks and titles and the acknowledgment of right to strike action. The Provisional Government also opted for the dissolution of the then municipal guards of Lisbon and Porto, creating instead a new public body of defence an order, the National Republican Guard. For the colonies, new legislation was created in order to grant autonomy to overseas territories, an essential condition for their development. The national symbols were modified – the flag and the national anthem —, a new monetary unit was adopted – the escudo, equivalent to a thousand réis – and even the Portuguese orthography was simplified and appropriately regulated through the Orthographic Reform of 1911.
  The Provisional Government enjoyed extensive power until the official launch of the National Constituting Assembly on 19 June 1911, following the election of 28 May of the same year. At that time, the president of the Provisional Government, Teófilo Braga, handed over to the National Constituting Assembly the powers he had received on 5 October 1910. Nevertheless, the Assembly approved with acclaim the proposal presented by their president, Anselmo Braamcamp Freire to the congress: "The National Constituting Assembly confirms, until future deliberation, the functions of the Executive Power to the Provisional Government of the Republic".
  Two months later, with the approval of the Political Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the election of the first constitutional president of the Republic – Manuel de Arriaga – on 24 August, the Provisional Government presented its resignation, which was accepted by the president of the republic on 3 September 1911, marking the end of a government term of more than 10 months and the beginning of the First Portuguese Republic.
caption: Portuguese Provisional Government, 1910
exif: {}