page_title: History of Portugal (1834–1910)
section_title: Innovation
hierarchical_section_title: History of Portugal (1834–1910) / Devourism / Innovation
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of the Viscount of Seabra (1851), by Francisco José Resende. In the collection of the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra. Português: Retrato do Visconde de Seabra (1851), de Francisco José Resende. Na colecção da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra.
context_page_description: The Kingdom of Portugal under the House of Braganza was a constitutional monarchy from the end of the Liberal Civil War in 1834 to the Republican Revolution of 1910. The initial turmoil of coups d'état perpetrated by the victorious generals of the Civil War was followed by an unstable parliamentary system of governmental "rotation" marked by the growth of the Portuguese Republican Party. This was caused mainly by the inefficiency of the monarchic governments as well as the monarchs' apparent lack of interest in governing the country, aggravated by the British ultimatum for the abandonment of the Portuguese "pink map" project that united Portuguese West Africa and Portuguese East Africa.
  The situation culminated in a dictatorship-like government imposed by King Carlos I, in the person of João Franco, followed by the king's assassination in the Lisbon regicide of 1908 and the revolution of 1910.
context_section_description: The constitutional monarchy was marked by a series of legislative proposals by the government of the day, which had its base in the idealism of Mouzinho da Silveira. During his terms in office Silveira promoted revolutionary legislation for both the absolutist and liberal governments of the time (1823–1833). Payment of rents to the State, relations between the people and the Church, and municipal governance remained as they were in the medieval era. Silveira realized, to the chagrin of other Portuguese politicians, that politics was an instrument dependent on socioeconomic conditions. Marginalized at first by both absolutists and liberals, his ideas and solutions were later adopted by the new generation of liberal politicians in the post-War era. Among his many proposals, successive governments adopted his policies of disengaging the economy from social conditions, limiting taxes to 5%, ending tithes, abolishing seigniorial fees, reducing export taxes to 1%, terminating the regulation of inter-community commerce and government intervention in municipal affairs, as well as separating the judiciary and administrative offices, liberating general commerce and prohibiting some monopolies (such as the sale of soap and of Porto wines). In general, his initiatives were legislated by the post-War regimes to eliminate the privileges of the elite classes, establish social equality, encourage liberalization of the economy and improve government performance.
caption: The Viscount of Seabra, who would be responsible for the establishment of a new civil code in Portugal
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