Independence Day of Portugal
Description:
In 1580. Portugal lost its independence as a result of dynastic union with Spain. Simply put, the Spanish king Philip II took possession of the Portuguese crown, and for several decades Portugal became an appendage of the Spanish Empire. It was embroiled in the endless wars waged by Spain against England and Holland.
The country was impoverished, its population was shrinking, and the Inquisition, moreover, intensified the persecution of Maranas (forcibly converted Jews). Their mass flight abroad (more than 300,000 people) caused the drain of significant capital from Portugal. Trade came under the control of foreigners (mainly Dutch and English). The tax burden grew.
In 1637-1638 popular unrest showed that the limit of patience had come. The greatest scale was the uprising in Évora, which broke out on August 21, 1637. The rebels drove the Corregidor, destroyed the prison, burned the tax lists. Soon slogans were put forward for the independence of the country.
However, the Portuguese nobility in general did not support the uprising. The nobility of Evora, headed by the archbishop, formed a junta whose main purpose was to appease the rebels and thereby rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the Madrid court. The same position was held by the popular claimant to the throne and the future king of independent Portugal, Duke João of Bragan. But for several months Evora was under the control of the plebeian lower classes. Other cities followed in its footsteps; the rebellion swept the provinces of Alentejo and Algarve and reached the walls of Lisbon. It was not suppressed until March 1638.
And at the end of 1640, a palace conspiracy, on the one hand, and a popular uprising, on the other, brought to the Portuguese throne the founder of the Bragan dynasty, João IV the Happy. The Cortes recognized him as king in January 1641. In 1654, the king succeeded in expelling the Dutch from the Portuguese colonies in Brazil. The life of the monarch ended before Spain recognized the independence of Portugal, but the main thing is that this independence was achieved.