110 anniversary of the Portuguese Republican Revolution

Afonso Costa, aka “mata-frades” (friar killer), is seen here, in a picture emulating Pombal, the 18th reformer. Pombal expelled the jesuits from Portugal+all dominions in 1759 and oversaw the reconstruction of lisbon following the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

Afonso Costa was a law professor at Coimbra Univ&minister of “justice and cults” of the 1st republican government. While in govnt, he led an effort to, like Pombal, expel all religious orders (jesuits included). Below are phrenological pics of 1st rep anti-Jesuit propaganda

Pombal was a useful republican figure. He was a minister w considerable power during the monarchy—king José I always takes the backstage—&was seen to have modernized lisbon (with a geometric, functional, hierarchical grid), seculizared government &secured the expansion of empire.

Pombal’s statue that can still be seen today in Lisbon, was started and sponsored during the 1st revolution, but was ultimately inaugurated in 1934—one year after S*lazar’s power became hegemonic and he consolidated his position as dictator until he fell from a chair (1968).

Much like today, the censored news tried to pretend S*lazar wasn’t in a coma & mostly they tried to pretend that he was fine...until they couldn’t any longer & had to fly in famous neurologists to attend to his condition. He died in 1970 (too late, if you ask me).

This was an accidental thread. Yesterday, I chanced upon this pic of “mata-frades” & got excited talking about the First Republic (1910-1926),& their use of Pombal as an emblem of secular reform & non-monarchical power. Also, it begs centering the Church in the rise of fascism.