Oporto, Revolution at (1820)

Oporto, Revolution at (1820)

PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Oporto Jacobins vs. Great Britain

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Oporto and Lisbon, Portugal

DECLARATION: Coup of August 24, 1820

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: The Jacobins sought the
ouster of the British regency in Portugal.

OUTCOME: In a bloodless revolution, the British regency
was evicted and the Portuguese king returned to his
throne as a constitutional monarch.

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS:
Unknown

CASUALTIES: None

TREATIES: None

As a result of the British victory over Napoleon Bonaparte
(1769–1821) in the PENINSULAR WAR from 1808 to 1814,
Portugal came under the rule of a British regency, its king,
John VI (1769–1826), having fled to Brazil to establish a
government in exile. During the regency, Portuguese radical
nationalists—popularly called Jacobins—fomented
rebellion, calling for the removal of the British marshal in
charge of the Portuguese army, William Carr Beresford
(1768–1854). To counter the Jacobin movement, Beresford
went to Brazil in an effort to persuade the king to
return. In Beresford’s absence, on August 24, 1820, the
Jacobin Club of Oporto conspired with high-ranking military
officers to stage a coup d’état. A junta was summarily
established, and the revolution was accomplished with
nothing more than a volley of musket fire.
The revolution spread to the Portuguese capital, Lisbon,
within a matter of days. A quick revolt took place on
September 15, 1820, and the junta ousted the regency
and convened a session of the Cortes (parliament). The
small contingent of British military was ejected from the
country, Beresford was recalled to Britain, and John VI
did return to Portugal, without the intermediation of a
foreign regency and as a constitutional monarch. The
king had left his first son behind as Emperor Pedro I
(1798–1834) of Brazil, but his second son, Don Miguel
(1842–66) could not reconcile his father’s return with his
own ideas of absolute monarchy and his own ambitions
for such a crown. Backed by his Braganza family in Portugal,
he tried to extend their dynasty in a stop-and-go
rebellion that ultimately led to the MIGUELITE WARS
(1828–34).

See also BRAZILIAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE; PORTUGUESE
CIVIL WAR (1823–1824); SPANISH CIVIL WAR
(1820–1823).

Further reading: James M. Anderson, History of Portugal
(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group,
2000); Antonio Henrique R. De Oliveira Marques, History
of Portugal (New York: Columbia University Press, 1972);
H. V. Livermore, A New History of Portugal (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1976).