Explorers helped Portugal establish colonies in Brazil and parts
of Africa and Asia during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries,
leaving a lasting impact on Portugal and the rest of the world.
A closer look 說古論今 For almost half of the twentieth century,
dictators who were determined to keep control over the country's
colonies ruled Portugal. Chief among the dictators was Antonio
de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled over Portugal from 1932 to 1968.
Salazar led Portugal into the costly Portuguese Colonial War, a
series of battles fought between the Portuguese military and
independence movements in Portugal's African colonies. Fed up
with the war and the leadership of the dictators, a group of
leftist military members overthrew the dictatorship in a
bloodless coup on April 25, 1974. The day is now celebrated as a
national holiday and is known as the Revolution of the
Carnations. Portugal gave up control of all its African colonies
within two years of the coup and over the next decade developed
into a stable democracy