History of Portugal (1834–1910)
Militant Republicans and their allies in the Carbonária were not willing to remain in the shadows of the constitutional monarchy. Between 4–5 October 1910, members of the Carbonária, republican youth, and elements of the army instigated a coup d'état against the already weak constitutional monarchy. The young king and his family, after a few miscues, escaped from the Palace in Mafra to exile in England. On the morning of 5 October 1910, the Republic was declared from the balcony of Lisbon City Hall, ending eight centuries of monarchy in Portugal.
Portuguese Empire
The loss of colonies was one of the reasons that contributed to the end of the personal union with Spain. In 1640 John IV was proclaimed King of Portugal and the Portuguese Restoration War began. Even before the war's final resolution, the crown established the Overseas Council, conceived in 1642 on the short-lived model of the Council of India (1604–1614), and established in 1643, it was the governing body for most of the Portuguese overseas empire. The exceptions were North Africa, Madeira, and the Azores. All correspondence concerning overseas possessions were funneled through the council. When the Portuguese court fled to Brazil in 1807, following the Napoleonic invasion of Iberia, Brazil was removed from the jurisdiction of the council. It made recommendations concerning personnel for the administrative, fiscal, and military, as well as bishops of overseas dioceses. A distinguished seventeenth-century member was Salvador de Sá.
In 1661 the Portuguese offered Bombay and Tangier to England as part of a dowry, and over the next hundred years the English gradually became the dominant trader in India, gradually excluding the trade of other powers. In 1668 Spain recognized the end of the Iberian Union and in exchange Portugal ceded Ceuta to the Spanish crown.