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.
History of Lisbon
On 5 October 1910, Portugal became a republic, ending a monarchy that had endured since the 12th century.
The period of the First Portuguese Republic (1910–1926) was marked by strife and political violence in Lisbon: under a little less than 16 years of republican government, there would be 45 changes of government.
Although the political environment was tense across Europe, with terrorist attacks and riots in even the most developed countries, the situation was more critical in Portugal, with economic and financial havoc. This was a time of upheavals, locally and nationally. The old Republican Party would not survive the creation of the Republic; factions quickly developed between groups within the party and formed new organizations. There was a succession of general strikes (now legal), demonstrations, gunfire exchanges, and even bombings in the streets of Lisbon; the Republican political class was divided on how to handle the situation. In 1912 the monarchists exploited discontent with liberal laws imposed by the Republicans in the north, and launched a coup that failed. In 1916, after Portugal interned German ships in Lisbon, Germany declared war on Portugal.