Portugal during World War II
Upon the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but that since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding. As Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of the Continent's last escape routes. Portugal managed to remain neutral throughout the war despite extraordinary pressures from both sides, notably over the strategically located Azores islands and over the wolfram (tungsten) trade.
Neill Lochery
In "Brazil: The Fortunes of War, World War II and the Making of Modern Brazil", Lochery reveals a long-buried chapter of World War II, showing how the cunning statecraft and economic opportunism of Brazil's leaders, under the dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas, transformed it into a regional superpower and uncovers the little-known origins of one of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses.
In 2013, he completed the first volume of a major work on the modern history of Portugal; "Outside Looking In, 1933-1974". It tells the stories of the colourful array of international personalities who came to Lisbon during the one of the most controversial periods in its modern history, the period of the Portuguese Estado Novo. In his book "Out of the Shadows", Neill Lochery provides an engaging and insightful account of Portugal's first 40 years of democracy that started from the Carnation Revolution in 1974.