section_path: History/First Republic and Estado Novo
section_name: First Republic and Estado Novo
paragraph_text: First Republic and Estado Novo
  
  On 1 February 1908, King Carlos I and his son and heir, Luís Filipe, Prince Royal, were assassinated by Republican and Carbonária members. Two years later, on 5 October 1910, a coup d'état overthrew the near 800-year-old Monarchy and the Republic was proclaimed. During World War I, Portugal helped the Allies fight the Central Powers; however the war hurt its weak economy. Political instability and economic weaknesses were fertile ground for chaos and unrest during the First Portuguese Republic. Several coups occurred during the First Republic, like the failed Monarchy of the North coup, but others had success, like the December 1917 coup d'état, which led to the rise of Sidónio Pais to power. In 1921, the Bloody Night revolt ended in the assassination of the Prime Minister and other high-ranking officials of the Republic.
  
  These conditions led to the 28 May 1926 coup d'état and creation of the National Dictatorship (Ditadura Nacional). This in turn led to the right-wing dictatorship of the Estado Novo (New State), under António de Oliveira Salazar in 1933.
  
  Portugal remained neutral in World War II. From the 1940s to 1960s, Portugal was a founding member of NATO, OECD, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and joined the United Nations in 1955. New economic development projects and relocation of mainland Portuguese citizens into the overseas provinces in Africa were initiated, with Angola and Mozambique being the main targets of those initiatives. These actions were used to affirm Portugal's status as a transcontinental nation and not a colonial empire.
  
  Pro-Indian residents of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, separated those territories from Portuguese rule in 1954. In 1961, Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá 's annexation by the Republic of Dahomey was the start of a process that led to the dissolution of the centuries-old Portuguese Empire. Another forcible retreat occurred in 1961 when Portugal refused to relinquish Goa. The Portuguese were involved in armed conflict in Portuguese India against the Indian Armed Forces. The operations resulted in the defeat and loss of the remaining Portuguese territories in the Indian subcontinent. The Portuguese regime refused to recognise Indian sovereignty over the annexed territories, which continued to be represented in the National Assembly until the coup of 1974.
  
  Also in the early 1960s the independence movements in the Portuguese provinces of Portuguese Angola, Portuguese Mozambique, and Portuguese Guinea in Africa, resulted in the Portuguese Colonial War (lasting from 1961 till 1974). The war mobilised around 1.4 million men for military or for civilian support service, and led to large casualties. Throughout the colonial war period Portugal dealt with increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions imposed by the international community. The authoritarian and conservative Estado Novo regime, tried to preserve the empire.
  
  Salazar governed until 1968, when he suffered a brain hemorrhage, and was replaced by Marcelo Caetano, which raised hopes of a "liberalization" of the Estado Novo regime, called the Marcelist Spring, but those hopes were soon crushed.