Political status of the Azores Political status of the Azores The political status of the Azores is defined by the Political-Administrative Statute of the Autonomous Region of the Azores (, EPARAA), which acts as the standard legal constitutional framework for the autonomy of the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It defines the scope of the autonomous regional government and the structure and functioning of the region's organs of government within the framework of the 1976 Constitution of Portugal. The autonomous region of Madeira has a similar status. The Carnation Revolution took place on April 25, 1974, and after an initial period of shock, it became
Captaincy-General of the Azores José de Carvalho e Melo, the Marquess of Pombal, then prime minister. A Captaincy-General operated from the Palace of the Captains-General, under the direction of the titular Captain-General, who operated as the Governor of the Azores, with additional jurisdiction on every island of the Azorean archipelago. The Captaincy-General was succeeded by the Province of the Azores, an ephemeral administrative structure that was collapse in the immediate years. The settlement of the Azores coalesced in the second half of the 15th century, in a late medieval context, that translated into the establishment of a governing structure based on the signeur system.