Portugal, 1974 — military coup attempt
Event Summary
On 16 March 1974 an infantry regiment based at Caldas da Rainha, north of Lisbon, mutinied and set out to march on the capital in a premature attempt to overthrow the Estado Novo dictatorship of Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano, the last such regime in Western Europe. The rising was organized by disaffected officers linked to the clandestine Armed Forces Movement, the network of captains who opposed the endless colonial wars in Africa. But the operation was underprepared and poorly coordinated; when a supporting rebellion at Lamego failed to materialize and other regiments held back, the column halted at Santarem and the Caldas da Rainha soldiers returned to barracks, where they were arrested.
Though the March 16 attempt failed, it was the direct dress rehearsal for the meticulously planned coup that the same movement carried out just weeks later. On 25 April 1974 the Armed Forces Movement overthrew Caetano in the almost bloodless Carnation Revolution, ending nearly half a century of dictatorship and launching Portugal's transition to democracy.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Datasets agree. At least two of the three reference datasets we check against carry this event, and none of them disagrees about its date or its result.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
23503161974- Albrecht/Koehler/Schutz (CAM) id
CAM-235-1974-03-16
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The Caetano regime suppressed the Caldas da Rainha uprising, but fell to the same movement's Carnation Revolution weeks later.
Baseline coding: Coup attempt failed to remove the incumbent. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
The Globe and Mail
Los Angeles Times
Washington Post
The Austin American - Statesmen (1973-1980)
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →