Late empire war
1961-74 in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau: Three African fronts. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Scale16
Intensity12
Duration15
Tech shift10
Political impact58
Cultural memory48
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Quick answers
Are the scores a ranking of nations or armies?
No. Scores are browsing aids inside an era-bounded atlas — not live league tables of countries.
How many died on the day?
Four people, killed by regime police fire. The colonial wars before and the Angolan war after have much larger ledgers.
Why did officers move?
They could not win or end the African wars inside the Estado Novo's politics. The MFA was a captains' revolt against a war and a closed regime.
Who led it?
The MFA was collective; Otelo planned operations; Spinola received the surrender and briefly headed the junta -- then fell out with the leftward process.
What happened to the colonies?
Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Angola became independent in 1974-75. Angola collapsed into a long internationalised war. Hundreds of thousands of retornados came to Portugal.
Was it a left-wing coup?
It opened a left-revolutionary period (PREC) and then a pluralist constitution. Reducing 25 April to one ideology misses the captains' war-weariness.
Carmo barracks, Largo do Carmo, the radio stations.
Luanda and Bissau as the other map -- required, not optional.
Maps
The day
25 Apr 1974 in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau: MFA, carnations, Carmo. A memory map, not a present overlay.
PREC / decolonisation
1974-75 in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau: Revolution at home; independences abroad. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Stabilising day
25 Nov 1975 in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau: A second military intervention that Portuguese memory still argues. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Democracy
1976- in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau: Constitution; later EU Portugal. A memory map, not a present overlay.
Portrayals
Marcelo Caetano biographies
The usual English doorway into Carnation Revolution: Salazar's successor; surrendered at Carmo. Died in Brazilian exile.
Antonio de Spinola biographies
The paired doorway: The general of the book and the Carmo surrender; not the MFA's left, and soon out.
School survey chapters
Where Carnation Revolution (25 April 1974 (coup day; PREC to 1976 constitution)) is a paragraph or a unit in US/UK/AU/CA -- often thinner than Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau local hours.
Local museums / sites in Lisbon and Portuguese armed.
Thicker than the English paragraph. Democracy is the usual late pilgrimage caption.
Feature film / television
If Carnation Revolution has a visual canon, it probably outruns the monographs. Treat film as memory, not as a log.
Korean comparative essays
A Korean reader may pair Carnation Revolution with 1950-53, Inchon, Tsushima, or the ROK force-structure story even when the campaign was elsewhere.
Rituals
1961-74 / 1976 dates
The usual ritual poles of Carnation Revolution: African wars and Constitution.
Museum and cemetery wreaths
Official and family rites at sites in Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau. Mario Soares is often the civilian or corrective name on the plaque.
Classroom minutes
Where Carnation Revolution is on the syllabus -- in Anglophone schools often beside 11 November or a Second World War unit, not always beside Lisbon and Portuguese armed forces; aftershocks in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau's own calendar.
Sayings
25 April Avenue in Lisbon is a renamed landscape.
English tourists buying carnation postcards should be handed a Guinea paragraph.