António de Oliveira Salazar
António de Oliveira Salazar, a former economics professor at Coimbra, rose to power as Finance Minister in 1928 and became Prime Minister in 1932, establishing the Estado Novo — an authoritarian, Catholic, corporatist dictatorship that ruled Portugal until the Carnation Revolution of 1974. During the Second World War he maintained careful neutrality, supplying wolfram (tungsten) to Germany while allowing Britain use of the Azores bases from 1943 — a pragmatic balancing act that preserved Portugal from occupation. His regime suppressed political opposition through the PIDE secret police, maintained a colonial empire in Africa and Asia long after other European powers decolonised, and kept Portugal isolated and impoverished relative to the rest of Western Europe. A stroke in 1968 incapacitated him; he died in 1970 still believing he was head of government, his aides having kept the transition from him.
- Lived: 1889 CE – 1970 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: prime minister, economist, dictator
