John II (3 March 1455 – 25 October 1495), called the Perfect Prince (o Príncipe Perfeito), was the king of Portugal and the Algarves from 1477/1481 to 1495.
Regarded as one of the greatest Portuguese rulers, chiefly because of his ruthless assertion of royal authority over the great nobles and his resumption of the exploration of Africa and the quest for India.
He suffered a long illness and died in 1495 at the castle of Alvor in the province of Algarve. John’s exercise of personal power, particularly against the nobles, explains the epithet the Perfect Prince, which owes its origin to Lope de Vega’s play about him.
Requested by Anonymous.
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portuguese history meme + the carnation revolution [3/9 moments]
A revolution took place in Portugal. (…) The revolution was the most profound to have taken place in Europe since the Second World War. During those 19 months, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike, hundreds of workplaces were occupied sometimes for months and perhaps 3 million people took place in demonstrations, occupations and commissions. (…) Nobody predicted that so many would try quickly to learn and put into practice the ideas that explode from those who are exploited when they try to take control of their own destiny. - Raquel Varela, A People’s History of the Portuguese Revolution
A revolution took place in Portugal. We can date this precisely: between 25 April 1974 and 25 November 1975. The revolution was the most profound to have taken place in Europe since the Second World War. During those 19 months, hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike, hundreds of workplaces were occupied sometimes for months and perhaps almost 3 million people took part in demonstrations, occupations and commissions. A great many workplaces were taken over and run by the workers. Land in much of southern and central Portugal was taken over by the workers themselves. Women won, almost overnight, a host of concessions and made massive strides towards equal pay and equality. (Strikes towards equal pay were also made by men in favour of women – it was a class approach not just gender.) Thousands of houses were occupied. Tens of thousands of soldiers rebelled. Nobody predicted that so many would try quickly to learn and put into practice the ideas that explode from those who are exploited when they try to take control of their own destiny. Portugal 1974–1975 was not an illusion. We have to remember, celebrate and learn from Portugal. That is why this book has been written.
HISTORY MEME || [3/5] Assassinations/Executions » Camarate air crash
Following the Carnation Revolution in 1974, Francisco de Sá Carneiro was elected Prime Minister on 3 January 1980, and Adelino Amaro da Costa became the first civilian Defense Minister. They were on their way to an election rally three days before the Portuguese presidential election, 1981 when their airplane crashed. Da Costa had chartered a Cessna for the trip; Sá Carneiro had intended to travel by other means, and joined the trip at the last minute.
The Cessna chartered by da Costa, crashed shortly after take-off from Lisbon Portela Airport. Witnesses saw the aircraft trailing debris before hitting high-voltage power lines and crashing in a fireball.
The incident was subject to many investigations. The initial investigation by the aviation authority concluded the crash was an accident caused by a lack of fuel in one of the tanks. The final police report in 1981 ruled out criminal actions. In 1983 the Attorney General suspended the investigation. Parliamentary investigations in 1990 and 1991 did not lead to a re-opening of the case, but after the fifth parliamentary inquiry in 1995, the case was re-opened where the victims’ bodies were exhumed, and a forensic report concluded that there had probably not been an explosion on the aircraft, although the possibility was not ruled out.
In 2006, after the 15 year statute of limitations took efect, former security agent José Esteves confessed to manufacturing an explosive device intended for an attack on da Costa’s plane. The intention had been for the device to cause a fire prior to take-off, permitting the occupants to evacuate safely, but giving a “warning” to presidential candidate António Soares Carneiro.
In 2013 Esteves told the parliamentary X Commission that in planning the operation he had been told that the newly elected Democratic Alliance government was causing problems with weapons sales. He also said he had been paid $200,000 by CIA agent Frank Sturgis to create the device, and that his firebomb device alone did not cause the crash, maintaining that additional explosives must have been involved.
Conspiracy theorists claim Defense Minister Adelino Amaro da Costa was the true target for assassination, for he had documents concerning the October surprise conspiracy theory and was planning on taking them to the United Nations’s General Assembly. According to this theory, Reagan promised to sell American weapons to Iran, to replace the old Portuguese ones; the Portuguese military were acting as middlemen (two of the Portuguese Presidential candidates, in 1980, were Generals, and one of them was promptly accused as responsible for the assassination by many Sá Carneiro supporters); a boat with the weapons was almost seized at Lisbon’s harbor. This theory is reinforced with the fact that Amaro da Costa was the one renting the plane, and Sá Carneiro a last minute passenger.
(via its-the-tear-in-my-heart)
Portuguese folklore that haunted me as a child
This is all buzzfeed unsolved fault. Also this is how my family and the villagers that helped raised me in early 2000 told me so it’s more than likely to be different from what you know because 1) my memory is shit 2) I was raised in center of portugal by a bunch of farmers and a family from nazaré, peniche, lisbon and mirandela.
Homem do Saco or Velho do Saco (aka man with the bag ig):
So the legend I was told was that there was this old man that carried a bag of sarrapilheira like the ones you used to carry potatoes. And he would catch children that misbehaved or that would stay in the streets past bedtime. He would take the children and make buttons and soap out of them. 10/10 worked to scare the shit out of me. Imagine like Jean Valjean when he got out of prison but for some reason he thought it would be nice to make soap out of little kids.
Bicho Papão (the boogeyman):
It’s about this demon/ghost that would be on the roofs of houses and would take the children that were being naughty or disrespecting their elders and well eat them. So you would not listen to your grandfather when he said that you couldn’t play with his watch but you did it anyway? The Bicho papão would come at night when you were in bed and eat you with this many teeth. 10/10 scary my grandmother used to have to let me say the little prayer/poem for me to keep me safe. “Vai-te papão, bicho malvado, sai do telhado. Deixa o menino dormir um soninho descansado.”
Coca
ffs okay so I was already like 6 ig when my great grandmother told me this. Now that lady was kind of evil but she liked me a lot for some reason but she still told me about this which made me afraid of dark corners or streets. Coca is a lady with head of gourd that had nothing beside holes where the mouth and eyes should be. And the holes in her eyes would burn because of the evilness. She would stay in any dark corner or dark place looking at the misbehaved child and take them away forever and eat them and leave their bones in their parents door. I mean I know this is basically “scary beast eats children” but it works okay you just get older and now know coca is men hidden in dark places instead of a lady with a gourd face. You also have to give it to my great grandmother because the bones thing was her twist because not a single one of my friends know about the bones thing. 150/10 this one fucked me up for real I still hate dark corners.
Maria do poço:
She was this demon with horns and fire that would caught children in rivers and wells and drown them to eat them. But she sometimes looked as a little girl and would cry for help so children would try to help her and when you tried she would pull you inside transform in a demon and eat you like a crab. We love. 3/10 I was a weird child and I would shit on a tree near our well and talk with her
Bruxas Lavadeiras
This one isn’t exactly scary I mean they wouldn’t eat children so that’s a pretty good way to not scare the living shit out of tiny me. So they were this ghosts of ladies that wore all white and would run around town at night with lanterns and clean blood dirty clothes. People who saw them would end up dying soon so f u n 1/10 scary because they don’t eat you, you just know you gonna die soon so F U N
Pesadelo
This asshole was a demon that wore a hood and if you would leave your bed not made then the next night he would come and put his hand in your mouth. Now you wouldn’t choke because he had a hole in this hand and would only leave if he got scared by an adult. 2/10 this didn’t work for me I always said that making the bed was dumb and I would only do it because my mom was scarier than him.
Os lobos da Serra
Okay this one is from my village and was told by older kids. And the old people would agree because it was basically: don’t you fucking dare to go to the woods at night.
There was this two kids that were playing in the woods at night and a wolf started to run behind them and the youngest fell but the oldest didn’t help him, leaving him to the wolves. But when the oldest was almost out of the woods he fell and scratched his left palm right in the middle and the wolves go him. After that a curse was given to us and every child born with a palm line right in the middle of their left palm would become a wolf. 0/10 I was ready to be a werewolf the moment they told me and I saw the line.
Be my guest to add more or your own versions because I love this kind of shit, I think I wasn’t threaten with death enough growing up.
(via its-the-tear-in-my-heart)
![shirewalker:
“HISTORY MEME || [3/3] Inventions » The Pastel de Nata
“ Pastel de nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry that was created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.
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HISTORY MEME || [3/3] Inventions » The Pastel de Nata
Pastel de nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry that was created before the 18th century by Catholic monks at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.
At the time, convents and monasteries used large quantities of egg-whites for starching of clothes and it was very common for monasteries and convents to use the leftover egg yolks to make cakes and pastries, resulting in the proliferation of sweet pastry recipes throughout the country.After the religious orders were extinguished and in the face of the impending closing of many of the convents and monasteries in the aftermath of Liberal Revolution of 1820, the monks started selling pastéis de nata at a nearby sugar refinery to secure some revenue. But in 1834 the monastery was closed and the recipe was sold to the sugar refinery, whose owners in 1837 opened the Fábrica de Pastéis de Belém. Their descendents own the business to this day.Since 1837, locals and visitors to Lisbon have visited the bakery to purchase fresh from the oven, sprinkled with cinnamon and/or powdered sugar. Due to the pastéis’ popularity, people usually have to wait in long lines at thetake-away counters or in waiting lines for the sit-down service.
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Conímbriga, one of the largest Roman settlements in Portugal
Roman Empire, 3rd century BC – 4th century AD
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CTT recolhem e enviam donativos dos portugueses para Moçambique
Os CTT estão a recolher roupa para enviar gratuitamente para Moçambique, a partir de amanhã dia 25 de março até 8 de abril. Faz parte de uma parceria com os correios de Moçambique, Para contribuir basta pedir um saco solidário onde colocam as vossas roupas (bebés, crianças e adultos).