Europe's Forgotten Dictator

Howdy folks, sorry for the delay, but I hope it's worth it for this video! Europe has had many dictators in the 20th century, some more well known, some less. And some, much less. And so, today we're shedding some light on Europe's forgotten dictator, a man who, outside his home country, is rarely ever spoken of! Enjoy!

MUSIC:

[alsatusmdA]

In general, Portugal is sort of the “forgotten” part of Europe, even for all the colonies it had.

[shadowmatt]

Another reason why Salazar was forgotten was in large part he didnt like being in the public spotlight. He wasnt charismatic like Franco was, and was quite shy in comparison. That and the Spanish civil war was a huge geo political moment in history so much so that foriegn nations were watching it closely. Good vid btw.

[janicerich]

An interesting fact about Salazar that everyone should know is that he is perhaps the only dictator (in modern history at least) that died poor. That's unreal to me. He was in power for 36 years, that's the better part of half of a century, and he never once in that time abused his power to enrich himself, he never fell into the temptation. When he was in his deathbed the government had to pay for his medicine because his bank account was nearly empty. Another fun fact, in the early 2000's there was a Portuguese TV show to vote on who was the greatest Portuguese of all time, and Salazar won.

[aaronTGP_]

Salazar woke up after a month and regained his lucidity. This was after he was removed from power. Instead of tell him the truth, his former inner circle pretended Salazar was still Prime Minister, and convinced him to stay in his room to "rule" in private. So when Salazar approached death, he still thought he was in charge.

[wolfgang]

Salazar was a product of the Portuguese First Republic more than anything.
His entire ideology (and even the way he ran the Estado Novo) was a reflection of his personal experience in the 1st Republic. I think that most people forget that aspect when analyzing him and his views.

[llewcunedda]

Salazar Slytherin from Harry Potter was named after him. Rowling lived in Portugal teaching English for quite some time.

[aquila]

Just one small thing about Brazil. The monarchy didn’t fell because of the death of the emperor, him and his family were deposed and exiled after the abolition of slavery(something they strongly gave their support to help happen).
Pedro II died two years later in 1891, in Paris, where he had a head of state’s funeral

[FrancescusLover]

I met a relative of Salazar, i speaked with him about how Salazar was with his close circle: Very loved especially from the youngs, and he loved nature(REALLY, he apparently loved it so much that he spend hours walking in the forest just looking at it) and yeah he was a cool guy to be around :)

[DarkSoulSama]

I'd like to note that despite 1974's Portugal being very rich "as a country", most of that money was being spent on the Colonial War, or otherwise not being invested in ways that improved the lives of the general population.

[familygash]

*THE PORTUGUESE PEOPLE IN 1910:* How dare you give up our colonies! REVOLUTION!

*THE PORTUGUESE PEOPLE IN 1974:* Stop holding onto our colonies! REVOLUTION!

[srkgp]

It's sad how Portugal has such a beautiful history yet it's always forgotten

[martimhenriques]

You forgot to mention that, although Portugal maintained it's "neutrality" during world war two, Portugal was selling tungsten to Germany for the production of ammo, and allowed Portuguese volunteers to enrole into the Spanish Blue Division, fighting for the German Army. In the other hand, Salazar gave permission to the British to build an air base in the Azores Islands, which was then granted to the Americans.

[Amity-Phil]

Salazar was totally dedicated to the Portuguese State. There was no foreign debt, a triple-A credit rating and virtually no inflation during his long rule. He tactfully held out against many of the bully threats from the US, never folding, even managing to hold onto a large gold reserve from exports to NS Germany during WW2. Portugal’s last true great leader RIP

[brunorezendecrescencio]

2:38 Actually, in Brazil, Pedro was first deposed in 1889 by a military coup and then died in exhile in France in 1891; just a little correction

[nelsonchereta]

Portuguese-American, my parents immigrated to the US in 1969. They were both devout Catholics and thought Salazar a good man and a good president. He's not forgotten in Portugal and so far as I can tell from the older generation of my family he is remembered fondly. Certainly better than Franco.

[dudamonas]

9:00 Portugal was NOT a wealthy country by 1974, at the time we were (and still are) the poorest in western europe, so that part wasn’t good

[lourencopedro]

I am portuguese and actually from Santa Comba Dão - Salazar's birthplace - and I can asure you here nobody forgot about him.

[Fabiani]

Salazar didnt want to take the Marshall Plan´s loans and was "made" to accept them. plus I´ve heard that Portugal was the only country that repaid those loans in full

[luizfilipecouto]

2:38 Dom Pedro II was deposed and died in Paris, the empire did not fell because of his death

[emperorpaws]

I'm portuguese and i've heard stories of my parents growing up during salazar's regime, they remember mostly the stuff from the late 60's and early 70's when they were teens and kids the stuff salazar did to people was presecution of communists and communist sympathizers, we had a special police force similar to germany's gestapo called PIDE, this was the republican police, they'd interrogate and torture people with no sleep torture to many ppl they deemed an enemy of the state. My parents were kids and neither did their parents ever had to go through this, but older ppl they know did.