So I’m preparing for my semesterly research paper which seems to be assigned for every political science class (this is only my second one but I’m sensing a trend) and this one is about comparing one case study to another. We were all provided with research topics by the professor but if we didn’t like any of them we could make one ourselves and pitch it to him, if he approves we can write on that. So I did just that.
I’m going to write my paper comparing two revolutions: the Cuban Revolution and the Carnation Revolution (including the coup that happened afterwards). Since both had similar ideals but different outcomes.
While I need information about Cuba, I want to focus on Portugal in this post because for some reason finding info on the Carnation Revolution and the communist coup is a bit tricky.
My professor gave me some insight on how to go about this as apparently the topic I chose is PhD level (as in one could write their dissertation about it) and he doesn’t want me to get lost in the sauce; I need to define communism for both nations as Cuba’s version is different from the Soviet version which is different from the European version which is different from the Italian version. I have no clue which version Portugal wanted. He also talked about the time when I’m researching, which I believe he meant the timeline and period of the events, I need to break them down solidly.
So to make this research and paper a bit less beefy and intimidating I wanted to focus on the conditions that spurred on each revolution, why they happened, what were their goals, how they occurred (tactics mainly and organization), what were the outcomes, and what are the lasting effects of each. That still sounds like a lot, I know.
My main “research question” is “why did one succeed but the other failed?” Yes, technically the Carnation revolution succeeded in its goal of overthrowing Salazar’s regime but did it completely prevail? What about the immediate coup after? That failed and Portugal was essentially put into the same position it was before but less extreme.
My writing is getting confusing so let’s get back on track (sort of):
Batista vs Salazar - Salazar wasn’t leader at the time (it was Marcelo Caetano) but it was still his regime. With this I wanted to compare the conditions under both of them and their “leadership.” If that makes sense.
The Cuban revolution happened in the 50s (1953-1956 but it could’ve been in the works way before that) while the Carnation Revolution happened in 1974 and didn’t last nearly as long.
The Soviet Union aided the Cuban revolution, right (wrong?)? Did the soviets do anything in Portugal? I mean, the union didn’t fall until the 90s so I’m curious if they got involved.
The US certainly got involved in both but in different ways. How and why were the tactics different in Cuba vs Portugal?
Was it Lenin or Marx that stated the revolution would start in industrialized nations then move on? That’s not the exact quote or wording but you get it, revolution happened in a colonized country and a colonial one, and yet the colonized succeeded and those that made their wealth through colonialism did not. How is that? I’m planning on using said revolution quote to make a point in my paper.
That’s all I have so far as of making this post but I’m more than willing to clarify anything in the comments. I know this is asking for a lot and you don’t need to give me exact info, even just steering me in the right direction or asking questions back would help get the gears turning. Staying on track for me is kind of difficult as the more I think about certain pieces of information the more questions I have which makes me dig deeper and deeper into more questioning that it’s becoming like a large tree branching into many different areas, I think that’s why my professor said this is a PhD topic and I need to be careful. He is more than happy to guide me as I write which is nice.
I think sometimes I’m not asking the right questions so coming here helps with that too.
About your questions
1 - Marcelo Caetano was percieved as a weaker leader compared to Salazar, and with continuing the colonial war pretty much set up the stage for discontent to grow even more.
2- The soviets had no active (as in, sending explicitly troops/ammo/supplies) aid in the Carnation Revolution. The portuguese communist party (PCP) had its support though, and through the mobilising of the army that was fed up with the losses of the colonial war and the overall state of the country, they managed to amass support within it
3 - As for why it didn’t succeed, it would have been basically near impossible because even though Portugal was a colonial power, it was one of the lesser ones and, being sandwiched between Spain’s Franco and the overall western Europe, and the US, it would have never been allowed for it to go the communist route. You can look at this comment of mine and thread as a whole for some insights as to why the revolution ended by 25 of november.
https://hexbear.net/comment/3968448
As this was happening, the leftist parties besides PCP were having a bit of a meltdown. The socialist party (PS) that during the dictatorship was advocating for socialism, took a turn after the revolution and became a standard european social democratic party, even as far as going about the blairite third way style of politics. Mario Soares (their leader at the time) pushed for integration with the US and western europe sphere of influence, which meant staying under the capitalist status quo. Besides PS, there was also PCTP, which was a maoist party, and they also disagreed with both of them, further creating discord between the left. Of course, with all the this the right wing parties took advantage of it and pushed for a “stabilization” of the country that culminated in the 25 of november counter-revolution. Here is some insight on it link ( its in portuguese, but put it through a translator like deepl and it should give you the gist of it)
Hope it helped
Edit: Here’s a good book tituled The truth and lies of the revolution of April (The counter-revolution confesses itself), written by Álvaro Cunhal, the historic leader of the PCP (in portuguese) link
This actually did help quite a bit especially with the extra reading material that I haven’t seen yet. Your comment also low key helped me remember that I should go to prolewiki as well, the Portugal article is a bit barren but it’s helpful still.
I do have more questions that you don’t need to answer, maybe someone else can do that or I can, but I remember bringing up my research paper topic to my professor by explaining it as me comparing two “communist revolutions” but that confused him as apparently the Carnation Revolution wasn’t explicitly communist and the Cuban Revolution didn’t start off as communist either. Is that true? I think I remember him mentioning factions or something in the beginning of the Cuban Revolution that didn’t have explicit ideals. I could be misremembering his words, though.