Portugália az első világháborúban

The Portuguese foreign affairs have had three major priorities for centuries.The first one was the priviliged inter-state contacts with Great Britain, the second one was constituted by the changing and ambiguos connection with Spain. The maintenance and keeping up of the colonial system formed the third main tendency. At the beginning of the First World War Portugal with its territory of 92 391 km2 got a colonial empire of 2 092 290 km2 under control. This sphere of influence was endangered and threatened by the conquering efforts of the German Empire. It was one of the reasons that the Portuguese Republic coming to power by the liberal political forces in October 1910 took sides with the Allies in the First World War.There were 105 000 Portuguese soldiers fighting in the colonies and at the European fronts.The losses suffered by Portugal ran into 36 per cent of the mobilized soldiers. The Peace-Treaty signed in Versailles on 28 June 1919 only partly granted the Portuguese demands. The First Portuguese Republic stricken with economic and political crisis together with the above-mentioned failure was brought down by the military takeover carried out on 28 May,1926.