The Republic and the Monarchy in confrontation: the Portuguese Civil War on the Galician border (1911-1912)

Abstract

The ideological radicalisation of the republican regime, established in Portugal in October 1910, gave rise to the forming of a conservative and monarchical opposition in exile, in the south of the Spanish historic region of Galicia. Between October 1911 and June 1912, from several Galician villages not far from the Portuguese border, the monarchists made two incursions into the north of the country - the first to Vinhais and the second to Chaves - with the aim of fuelling popular uprisings and a military rebellion against the new regime. However, the Republican troops, more numerous and better equipped, won all the battles. At the time, this episode of civil war received extensive journalistic coverage particularly from the newspapers close to the republican regime. Maps and photographs of the border were widely used to locate and illustrate the events. From the historic-geographical perspective of the Portuguese-Galician border, this paper reconstitutes these movements in the broader historical context.