In 1914, the young Republic of Portugal, whose first two presidents came from the Azores, set itself the objective of resolving the state crisis that arose with the end of the monarchy. The intended stabilization was hampered by an unfavorable international environment. Six days after the start of the First World War, the Congress of the Republic sided with Great Britain, but without speaking out against Germany at the same time. As a result, two opposing political currents brought society to the brink of civil war: supporters of the war, who called for intervention on the British side, faced opponents of participation in the war.
The first group was close to the republican left, with prominent figures such as Afonso Costa, Norton de Matos and João Chagas. The opponents of the war were dominated by the republican and monarchist right, where Brito Camacho set the tone. To unite the factions, supporters of the war used the threat to the Portuguese colonies as an argument. Other reasons for Portugal’s desire to enter the war were the attempt to consolidate the acceptance of the young republic in the international community and to reinforce the alliance with
England at a time when there was a threat to the new form of government and political sovereignty by part of the Spanish neighbors.
In September 1914, the first Portuguese expeditionary force moved to Angola and Mozambique under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Alves Roçadas. Great Britain, interested in
Portugal’s entry into the war, subsequently exerted sustained pressure on the Portuguese government to confiscate German warships and merchant ships that were in Portuguese ports and had sought refuge there after the outbreak of war.
The seizure of the German ships, which finally took place on 23 February 1916, led to the declaration of war by the German Empire on the Republic of Portugal on 9 March 1916. From January 1917, a Portuguese expeditionary force moved into Flanders. Logistically under-supported, this military corps lost almost half of its soldiers, despite courageous resistance in
the German spring offensive of 1918 at the Battle of La Lys, with 1,300 dead, 4,600 wounded and 2,000 missing, as well as more than 7,000 prisoners.