Carnation Revolution

Carnation Revolution
Part of the portuguese transition to democracy and the Cold War
Mural reading "25th of April always!", 1978
Date	25 April 1974 (1974-04-25)
Location	Portugal
Caused by	Repression of civil liberties, political freedom and freedom of speech
Methods	Coup d'état
Resulted in	AF Movement victory Dissolution of the Estado Novo dictatorship Beginning of the portuguese transition to democracy End of the Portuguese Colonial War and independence of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe Indonesian invasion of East Timor
Parties to the civil conflict
Armed Forces Movement Partido Communista Partido Socialista Estado Novo Unicão Nacional
Lead figures
Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho Salgueiro Maia Américo Tomás Marcello Caetano
Casualties
4 killed

The Carnation Revolution, also known as the 25 April, was a coup on 25 April 1974 in Lisbon that overthrew the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, this caused social, economic, territorial, demographic and political changes through 1974 to 1975. Carnation Revolution resulted in the Portuguese transition to democracy and the end of the Portuguese Colonial War.

The revolution began as a coup organised by the Armed Forces Movement, made up of military officers who opposed the dictatorship regime, they also joined forces with an popular civil resistance movements in Portuguese colonies. By the end of 1974, Portuguese troops were withdrawn from Portuguese Guinea, which became a UN member state. This was followed by the independence of many Portuguese colonies. These events caused a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens from Portugal's former territories (mostly from Angola and Mozambique), creating over a million Portuguese refugees.

The carnation revolution got its name from the fact that almost no shots were fired and from restaurant worker Celeste Caeiro offering carnations to the soldiers when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship, with other demonstrators following suit and carnations placed in the muzzles of guns and on the soldiers' uniforms. In Portugal, 25 April is a national holiday (Portuguese: Dia da Liberdade, Freedom Day) that commemorates the revolution.